At the start of the year, we wrote about 14 content marketing must-dos for 2014 (see presentation here: http://www.slideshare.net/LImarketingsolutions/14-mustdos-for-content-marketers-in-2014) Now, halfway into the year, we wanted to revisit these imperatives and take a mid-year pulse on marketers’ performance -- are these key areas being sufficiently addressed by marketers? Have some must-dos already become table stakes, while others have been slower to become a priority? Take a look to learn more about which areas have seen notable improvements so far -- and which areas may present unaddressed opportunities. Learn more about how to take advantage of content marketing opportunities on LinkedIn: http://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions?src=s-ss&trk=CMTrends2014

1. What’s changed since January,
and where are we headed next?
Content Marketing
Trends of 2014:

2. Proving the Value of Content
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #1:

3. What’s changed since then:
According to the Content Marketing Institute,
effectiveness is on the rise: 42 percent of B2B
marketers consider themselves effective at content
marketing, up from 36 percent last year.
Marketers are gaining insight that influences the
types of content they produce, with infographics
seeing the largest year-over-year increase in
usage from 38% to 51%.
Among the most effective B2B content marketers,
80% cite lead generation as a goal, compared
with 64% of their least effective counterparts.
Given this, it’s also no surprise that
the number of marketers measuring new leads has
increased by 15% year-over-year.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Noting that content marketing
platforms will offer full integration with
customer databases and CRMs, we
encouraged marketers at the start of
2014 to identify which types of
content are funneling visitors to
converting pages through the use of
site analytics.

4. Tapping into the Power of Story
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #2:

5. What’s changed since then:
As more marketers partake in social listening,
they’re finding great value -- and even strategic
insight -- in the stories they hear from their
customers.
Take 3M, for example: after identifying a large DIY-
enthusiast segment of its consumers through social
listening back in 2012, the company shifted
messaging away from function and even launched a
new line to appeal to the creativity of its DIY
consumers.
Taking these efforts a step further, 3M recently
created an online portal, 3MDIY, as a content-first
community hub for its audience. The company has
since seen a 50% increase in the amount of time
consumers spend on its site, as well as a 20%
increase in time spent on pages of the site.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Emphasizing the importance of
compelling content to tell a
company’s story, we pushed
marketers to embrace the impact of
storytelling -- particularly through
the customer lens.

6. Integrating Lead Gen Efforts with
Content Marketing Campaigns
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #3:

7. What’s changed since then:
While it’s too soon to see a definitive outcome from
marketers’ improved integration of their efforts this
year, it remains clear that this is an important work
in progress.
When it comes to integrating data in particular,
89 percent of marketers agree that it’s important to
see marketing data from all their disparate sources
in a single dashboard, and 66 percent even say
they would consume more marketing data if they
could see it all in one place.
Despite this aligned vision, only 19 percent of
marketers report that they can actually see all their
marketing data in a single dashboard, emphasizing
the opportunity for many marketers to build a better
(and more data-driven) approach to integrating their
efforts.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
As highlighted by the importance of
storytelling, a cohesive brand
narrative is key – and like we noted
in January, it’s a critical year for
marketers to break down siloes in
their organizations in order to build
an integrated approach to reaching
their audiences.

8. Recognizing that Small is
Beautiful
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #4:

9. What’s changed since then:
As marketers continue to experiment with new ways
of driving toward conversions through short-form
content, consumers aren’t slowing down on creating
their own: in every minute of the day, Vine users
share 8,333 videos, while Pinterest users pin 3,472
images and Instagram users post 216,000 new
photos.
Marketers, take note: Ipsos reports that user-
generated content is 20 percent more influential
when it comes to purchasing and 35 percent more
memorable than other types of media.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
The most effective content doesn’t
require volumes to have an impact –
nor should it. We suggested that
marketers test short-form content
early in 2014, especially using it as a
lead-in for branded content that aims
for conversion.

10. The Personalization of Content
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #5:

11. What’s changed since then:
Fewer than one in four marketers (22%) say they
are using personalization/dynamic content so far in
2014, according to a recent study by ifbyphone.
However, Adobe reports that 33 percent of
marketers have identified personalization as the
area that will be most important to their company’s
marketing moving forward.
Given that 72% of marketers cite ‘too much content’
as a challenge that makes it difficult to stand out
from the crowd, it’s clear that more marketers would
benefit from adopting a personalized approach to
content.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Without context, content can lose a
lot of meaning. With that in mind, we
highlighted a growing need to
understand your audience in order
to create more personalized (and
measurable) content marketing.

12. Acting on Insights with
Real-time Content
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #6:

13. What’s changed since then:
As expected, marketers are increasing their
adoption of new measurement tools this year, and
they’re getting more backing from leadership.
Alongside a budget increase for 45% of marketers,
many cited an increased demand from leadership
teams for more frequent reporting of marketing
metrics – making it no surprise that budget
increases are likely to support measurement efforts,
such as the 30 percent who have increased their
budgetary commitment to web analytics and mobile
measurement in 2014.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
With a new wave of capabilities also
come challenges when it comes to
successful integration. Whether
adopting a new analytics platform or
improving your targeting, we stressed
the importance of cross-
departmental buy-in – and many
marketers seem to be taking note.

14. Customer-Centric is the New
Social-Centric
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #7:

15. What’s changed since then:
With marketing executives reporting their top two
priorities for 2014 as acquiring new customers and
increasing customer retention, respectively, it’s safe
to say this may be the year of the customer.
In addition to end goals of acquisition and retention,
marketers are increasingly seeing the value of
customer insight when it comes to informing
strategy. Forrester recently described how The
Clorox Company used social listening and
“recursive analysis” to determine where flu
outbreaks were occurring.
This tactic allowed Clorox to continuously adapt its
cleaning products and regional marketing
campaigns – and the company even attributes
improved sales of these products to a 17 percent
increase in quarterly earnings.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Citing increased customer
expectations as a key driver, we shed
light on the new ‘role of the customer’
and how customers are now
influencing strategy, product
development, service, and sales.
Have marketers embraced the
customer-centric theme of 2014?

16. Empowering Employees to
Contribute Content
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #8:

17. What’s changed since then:
Research from SocialChorus shows that
your employees can actually reach an
audience 10 times larger than what your
brand is reaching – in fact, Dell recently
found only an eight percent overlap between
the company’s Twitter followers and those of
its employees.
Throw in the fact that content shared by
employees receives eight times the
engagement of content on branded channels,
and it’s no surprise companies like Dell are
tapping into the power of their own internal
network.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
If anyone knows your business, it’s
your employees, so we encouraged
marketers to get the most out of their
in-house expertise this year by
inspiring employees to contribute
both content and feedback.

18. Embracing Entertaining Content
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #9:

19. What’s changed since then:
In a recent example, many marketers used
the World Cup as an opportunity to grab the
attention of consumers through relevant and
entertaining content. The IAB reports that
fans were nearly twice as likely to value the
entertainment creative of an ad, compared to
the relevancy of the product advertised.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
With so much content available
today, there’s a challenge to attract
initial attention amongst audiences.
Much like our suggestion to use
short-form content as a lead-in to
longer branded content in 2014, we
recommended that marketers
embrace entertaining content that
grabs consumers’ attention and gains
their interest.

20. Personalizing Event Marketing &
Accurately Measuring Success
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #10:

21. What’s changed since then:
This year, almost one third of marketers will invest
in CRM solutions that can track in-person
interactions. However, we know that data
integration remains a challenge for many marketers,
often due to organizational siloes, and this can
prevent a holistic understanding of event audiences
and their potential needs.
Remember, it’s just as important to understand your
participants before an event as it is to measure their
behavior afterward – especially when considering
the impact a live event can have if targeted
correctly. According to recent research, attending a
branded live experience on average drives 65
percent of participants to recommend that brand,
and 68 percent to search for additional information
about the brand online.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Along the recurring theme of making
marketing efforts more targeted and
consequently more measurable, we
observed a trend of increasingly
personalized content for attendees
at events. By knowing the needs of
participants, event marketers can
target their efforts toward specific
goals and more easily measure the
value of such engagements.

22. Becoming a Social Business
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #11:

23. What’s changed since then:
Many marketers are still challenged by
finding their target audience online – three in
four marketing executives admit this is a
major or moderate challenge to them in 2014.
Nonetheless, marketers are working hard to
align their long-term strategies to key areas
of opportunity, including the adoption of
audience targeting (now used by more than 8
in 10 advertisers and 9 in 10 agencies).
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Forbes Top 10 Social Media
Influencer Pam Moore said it best:
“becoming a social business is a
journey, not a destination.” We
implored marketers to complete their
social media worksheet to identify
areas of opportunity -- first and
foremost making sure they know their
audiences’ goals and preferred
channels.

24. Compelling Your Customers to
Spread the Word
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #12:

25. What’s changed since then:
According to Forrester, 30 percent of US
online adults share content from companies
on social networking sites at least weekly or
monthly.
With 92 percent of consumers saying they
trust brand advocates (compared to 18
percent who trust influencers), marketers who
have not yet identified their customer
advocates miss an opportunity to engage
through these valuable loyalists.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Citing an imperative to activate
potential brand advocates through
social media, our advice to marketers
in January was to first identify
existing advocates by digging into
your channels.

26. Rising Importance of Video in an
Increasingly Mobile World
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #13:

27. What’s changed since then:
As consumers’ mobile use continues to climb,
so too does the percent of digital video ad
dollars going toward mobile -- from 1.5
percent in 2013 up to 2.8 percent in 2014,
with projections of 4.2 percent in 2015,
according to eMarketer. In fact, total digital
video ad spending on mobile is set to
increase by a substantial 119 percent in
2014.
Video is also proving effective for marketers:
as of May 2014, 55 percent rated videos as a
‘very effective’ social media post type.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Noting that video will play an
increasingly important role in content
marketing, we encouraged marketers
to experiment with both long and
short-form videos to increase brand
awareness.

28. Understanding the Role of
Influence
Content Marketing 2014 Trend #14:

29. What’s changed since then:
As with several other must-dos, marketers
have increased their measurement efforts to
continuously improve upon content initiatives.
Over the past year, the percent of marketing
executives who use metrics quantifying
increases in awareness, brand perception
and purchase intent has doubled, pointing to
an increasing emphasis on measurement
aligned to the buying cycle.
Marketers are also showing a significant
desire to understand their customers’ path to
purchase, as well as the impact of each
specific medium they use – close to eight in
10 now cite these as important factors in
measuring campaigns.
What we recommended in
January 2014:
Without context, content can lose
much of its power. With this in mind,
we highlighted the importance of
mapping existing content to
stages of the buying cycle and
making adjustments to ensure
alignment to key points of influence.

30. For more on content marketing trends,
visit lnkd.in/cmtrends

31. Share your own
Content Marketing Trends
and observations with us:
Revisit the original
2014 Content Marketing
Trends eBook:
On LinkedIn:
Marketing Innovation with
LinkedIn Group
On Twitter:
@LinkedInMktg #CMTrends2014

32. Sources:
1. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/B2B_Research_2014_CMI.pdf
2. http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/marketing-measurement-survey-2014/
3 http://mashable.com/2014/05/21/3m-post-it-marketing-strategy/
4. http://www.domo.com/learn/2013-data-driven-marketing-survey-report
5. http://mashable.com/2014/04/23/data-online-every-minute/
6. http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/millennials-user-generated-media/
7. http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/personalization-tops-big-data-social-as-us-marketers-most-important-future-
area-41681/
8. DNN/Lawless Research/SSI study, May 2014, via eMarketer
9. http://www.forrester.com/Big+Datas+Big+Meaning+For+Marketing/fulltext/-/E-RES114782#endnote13
10. http://www.marketingprofs.com/chirp/2014/24740/unleash-the-superpowers-of-employee-advocates-infographic
11. http://www.iab.net/about_the_iab/recent_press_releases/press_release_archive/press_release/pr-060514
12. http://public.ifbyphone.com/landingpage/marketing-measurement-survey-2014/
13. http://www.momentumww.com/blog/2013/12/18/research-ranks-live-experience-as-lead-driver-of-brand-recommendation-
conversation
14. http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/audience-targeting-budgets-to-rise-3rd-party-online-data-preferred-42381/
15. http://www.forrester.com/Build+Your+Content+Brand+By+Delivering+Customer+Value/fulltext/-/E-RES109182#endnote7
16. http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing/social-media-influencers-versus-brand-advocates-infographic/
17. Association of National Advertisers/Forrester Consulting study, May 2014, via eMarketer .
18. http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/online/global-b2b-marketers-rate-their-most-effective-social-media-post-types-42341/
attachment/b2bmarketing-net-most-effective-social-post-types-may2014/