Content Marketing Spending Points Up
Recession or not, marketers still investing in their own
content.
By Joe Pulizzi, founder,
Junta42
See the 2010
Content Marketing Spending report here.
Even in tough economic times, money is still flowing into
content marketing initiatives. In a December, 2008
research study of Junta42 subscribers, 56% of marketing- and
publishing-decision makers plan to increase their content
marketing spending for 2009 (31% increase significantly, 25%
increase slightly). Only 13% plan on decreasing their content
marketing spend (9% decrease slightly, 4% decrease
significantly).
Surveyed marketers were very clear that social media
spending will be on the top of their investment list in
2009. In terms of most important products/tactics, social media
(other than blogs) resonated with 68% of subscribers, followed by
enewsletters/email (60%), blogs (56%), case studies (55%), online
video (51%), white papers (46%) and microsites (43%). (Survey
takers were allowed to choose more than one tactic.)
Content spending speeds up as economy slows down
If you compare these research findings to a BtoB/Junta42
study just nine months before, the recession has had little
impact on content marketing spending. Actually, you can make a case
that corporate content spending has increased as the
economic outlook has decreased.
In the March, 2008 study, 42% of marketers stated an increase in
their content marketing spending. That's 14% less than the current
finding of 56%.
What it means
Why are we seeing this trend? The simple reason may be the
flight to retention. As the economy worsens, more corporate
marketers focus on keeping their current customers by showing clear
value through relevant content distribution. But the more likely
story is that we've seen a clear shift away from "interruption"
style media toward content marketing and social
media, which seeks to add value to a conversation
instead of a "sales through distraction" mentality.
In the past, there was a clear distinction between what was
"marketing" and what was "media". Today, there is no delineation
between the two. More marketers are becoming aware that they can
communicate directly with customers through a variety of
ever-changing media. That means telling a story, and creating
valuable, relevant and compelling content that is meaningful to
customers and prospects. Marketing today and tomorrow is perhaps
best stated as publishing.
Survey details
For the study, content
marketing was defined as "products that involve your own
content creation, like web content, case studies, blogs, white
papers, webinars, newsletters, enewsletters, custom magazines,
etc."
The Junta42 community is made up of both corporate marketers and
publishing/agency professionals. For the study, 42% were corporate
marketers, 22% traditional publishers/media, 19%
marketing/advertising agencies, 15% custom publishers and 3%
association marketers. 85% of the surveyed audience makes marketing
purchase decisions for their organizations.
The Junta42 email study was delivered during the first week of
December. 1706 subscribers were invited to take the study, in which
196 completed the survey (11.5% return).
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