Report: Marketers Lack Sophistication in Measuring Content Effectiveness

Marketers are spending more time crafting value content that resonates with their target audience, but new research indicates that there is a lack of sophistication in how they measure its impact.

The “2017 Content Insights from Tech Marketing Execs” report from 10Fold and Dimensional Research found that this year, 42 percent of marketers will spend at least $250,000 on content. Seventy-five percent will generate at least three times more content than last year, and 32 percent are releasing content daily or hourly.

To gauge the effectiveness of marketing content, 56 percent of marketers are still relying on customer feedback. The same percentage said they are using sales feedback, while 52 percent are basing assumptions on the number of leads created.

To assess the effectiveness of tracked marketing content, 80 percent of marketers are using Web analytics. Approximately five percent said they do not have any tracking solutions in place.

Marketers and Content Production Over Time

Previous research shows how marketers’ investment in content has continued to grow. However, their journey has not been without obstacles.

At the end of 2015, for example, a study published by Contently found that marketers were creating 73 percent more content than they did the year before. However, 51 percent stated that their content’s effectiveness was average, not very effective, or not at all effective.

At the time, two-thirds of marketers said that they dedicated less than a quarter of their marketing budget to content. Thirty-seven percent claimed that time was their biggest obstacle when it came to producing effective content.