Within that budget, they are wondering: how much should I spend on my content marketing budget in 2017? If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.” – David Beebe, VP of Global Creative and Content Marketing, Marriott International via LinkedIn In order to truly create content that moves the needle and reach your target audience where they hang out online, you must increase your budget. You will also need to ask some other questions like: How much of your overall marketing budget are you spending on content marketing? While turning all your content marketing over to an agency could be the more costly approach, it could also be the fastest to implement. Piggyback on their expertise and resources, while learning and implementing best practices across your organization. Of those companies surveyed, 51% said they will increase their content marketing budgets in the coming year. The other and more practical way is to take funds from marketing strategies that are no longer effective. Now that you have an idea on where you are going to allocate your budget, you’ll need to determine the overall budget needed and in some cases where you’re going to find the investment dollars. If you’ve already allocated funds for marketing, look to see what channels have become ineffective, and move those dollars to your content marketing budget for 2017. We work with many clients that have reallocated funds or who are considering adjusting funds based on reviews of their current results.
As we are winding down the year, many companies are planning their digital marketing budgets for the next year. Within that budget, they are wondering: how much should I spend on my content marketing budget in 2017?
Putting together a digital strategy that includes content marketing can be a daunting task. To some it might seem like putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle with pieces from 5 different boxes with 5 different scenes.
Let me offer up some ideas on how to build your content marketing budget, where the money might come from, and how to allocate your budget across the different items you’ll want to include to be successful, including these major elements that you should consider for 2017:
- A documented content marketing strategy
- Topic ideation and a content calendar
- Keyword mapping and optimization of your content
- Content development
- Content amplification including both promotion and distribution
- Lead nurture
- Measurement
Content Marketing As a Digital Strategy is Maturing
We travel throughout the world doing content marketing workshops. When we started presenting these workshops about 5 years ago, most of our audience wasn’t familiar with the concept of content marketing. Now, almost the entire audience is familiar with the concept and already participating in content marketing to some degree.
In fact, according to a recent survey by CMI, 88% of organizations said they are using content marketing. (2016 B2B Content Marketing Trends —North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs).
The biggest concern now is, how can you get your content marketing to produce results?
First of all, you want to make sure what you’re doing is actually content marketing. Some companies are unclear about what content marketing really is. They get it confused with branded content. In content marketing, you should be answering questions, solving problems, and reaching your audience at every stage of the sales funnel. If you’re just talking about yourself, you’re doing it wrong.
“Content Marketing is like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.”
– David Beebe, VP of Global Creative and Content Marketing, Marriott International via LinkedIn
In order to truly create content that moves the needle and reach your target audience where they hang out online, you must increase your budget.
Here’s a question you need to ask yourself, ‘What did you spend on paid search because you don’t rank for your keywords organically?’ That is a place to start to determine the scope of what your content marketing budget should be for 2017. You will also need to ask some other questions like:
- How much of your overall marketing budget are you spending on content marketing?
- Will you spend more or less on content marketing…
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