As the pandemic shut down face-to-face meetings with prospects and customers, companies relied increasingly on content marketing, according to Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, the Content Marketing Institute’s 2023 B2B content marketing survey. That momentum has continued, with nearly three-fourths of surveyed marketers reporting that content marketing has become more important to their organization over the last year.

During the 12-month period ending in October 2022, survey participants used content marketing in pursuit of a wide range of goals:

• Create brand awareness (83%)
• Build/grow credibility/trust (77%)
• Educate audiences (72%)
• Build/grow loyalty with existing clients/customers (63%)
• Generate demand/leads (67%)
• Generate sales/revenue (42%)
• Support the launch of a new product (42%)

Live events are back. The most widely utilized assets include short articles and posts (89%), videos (75%) and virtual events and webinars (62%). Most notably, 49% of participants reported using in-person events, compared with only 19% a year earlier.

That said, the content marketing surge belies a lack of sufficient staff, tools and resources. As in the CMI’s 2022 study, marketers said they are still fighting for:

• Content marketing buy-in
• More budget and additional staff
• Greater access to subject matter experts
• Better technology
• Improved measurement tools
• Closer alignment between marketing and sales

Moreover, the year-over-year needle is stuck at around only 40% of marketers having a documented content marketing strategy. That means many content marketers are creating content for its own sake, in many cases simply responding to case-by-case requests.

For content marketing to be truly effective, it needs a strategy with resources behind it. But many content marketers operate either alone or with a small staff trying to do too much. In fact, 46% of all marketers surveyed said that one person (or group) in their organization is responsible for all types of content produced.

Barriers to success. There are many reasons why content marketing remains under-resourced. For one, budget constraints often rule out hiring additional full-time specialized employees. Other obstacles include complex subject matter, technical topics and tight regulations that make it difficult to source engaging original and curated content. And extended sales processes make developing and executing content marketing strategies beyond the capabilities of most general marketing professionals.

That’s why more and more firms turn to agencies experienced in content marketing. It’s an effective and cost-efficient way to fill large and small gaps in your firm’s content marketing program. You’ll gain access to a team of experienced professionals that can run your complete content marketing program under your guidance or handle individual components such as strategic development, program execution, content curation and creation, deployment and more.

To learn more about the benefits of partnering with an agency, check out our in-depth overview. Then contact Carpenter Group to get the support you deserve to efficiently plan, manage and run a content marketing program that gets results.