According to a study by the London agency NewsReach, 78% of British marketers invested in content marketing in 2012 (source: eMarketer). Eight out of ten of these marketers will increase their content marketing budget in 2013. This budget represents on average 33% of their marketing efforts. 55% of brands produce content in-house and a little over 40% are working with an external agency or freelancers.
Increasing engagement with consumers (26%) is the primary reason for investing in content marketing. “Thought leadership” comes in sixth position and “increasing sales” in the fifth.
Social media is the preferred method for dissemination of such content for 87% of marketers. In response to the question, “What type of content is most likely to be shared on social networks?” 51 % responded news and industry blogs, followed by videos (27%), infographics (18%) and white papers (4%).
As in North America, content marketing is beginning to take more and more space in the marketing strategies of European brands. Increasingly, brands are realizing that interruption marketing is becoming less effective.
Valuable Content, another British agency, conducted a study on consumer buying habits:
• 92% of them do research on the web before buying a new product or service
• 79% have already recommended products, services, and people on social media
• Less than 20% have purchased a product and service after seeing an advertisement on television
• Only 1% have purchased a product and service after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper or receiving a call from telemarketer.
In response to the question what are the three most important factors that foster trust in a site, respondents said:
• 62%: the content that is relevant to me
• 57%:comments and ratings from other consumers
• 54%: quality website design
The greatest challenge for brands is the production of quality content. It remains to be defined, what quality content means for each of their audiences.
