Fast & Easy Friday: A Recap of the Week’s Top Content Articles & Insights

Studies and research reports can be great ammunition for marketers. Data can help us better understand industry trends, buyer challenges and viewpoints, and much more. 

Sometimes, data even helps us take a hard look at how we think and work in our professional lives, and how we can improve. This week, I thought it would fun to share articles that not only uncovered valuable research and data, but also offered some valuable commentary. You’ll notice there’s a good mixture of marketer-focused and buyer-focused research: 

  • Consistency, measurement and buyer centricity are top priorities for 2016: For last week’s “Fast & Easy Friday” column, we went over some of the key facts and takeaways from our recent webinar. Well, we have finally released the complete results from our 2016 Content Budgeting And Measurement Survey, and they are packaged up in a comprehensive, easy-to-digest report. We covered a lot of ground in the research, asking our B2B peers to comment on their content marketing strategies, budgets, challenges, investment plans, pressures and more. Download your complimentary copy to see the results and how your organization stacks up!

  • Why good content strategy fails: The vast majority of B2B organizations are doing content marketing, but only 30% of these businesses say they are effective in their efforts, according to research from the Content Marketing Institute. Why is this? According to this article from Business2Community, sometimes companies have a content strategy in place, but it may not be the right strategy for them. This is just one of the five possible reasons why a content strategy may look good on paper but still leads to poor results. 
  • You know about millennials…now, learn about Gen Z: It looks like millennials are officially old news. Now marketers need to better understand Generation Z. Daniel Glickman, CMO of emaze, says Generation Z is the “freshest wave of movers and shakers to grace the online marketplace. But here’s the real kicker: This group is just graduating high school. So B2B organizations still have another four years or so until this group enters the workforce. Still, it’s smart to better understand Generation Z now — how they think, the technology they use, the apps they love, etc. They’re digital natives to the core, and you will definitely need to tweak your content strategy based on their behaviors and preferences if they fall in your target audience in the future. 
  • Don’t lecture buyers…unteach them: At Content4Demand, we’re big proponents of challenger marketing. Developed by CEB, challenger marketing encourages B2B marketers to go beyond mediocre content that simply educates your target audience. Buyers are learning a lot more on their own and are turning to personal networks to find potential solutions. To stand out, marketers need to show their prospects a different way of doing things or a new approach that may be beneficial to their business. Check out this article to get the scoop on challenger marketing and other best practices from CEB.

I hope you found these articles helpful and inspiring, and that they get you hyped up for another awesome week. Have a great weekend!

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