B2B content marketing budgets continue to rise. One consequence of this is an increase in the amount of content that is being presented to business people. And that brings challenges such as distribution and cut-through.
One good sign comes from US research consultancy Outsell. Its recent study of B2B marketing activity revealed that content marketing budgets were around $40 billion out of a total of $161 billion. Moreover, Outsell found that though there is more content available than ever, there is also plenty of appetite for it.
B2B content marketing is increasingly becoming more sophisticated than its B2C cousin. This is especially true in terms of targeting and data analysis. Personalisation is the focus of such development.
Earlier this year, Contently acquired a start-up that analyses how B2B customers interact with downloaded material. Meanwhile other new B2B content marketing analytics products are coming on to the market.
Much of this content – possibly as much as 85 per cent, according to the Content Marketing Institute – is being used in lead generation. The challenge will be to target this at businesses and make it relevant to their information needs. Should this happen, it could give the sector a further boost in terms of take-up.
B2B content marketing still on the up is part of Content24, the online magazine for FirstWord, a content marketing agency based in London.
