B2B Marketers Deem Content Marketing as Most Crucial Technology to Success

According to a survey published by TechValidate and the Spear Marketing Group in September 2015, B2B marketers are now focusing on content marketing above all other marketing technologies.

The data shows that the majority (85 percent) said it is their top technology, followed by SEO (70 percent), CRM (68 percent) and marketing automation (62 percent). Additionally, 60 percent claimed that content marketing will be the “most important” technology over the next 12-to-18 months.

At the moment, the majority of B2B marketers (83 percent) said that email is the tactic most critical to their strategy. Content marketing came in second place with 74 percent of the response.

Within marketers’ content strategies, blog posts (76 percent) are considered to be key. White papers (69 percent) and webinars (61 percent) are also proving to be valuable assets.

However, 43 percent said they are still struggling to create meaningful content. In the future, 36 percent of B2B marketers foresee this being a challenge.

Finding a Better Use for Content

Although content marketing may be an uphill battle at times, research shows that B2B marketers are still developing assets to achieve a wide variety of objectives. “The 2015 Benchmark on B2B Content Marketing and Lead Generation” report published by Starfleet Media found that 92 percent are investing in content marketing to generate more leads. Ninety percent of marketers say they are doing so to raise brand visibility, while 87 percent are striving to increase the quality of leads.

Over the past 12 months, a majority of B2B marketers (67 percent) said they have put case studies to use. Sixty-two percent cited white papers, while 58 percent claimed they had hosted webinars.