The Business to Business marketing research* results are in for 2015 and they show a surge from Australian marketers toward digital and content marketing.
Penelope Bettison | Tuesday 14th April 2015
This includes social media, blogs, email campaigns and search engine optimisation (SEO) activities. The report states that marketers have increased their content marketing budget by 54% year on year – now representing 17% of total budget.
The 24-hour news cycle and constant access to social media means that businesses are more vulnerable and accountable to their clients and the public. The more frequently we see updated content, the more we expect of not just news services, but all services. Meanwhile, communication and marketing is increasingly focussed on engaging and participating with their audiences in a more direct manner.
Traditional forms of marketing such as public relations and in-person events are still widely used, though print advertising and telemarketing continue their downward spiral.
The current types of content in demand right now are short articles and blogs with 64% of organisations creating or already publishing blogs online, followed closely by case studies and video content. These formats are quick to digest and easy to access and share at a moment’s notice – 71% of respondents believe that content marketing is a critical activity to their strategies, up 28% from 2014.
To support these content marketing strategies 43% of marketers are now developing buyer personas, and 22% plan to, an upward trend from previous years. (Shameless plug: See Pitstop Marketing’s case study on developing these for RiAus)
If social media is a part of your marketing strategy then knowing the right platform to catch your audience is a no-brainer, but with constant changes to the advertising game, which platform is the best?
When asked about the investments in social media use for 2015, 85% of marketers chose LinkedIn followed closely by Twitter with 78% and YouTube with 70%. Interestingly however, 48% of respondents will be spending less on Facebook. LinkedIn has become the top social media platform for B2B marketing probably due to LinkedIn’s integration of Pulse News recently. It’s now possible to access and share topics or news from your influencers and groups with your networks instantly with the embedded like, commend and share tools. Similarly with YouTube, videos and infographics are better equipped to communicate volumes of information in a short amount of time and these audio-visual interactions also aid memory retention.
Being able to transform your online content and get people sharing and talking about it is a significant part of marketing strategies coming into 2015. Marketers are saying it is a key pillar for audience outreach – a sentiment we strongly agree with at Pitstop Marketing.
* Greenhat Marketing published the results of its business to business (B2B) marketing research report last month in association with Marketing Magazine, B2B Marketing UK, the Association for Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising (ADMA). The research report is in its 5th consecutive year and explores B2B marketing practises, intentions and directions from marketers across Australia.