HubSpot has dropped its State of Content Marketing in 2022 [Stats and Trends to Watch] report and we thought we’d provide you with the highlights, so that you don’t have to read the whole thing. (Although doing so IS a good idea when you have a few free minutes.)
Content marketing remains extremely powerful
How does HubSpot know this? Because in its own survey of marketers, a whopping 90 percent of them said they planned to continue using content marketing in their marketing efforts.
Marketers simply don’t continue using a marketing strategy or technique “just because”: they continue to use it only if it works!
Short-form marketing is one of marketer’s top content marketer’s tools this year
This is particularly when it comes to content marketing via social media: 30 percent of social media marketers plan to “invest more in short-form video” than in “any other social media marketing strategy.”
What’s more, 33 percent of marketers surveyed said they planned to use short-form video for the first time this year.
No surprise to us here at ingenex.co: the top channels marketers currently use are…
- Social media (44 percent)
- Website/blog (36 percent)
- Email marketing (35 percent)
- Content marketing (32 percent)
- Influencer marketing (30 percent)
- SEO marketing (26 percent)
- Virtual events (25 percent)
What we find encouraging is that content marketing, social media marketing and blogging are higher up on that chart than SEO.
That’s because content marketing – particularly for B2B marketing – is incredibly powerful.
Many B2B companies have very expensive products or services they’re trying to sell to other B2B companies Products or services that can be tens of thousands of dollars – or a lot more – to purchase.
These then are called “considered purchases,” and the people in charge of purchasing these products are going to “consider” the heck out of it!
They’re going to read as much as they can (as well as talking to sales folks, their colleagues, etc. People want facts and figures. People want reviews.
They want highly detailed and specific information
And they want a lot of it as they consider their purchase of weeks or months of their decision process.
That’s why blog posts, white papers, case studies, testimonials, infographics, and on and an on and on are so critical to marketing – and thus sales – success.
In fact, the top content marketing formats are…
- Video (59 percent)
- Blogs (48 percent)
- Images (46 percent)
- Infographics (45 percent)
- Case studies (42 percent
Which social media channels should you prioritize?
The channels which marketers say provide them with the most bang for their marketing buck are…
- LinkedIn (23 percent)
- Instagram (18 percent)
- Facebook (18 percent)
- YouTube (12 percent)
- TikTok (13 percent)
Important note: the stats above are for B2B marketers. For B2C, when it comes to the best ROI, they prefer Facebook (19.5 percent), with Instagram and TikTok coming in at a tie (12.1 percent).
However, 62 percent of these marketers said they planned to increase their marketing investment spent on TikTok this year. Compare this to 44 percent of marketers who said they would increase spend and efforts on Facebook and 56 percent on Instagram.
Therefore, it’s wise to use an omni-channel marketing approach…
..while also embracing social responsibility.
HubSpot found that 10 percent of B2B marketers said they planned to invest more in this type of marketing than any other trend.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), as it’s called is having an understanding that the results of your actions as you market yourself impact the various communities associated with your brand. In a nutshell, it’s about making morally/ethically correct choices (as your communities see/understand them).
How can you practice the “right kind” of CSR?
- Do things for good, not for publicity. (And, remember, your communities can sniff out a publicity ploy masquerading as CSR from miles away!)
- Understand that anything you create and sell that results in something that your communities perceive as having a negative social impact – whether they are correct or not to believe so – will have a negative impact on your bottom line: you customers won’t purchase it. (Chances therefore are good that your company someday will be having some “tough” conversations in the future regarding product/service offerings. Be prepared.
Yet, the good news is that CSR that most people will look at as positive can have a terrific positive impact on your company as it creates legitimate, positive buzz:
- Send (and segment) messages about your new products/initiatives/services to customers directly impacted by them.
- Publish positive content about your initiatives, etc. on your social channels so that others can share them to their connections.
- Pitch national and local news outlets about your products/services about how they positively impact your community. (Doing so and not getting any traction from local/national media “could” be a sign that your initiative has too much of a whiff of blatant publicity and not enough altruism to it. Just an FYI….)
Let Ingenex.co help you with your content marketing.
We’ve helped dozens of B2B and B2C companies market their products and services with great success over the years.
Let us help you, too.
