Half of B2B Marketers Struggling with Content Management

A new study by Seismic and Gatepoint Research shows that nearly half of B2B marketing executives define their content management methods as either average or below average.

Only about 1 in 5 (18 percent) were satisfied with their content management methods.

The data, which was compiled from a survey of more than 100 B2B marketing executives, sheds light on the challenges marketers are facing in content management: custom requests for updated collateral (56 percent), content that sales personnel don’t use because they can’t find it (52 percent) and an inability to track the success of content (38 percent).

More than three-quarters of survey respondents say content is delivered to sales reps via one-off emails (78 percent) and/or made available on a company portal (72 percent).

Companies undergoing a branding change face the time-consuming process of updating content. According to the survey, 69 percent of companies report that it takes at least three months to update content with branding changes. Thirty-four percent indicate it takes more than six months.

Roughly half of respondents indicated they would be interested in technology that helped them deliver content specific to the rep and selling situation (54 percent), is easy for a sales rep to find (53 percent) and is always up-to-date, and is easily customizable (49 percent).

“Looking towards 2017, as the need for content continues to climb, the pressures on marketing executives who have not addressed content problems are only going to become compounded,” said Seismic CEO and co-founder Doug Winter. “Ultimately, the adoption of correct technologies will be the biggest differentiator between large enterprises that are able to drive revenue with content, and those that become mired in content reviews and one-off requests, losing prospects in the process.”

B2B Organizations Focused on Strengthening Content Marketing Teams

A June 2016 study by Curata titled “2016 Content Marketing Staffing and Tactics Barometer,” showed that 42 percent of companies (primarily B2B) now have an executive responsible for content marketing. This percentage is expected to climb to 50 percent in 2017.

Broader content marketing teams are expanding as well; the data showed 42 percent of respondents intended on increasing their content marketing staff levels this year.