12 Weeks of Content Marketing Insights
This is the 5th post in our series on the current state of B2B Content Marketing with findings sourced from over 230 B2B marketing professionals. Last week we dug into the time commitment required to create customer case studies. This week we’ll focus specifically on the impact of using social proof from your existing customers in marketing activities.
Week 5: Which type of content is most effective?
The results from our study are clear – the voice of your existing customers is overwhelmingly considered more effective in convincing prospects than in-house or analyst content. This makes intuitive sense – who better to trust than someone who has actually used a product or service?
94% of surveyed B2B marketing pros reported that customer content is “very effective” or better while only half that (45%) found their in-house content that effective. Analyst content weighed in a only a little better – 56% of surveyed marketers rated it as “very effective” or better.
Customer content is the clear winner in proving your value to prospects, which underscores a common refrain from our customers that social proof lends a great deal of credibility to a company’s marketing message. So how does that play out in terms of marketing/sales impact?
80% of B2B organizations reported that content created from customers increases lead generation. Unfortunately, compelling content for lead generation is often cited as some of the most difficult types of content to get. This sales and marketing executive at at a medium size software company put it clearly:
“Our top challenges include not having enough internal resources to create content, difficulty creating compelling content that will drive lead generation and putting a program in place to get key metrics/stats that highlight real results.”
Stay Tuned
Next week we’ll cover exactly what type of content works to drive lead generation campaigns.
Subscribe or follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn to get all the posts in this series.
