This summer, Starfleet Media published The 2015 Benchmark Report on B2B Content Marketing and Lead Generation. The Starfleet report is based on a survey of high- and mid-level marketing and sales professionals that was conducted in the second quarter of this year.
The survey produced 324 qualified responses, and respondents represented B2B companies of all sizes, from very large (more than $1 billion in revenues) to very small (less than $1 million). Most of the respondents (69%) were affiliated with companies located in North America, while 22% were affiliated with European companies.
In many ways, the findings of the Starfleet survey echo the results of research from several other firms. For example:
- Almost nine out of ten respondents (89%) said their primary high-level objective for investing in content marketing is to acquire new customers.
- The top three specific objectives for content marketing identified in the survey were generate more leads (92% of respondents), raise brand visibility (90%), and generate better leads (87%).
- The top four types of content assets used in the past twelve months were case studies (67% of respondents), company-branded white papers (62%), company-branded webinars (58%), and company-branded e-books (52%).
- Almost nine out of ten respondents (86%) identified creating compelling content as their biggest content marketing challenge.
- Companies across all industries produced or licensed an average of 5.5 new content assets over the past twelve months.
Illustration courtesy of Flickr CC and TopRank Online Marketing