Study Finds Growing Number of Manufacturing Marketers Are Embracing Content

A new study finds content marketing is increasingly becoming an essential component to overall marketing efforts for manufacturing companies.

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s “Manufacturing Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America” report, 85 percent of manufacturing marketers are leveraging content marketing.

Not only are they embracing content efforts, the data shows manufacturers are seeing growth and success with it. The study found 82 percent of manufacturing marketers credited higher quality, more efficient content creation as a key factor contributing to increased success.

In addition, with a 72 percent increase over the 2016 study, 31 percent of manufacturing marketers have a clearly defined and documented content marketing strategy (up from 18 percent in the previous study). An additional 46 percent indicated they have a strategy, but it’s not documented.

Nearly half (49 percent) of respondents indicated their organization was either “extremely committed” or “very committed” to content marketing. Twenty percent of manufacturing marketers rate their overall content marketing approach as “very successful” or “extremely successful.”

“Last year, the results of our annual content marketing survey indicated that manufacturing marketers were stuck when it came to content marketing,” Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi said. “I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to report they have made so much progress in several areas, including doing a better job at content creation, documenting their strategy and making content marketing a greater priority.”

To achieve these results, the study found manufacturing marketers are using an average of eight content marketing tactics (email newsletters, social media content, pre-produced video, and in-person events are the top four) and five channels to distribute content (email, LinkedIn, Facebook are the top three).

Industrial Professionals Value Digital Marketing Resources

A study released in Dec. 2015 found that professionals in the industrial sector are seeking out information on the web throughout the buying process. The “2015 Digital Media Use in the Industrial Sector” report published by IHS Engineering360 found that 71 percent of technical professionals visit at least six websites each week for work-related purposes.

During the research analysis portion of the buying cycle, 85 percent said they utilize general search engines to find information. The majority (76 percent) also stated that they use the same resource during the comparison and evaluation stage. During the actual purchasing process, supplier websites were the leading digital resource (54 percent) that individuals turned to for information and guidance.