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Content Marketing is Not More Content Output

It used to be that the biggest challenge faced by B2B content marketers was “What will we write about?” At least that was what I heard most often from many of the industrial companies that I talked to.

Producing enough content is now the #1 challenge faced by B2B content marketers. That was one of the findings from the recent survey, 2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks–North America conducted by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs.

Challenges that B2B Content Marketers face

Even though the survey represented a broad range of industries, 6% of the total 1,416 responding companies from North America were manufacturers. So the findings are just as relevant to the industrial sector as it is to general B2B Content Marketing.

Producing engaging or relevant content is still a challenge but it has fallen by 23% as the biggest challenge and is now at number 2. Does that mean we’ve all become very good at content marketing? Not exactly!

The same survey reported that only 36% of B2B Marketers feel that they are effective at content marketing. This is a decline from the previous year’s survey where 40% of B2B marketers said that their content marketing was either “Very Effective” or “Effective.”

How B2B Marketers rate the effectiveness of their content marketing

The key takeaway in my opinion is that content output doesn’t equate to effective content marketing. Relevance matters, more so now because of the explosive growth in social media usage and the sheer volume of marketing content that is being published for the sake of inbound marketing with content.

I found the first half of the statement on page 2 of the same report very interesting and it echoes my opinion. It states, “We applaud you for doing more and trying new tactics, although we must say we are pretty sure that throwing more content at customers is not the answer.” However, there is hope for us B2B Content marketers to improve as stated in the second part of that statement.

Paul Gillin (@pgillin) summarized the problem very well and succinctly in his regular column in BtoB Magazine where he wrote, “In other words, we don’t know what to say but we want to say more of it.” That is brilliant and spot on!

I would like to hear your thoughts on content marketing as it relates to manufacturing and industrial companies.

Achinta Mitra

Achinta Mitra calls himself a “marketing engineer” because he combines his engineering education and an MBA with 36 years of practical industrial marketing experience. You want an expert with an insider’s knowledge and an outsider’s objectivity who can point you in the right direction immediately. That's Achinta. He is the Founder of Tiecas, Inc., an industrial marketing consultancy in Houston, Texas. Read Achinta's story here.
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Comments:

  1. Bob McCarthy says:

    Hi Achinta

    I would phrase this differently.

    I would say content marketing IS more content output – and continued output – but it needs to be relevant, useful content. Not just words on paper. Not content that doesn’t serve the needs of your customer.

    If you are producing content for content sake, you are spinning your wheels.

    So yes, you need a strategy for developing the right content, but you still need a process for creating that content on a consistent basis.

    • Achinta Mitra says:

      Bob,

      The main thrust of my post is to point out that producing more content for the sake of content won’t move the needle. Refer to my key takeaway where I have talked about the importance of relevance. I believe that is exactly what you are trying to say in your comments. You may want to read some of my previous articles where I have discussed content strategy, fresh content, addressing your customers’ WIIFM needs etc. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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