Last year, the results of our annual content marketing survey indicated that manufacturing marketers were stuck when it came to content marketing. They’re getting better at content creation Fifty-nine percent of manufacturing marketers say their organization has become much more or somewhat more successful at content marketing compared with one year ago. They’re documenting their content marketing strategy In my blog post announcing last year’s (somewhat dismal) manufacturing research results, I asked manufacturing marketers who were merely “doing” content marketing – with no strategy to guide them – to please stop. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to report a 72% increase over last year in the percentage of manufacturing marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy (31% this year vs. 18% last year). TIP: If you want to document your strategy, you need to answer these 36 questions. And among the top performers (those who said their organization is extremely or very successful at content marketing), 76% agree that their leadership team gives them ample time to produce content marketing results (compared with 49% of the total manufacturing sample). TIP: Looking for more buy-in so you can get time for your content marketing? Like we’ve found with those who have a documented content marketing strategy, those with higher levels of content marketing maturity often are more successful with their content marketing. Where should manufacturing marketers go from here? When we released our last manufacturing research report, I said: Our hope is that this report (this one moment in time) is what we could call a “bottom,” and that those who are committed to a content marketing approach over time will begin to document, plan, resource, and make the hard choices necessary.
Last year, the
results of our annual content marketing survey indicated that
manufacturing marketers were stuck when it came to content
marketing. Fewer than 20% said their organization was effective at
content marketing or that they had a documented content marketing
strategy. What a difference a year makes!
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why manufacturers have
made progress over the last year with content marketing, as
reported in today’s release of
Manufacturing Content Marketing: 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and
Trends—North America, sponsored by IEEE Engineering360 Media
Solutions.
1. They’re getting better at content creation
Fifty-nine percent of manufacturing marketers say their
organization has become much more or somewhat more successful at
content marketing compared with one year ago. Of that group, 82%
say their increased success is because they are doing a better job
at content creation (producing higher-quality content, getting
more efficient at content).
TIP: Do you want tips to improve your content?
Check out our
Content Marketing Playbook that includes tips and examples for
24 common tactics.
2. They’re documenting their content marketing strategy
In my blog post announcing last year’s (somewhat dismal)
manufacturing research results, I asked manufacturing marketers who
were merely “doing” content marketing – with no
strategy to guide them – to please stop. “You’re wasting
precious time and resources,” I said.
Apparently, a lot of manufacturing marketers listened. I can’t
tell you how thrilled I am to report a 72%
increase over last year in the percentage of manufacturing
marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy (31%
this year vs. 18% last year). Our research consistently shows that
documenting your content marketing strategy is a key to
success.
TIP: If you want to document your strategy, you
need to
answer these 36 questions.
3. They’re making content marketing a greater priority
Sixty-two percent of manufacturing marketers who report
increased success over the last year attribute it to making content
marketing a greater priority. And among the top performers (those
who said their organization is extremely or very
successful at content marketing), 76% agree that their
leadership team gives…
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