2018 Content Marketing Research Reveals What Top B2B Performers Are Doing Better

What did we find?

80% of B2B content marketers surveyed agree their organization is focused on building audiences (one or more subscriber bases).

Nearly all of the top performers among the sample (92%) are focused on this area.

"Across the board – at all levels of content marketing success – the research shows more marketers concentrating on building audiences," explains Lisa Murton Beets, research director, Content Marketing Institute. "Among all respondents, 80% reported they are focused on this (versus 92% of the top performers), representing an 18% year-over-year increase. This is terrific news considering an audience can be one of an organization's most valuable assets. Content marketing provides a way to build a subscribed audience, which is what differentiates content marketing from other forms of marketing."

Other Key Highlights:

63% of B2B marketers say their organization's overall content marketing approach is much more or somewhat more successful than one year ago (compared with 78% of top performers).

37% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy (compared with 62% of top performers).

36% of B2B marketers rate the project management flow during their organization's content-creation process as excellent/very good (compared with 70% of top performers).

19% of B2B marketers rate their organization's alignment of metrics and content marketing goals as excellent/very good (compared with 54% of top performers).

Additionally, 74% of all B2B respondents (and 88% of top performers) agree their organization values creativity and craft in content creation and production.

"It's excellent to see our research show that most B2B content marketers value creativity and craft in content creation and production," says Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs and author of Everybody Writes. "Where we really see a difference is in organizations that also do well with project management. For example, 70% of the top-performing content marketers rate the project management flow during their content-creation process as excellent/very good, compared with 36% of the total sample. This tells us that not only does it pay to be creative, if you truly want an edge, you also have to have good processes in place."