2013 survey results
Sponsored by
| Yesler | Software Shortlist | Maximizer CRM | Hanley Wood |
Marketing Report
Technology
Marketing
Group Partner

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
We would like to thank our sponsors for supporting the
2013 B2B Content Marketing Trends Report
Spiceworks | www.spiceworks.com
Called “the future of media” by Forbes, Spiceworks connects over 2.5 million IT professionals with 1,800 technology
brands. An IT application, community and content all rolled into one, Spiceworks helps technology vendors reach IT
pros as they’re managing their networks, collaborating with each other, and researching the products and services
they’ll spend more than $450 billion on each year.
Yesler | www.yesler.com
Yesler is a B2B marketing agency that applies an integrated, end-to-end framework to the marketing challenges of
technology companies so they can deliver predictable revenues, sustainable growth, and measurable results. We
provide expertise in research and strategy, content marketing, marketing automation, sales enablement, customer
engagement, and marketing analytics to make your marketing relevant and accountable - to your buyers, to your sales
team, and to the bottom line.
Software Shortlist | www.softwareshortlist.com
Software Shortlist is a trusted independent third party that provides free information and services to software buyers to
help them find relevant vendors. We believe innovative growing businesses are the heart & soul of economic progress,
and good software helps businesses improve their performance. We don’t sell software. We don’t develop it. We don’t
implement it. We focus solely on software selection. We provide a free shortlisting service for businesses, matching
requirements with relevant vendors from an extensive & growing network. If you’re thinking about how software could
improve your business, or you work with a software vendor, let’s talk.
Maximizer Software | www.maximizer.com
MaximizerSoftwaredeliversCustomerRelationshipManagement(CRM)softwaretomeettheneeds,budgetsandaccess
requirements of entrepreneurs, medium and small businesses and divisions of large enterprises. Easily configurable for
organizations in any industry, Maximizer CRM optimizes sales processes, enhances marketing initiatives, and, improves
customer service to ultimately boost productivity and revenue.
Hanley Wood | www.hanleywoodmarketing.com
Today, more than ever, what enriches and sustains your audience connections and relationships is content. Value-
adding information, interactions and experiences. Communications that inform, educate, even entertain. Hanley Wood
Marketing (HWM) has nearly 30 years of experience supporting corporate marketers and communicators with content
programs and services to reach and engage key audiences and accomplish big, measurable brand and business
objectives. Attract customers and prospects into community and conversations. Keep sales funnels flowing. Empower
sales reps and channel partners to be more efficient and effective. It’s all about strategic content. And we’re strategic
content marketers at our core.
2
Sponsors

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Content marketing is going mainstream in 2013. B2B
marketers are increasingly using content marketing tactics
to engage B2B buyers with compelling content to educate,
inform, entertain and guide them along their buying journey.
But what’s behind the buzz and growing popularity of content
marketing? We conducted a survey with the 50,000+ member
B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn to get
answers to key questions like:
• What’s working and what’s not?
• Who is creating content and what are they creating?
• How do you measure content marketing results?
We received 815 responses and are excited to share the
results with you.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey!
Group Owner, B2B Technology Marketing Community
hhschulze@gmail.com | +1 302-383-5817
3
B2B buyer behavior has
been changing dramatically
over the last few years
as buyers become more
sophisticated, find new
ways to gather information
online and via social media.
90% of business buyers say
when they’re ready to buy,
they’ll find you.
*DemandGen Reports
Introduction
Holger Schulze

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS
4
Content marketing is going mainstream and is becoming more sophisticated to
help marketers generate more leads and enable thought leadership.
The popularity of white papers as a content marketing format is declining relative
to interactive, easily digestible formats such as video.
More than 82 percent of B2B marketers are increasing their content production
over the next 12 months.
YouTube is gaining popularity as a social media platform to reach and engage
B2B audiences – Facebook is losing ground.
Marketing automation is on the rise. 61 percent of marketers use marketing
automation platforms, up from 43 percent last year.
Top-5 Trends in Content Marketing
1
2
3
4
5

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
of Content Marketing?Q1 WHAT ARE THE GOALS
Lead generation
Thought leadership / market education
Customer acquisition
Brand awareness
Lead nurturing
Website traffic
Customers loyalty / retention
Social media engagement
Channel enablement
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
61%
49.9%
45.0%
41.0%
35.4%
27.8%
24.8%
13.1%
6.4%
71.3%
The top-3 goals of content marketing:
1. Lead generation (71 percent)
2. Thought leadership & market education (50 percent)
3. Customer acquisition (45 percent)
5

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Marketing Tactics & Formats?Q2HOW EFFECTIVE ARE CONTENT
White papers on the other hand
experienced the biggest drop in
relative popularity - moving from
the number 2 spot in last year’s
survey down to number 6 today.
The three least popular content
formats are online games, printed
books and podcasts.
6
Customer testimonials
(89 percent) and case
studies (88 percent) are
the most effective
content marketing tactics.
Customer testimonials
Case studies
In-person events
Online articles
Videos
White papers
Product demos
Webinars / webcasts
Social media
Research reports
eNewsletters
Blogging
Slideware / presentations
Analyst reports
Press releases
Infographics
Polling / research
Virtual / online events
Microsites
eBooks
Mobile content
Community management / threading
Visual content (cartoons, memes)
Print magazines
Licensed / syndicated content
Advertorials
Branded apps
Podcasts
Printed books
Games
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Effective
Ineffective
I don’t use it

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
elements of effective content?Q3WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT
So what are the ingredients of successful content?
Content success starts with audience relevance (71 percent), followed by engaging and compelling
storytelling (56 percent) that triggers a specific response (56 percent).
7
Audience relevance
Engaging and compelling storytelling
Triggers a response / action
Effectively delivers message
Originality
Re-usability
Well-edited copy
Custom content
Written for SEO
Easy to produce
Low cost
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
40.0%
55.7%
56.0%
24.0%
17.6%
15.7%
15.3%
15.1%
8.2%
6.3%
71%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
media in delivering content?Q4HOW EFFECTIVE IS SOCIAL
LinkedIn tops the list of the most
effective social media platforms
again with 85 percent (although
this number is likely skewed considering
the majority of survey respondents came
from the B2B Technology Marketing
Community on LinkedIn). The runner ups
are YouTube (impressive 73 percent, up
from 53 percent last year) and Twitter (65
percent, down from 70 percent last year).
Facebook on the other hand is quickly
losing popularity with B2B marketers
as a social media platform to reach and
engage B2B audiences (down to 39
percent from 54 percent last year).
8
LinkedIn
YouTube
Twitter
SlideShare
Facebook
Custom developed
communities
Google +
Vimeo
Pinterest
Flickr
Tumblr
Spiceworks
Instagram
Quora
Foursquare
StumbleUpon
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Effective
Ineffective
I don’t use it

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
generate content?Q5HOW DO YOU
The vast majority of B2B marketers create content from scratch (93 percent).
9
Create content from scratch
Curate or syndicate third party content
Encourage user generated content
License / re-use existing content
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
34.4%
30.0%
27.5%
93%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
measure the success of your content?Q6WHAT METRICS DO YOU USE TO
Web traffic is tied with views & downloads (both 63 percent) as the top metrics
used by B2B marketers to measure the success of content marketing.
The next most popular metric is sales opportunities (51 percent).
10
Web traffic / visits
Views / downloads
Sales opportunities
Sales lead quality
Sales lead quantity
Sales / revenue
Social media sharing
Customer feedback
Search engine rankings
Search rankings
Inbound links
Share of conversation
Don’t measure
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
37.1%
46.1%
50.6%
51.2%
33.0%
32.8%
28.6%
21.6%
20.5%
16.0%
4.5%
63%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
marketing strategy?Q7WHO DETERMINES CONTENT
In most companies, Corporate marketing sets content strategy (58 percent), followed by Product
marketing (38 percent), and the CEO / President / Owner (34 percent) in smaller companies that often don’t
have a dedicated marketing department.
11
Corporate marketing
Product marketing
CEO / president / owner
PR / communications
Sales
Demand generation
Field marketing
Product management
External agency / consultant
0% 20% 40% 60%
38.1%
33.5%
24.7%
21.2%
17.2%
16.5%
15.4%
10.6%
58%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q8WHO CREATES CONTENT?
Corporate marketing is also the number one creator of content (56 percent),
followed by product marketing (47 percent) and subject matter experts (43 percent).
12
Corporate marketing
Product marketing
Subject matter experts
PR / communications
External agency / consultant
Product management
CEO / president / owner
Field marketing
Sales
Demand generation
Nobody
0% 20% 40% 60%
38.7%
42.9%
46.9%
29.4%
24.0%
22.8%
18.6%
13.9%
13.3%
0.2%
56%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q9
Content marketing is mostly done in-house.
13
0
10%
5%
0%
15%
20%
25%
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Don’t know
24.5%
18.8%
12.6%
9.0%
8.8%
4.5% 4.3%
3.0%
3.6%
1.7%
1.3%
8.1%
Percentage of content that is outsourced
Responses
creation do you outsource?
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF CONTENT

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
marketers outsource?Q10What content do
The most outsourced form
of content are videos
(31 percent) followed
by white papers (30 percent)
and research reports (27 percent).
14
Videos
White papers
Research reports
Infographics
Analyst reports
Case studies
Press releases
Online articles
Blogging
Social media
Webinars / webcasts
Polling / research
eBooks
Microsites
Customer testimonials
Visual content (cartoons, memes)
eNewsletters
Licensed / syndicated content
Mobile content
Advertorials
Virtual / online events
Print magazines
In-person events
Slideware / presentations
Branded apps
Community management / threading
Podcasts
Product demos
Games
Printed books
We don’t outsource any
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
29.3%
31%
27.0%
26.7%
26.3%
22.5%
20.8%
20.0%
19.6%
17.5%
17.3%
15.2%
14.7%
14.1%
13.7%
12.0%
11.8%
11.6%
10.7%
9.9%
9.5%
9.1%
9.1%
8.6%
8.4%
8.0%
7.4%
5.9%
5.7%
4.8%
4.6%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q11
For 56 percent of companies, corporate marketing owns content marketing funds, followed by
the CEO / President / Owner (35 percent) in smaller companies. Product marketing owns the content marketing
budget in 24 percent of companies.
15
Corporate marketing
CEO / president / owner
Product marketing
PR / communications
Field marketing
Demand generation
Product management
Sales
External agency / consultant
0% 20% 40% 60%
34.5%
23.9%
15.3%
10.4%
8.2%
7.4%
3.8%
1.4%
56%
marketing budget?
WHO OWNS THE CONTENT

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q12
A plurality of companies allocates about 20 percent of marketing budget to content marketing.
16
0
10%
5%
0%
15%
20%
25%
10 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Don’t know
20
2.9%
13.3%
15.2%
20.0%
8.7%
6.4%
3.9% 4.0%
3.7%
1.5%
0.6%
19.7%
Percentage of budget allocated to content
Responses
budget is allocated to content marketing?
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF MARKETING

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q13
More than 82 percent of marketers are increasing content production over the next 12
months, 32 percent of them significantly so. 17 percent of marketers expect volume to stay flat. Virtually no
marketers expect content production to decline.
17
32.0% | Increases significally
49.8% | Increases
16.8% | Stays flat
1.4% | Decreases
0% | Decreases significally
activity changing?
HOW IS CONTENT PRODUCTION
82%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q14
The number one content
marketing challenge is
having enough time
and bandwidth to
create content
(55 percent), same as last
year. The next biggest
content marketing challenge
is producing truly engaging
content (49 percent) followed
by producing enough content
variety to serve the needs of
marketing programs
(39 percent).
18
Time / bandwidth to create content
Producing truly engaging content
Producing enough content variety
Talent to produce content
Getting content delivered to the right audiences
Measuring results
Lack of budget to produce content
Creating segment-specific content
No consistent content strategy
Inability to measure content effectiveness
Understanding buyer personas and decision stages
Buyers don’t want to register to consume content
Finding enough targeted contacts to offer the content to
Lack of process and integration across marketing
Poor content quality
Finding domain experts
Getting executive buy-in
Buyers’ attention span too short
Localizing content for international markets
0% 20% 40% 60%
49.2%
39.0%
35.3%
31.4%
27.6%
26.5%
26.5%
25.7%
25.5%
23.7%
17.8%
17.3%
14.7%
14.5%
14.3%
13.5%
12.9%
12.4%
55%
content marketing challenges?
WHAT ARE YOUR BIGGEST

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q15
The most popular dimension for segmenting content is product category
(46 percent), followed by vertical (41 percent) and buyer persona (41 percent).
The least popular segmentation dimension is company size with 15 percent. And 16 percent of marketers don’t
systematically segment content at all (compared to 20 percent last year).
19
segment content?
How do you
16.2%
By product / service category
By vertical
By buyer persona
By pain point
By stage in buying cycle
By company size
We do not systematically segment content
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
28.9%
34.8%
14.8%
41.2%
41.4%
46%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q16
What is a manageable number of unique segments, personas, and stages to
produce marketing content for?
20
of B2B content marketing
MANAGING THE COMPLEXITY
We asked our B2B marketing
community, and the magic number is …

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q17
The most popular buying stages defined by B2B marketers are problem awareness (42 percent),
need recognition (35 percent) and purchase decision (29 percent). A whopping 30 percent of
marketers don’t categorize content by buying stage.
21
you use to categorize content?
WHAT BUYING STAGES DO
Problem awareness
Need recognition
Purchase decision
Vendor consideration
Vendor evaluation / validation (demo/eval)
Vendor and solution discovery
Vendor selection
Requirement definition
Advocacy / loyalty
Performance evaluation (post purchase)
Procurement
Priority shift
We don’t categorize content
by buying stage
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
26.6%
27.6%
28.9%
29.7%
34.8%
26.2%
23.0%
21.1%
16.2%
13.1%
10.1%
5.3%
42%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
Q18
Adoption of marketing automation is on the rise as automation platforms mature.
37 percent of marketers use marketing automation to generate leads, 36 percent use it for lead
nurturing.
Only 39 percent of B2B marketers don’t use marketing automation at all – significantly down from 57
percent last year.
22
marketing automation
INTEGRATION WITH
We use marketing automation
to generate leads
We use mareting automation
to nurture leads
We actively create content to feed
automated campaigns
We use marketing automation to
engage with customers
We sporadically use content for
marketing automation campaigns
We don’t use marketing automation
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
28.2%
36.1%
26.0%
15.1%
39.0%
37%
36.7%

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results
The survey was completed by 815 marketers in June
of 2013. Here is a detailed breakdown of the survey
participant demographics.
23
SURVEY METHODOLOGY
Advertising / marketing
Software
High tech
Consulting
Professional services
Manufacturing
Business services (Other)
Internet / online services
Telecommunication
Publishing / media
Financial services
Healthcare / medical / pharma
Government
What industry is your company in?
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%
Owner / CEO / president
VP
Specialist
Analyst
Intern
What is your job title?
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Director
Manager
How many employees work at your company worldwide?
20.4% | 10-99
30.9% | Fewer than 10
18.3% | 100-999
11.9% | 1,000-10,000
10.4% | 10,000+
Sales
Consultant
Product management
Operations
What is your functional role in your company?
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
CEO / president / owner
Marketing / advertising
communications / PR
Engineering

B2B CONTENT MARKETING TRENDS | Read the 2013 survey results 24
THANK YOU
Many thanks to everybody who participated in this survey.
If you are interested in co-sponsoring upcoming surveys, or creating your
own survey report based on the wisdom of the 50,000 member B2B
marketing crowd in our B2B Technology Marketing Community, please
contact Holger Schulze at hhschulze@gmail.com or +1 302-383-5817.
About the B2B Technology Marketing Community on LinkedIn
With over 50,000 members, the B2B Technology Marketing
Community is the single largest LinkedIn group exclusively focused
on B2B technology marketing topics. This group is ideal for marketing
professionals in B2B high-tech industries to enable networking, sharing
of ideas, best practices and opportunities
Click to join the
B2B Technology
Marketing Community
on LinkedIn Technology
Marketing
Group Partner
Contact the Author
Holger Schulze
Group Owner, B2B Technology
Marketing Community (LinkedIn)
Email: hhschulze@gmail.com
Phone: +1 302-383-5817