12 Weeks of Content Marketing Insights
Welcome to the fourth post in our series on the current state of B2B Content Marketing. So far we’ve covered the growing importance of content marketing, top content creation challenges, and how long it takes to create content. This week we’re focusing specifically on how long it takes B2B marketing professionals to create case studies.
Week 4: Focus on Case Studies
For most marketers, creating case studies takes time — lots of time.
As highlighted in our last blog post, case studies are very time-consuming for most organizations to create. Over 50% of the B2B marketers we surveyed stated that the time commitment to create case studies was “high” or “very high.”
Case studies were rated as some of the most compelling marketing content (47% said they are very effective or most effective in lead nurturing / drip marketing programs for prospects) but the time resources required make creating this type of content difficult for the majority of B2B marketing organizations.
Over 65% of respondents reported that it takes them longer than 2 months to complete a case study.
Nearly 30% of surveyed organizations need over 4 months to create customer case studies, and over 11% take 8 months or longer.
Only 35% of respondents are able to create case studies in less than 2 months!
A faster way to create case studies
TechValidate customers are able to create short, targeted case studies faster and in much greater volume than with traditional processes:
- BMC created 150 case studies in 30 days for BMC Control-M and used them here.
- LexisNexis created over 100 case studies in a matter of 2-3 weeks for Lexis Advance for marketing & sales.
Why are best-in-class marketing departments looking to create more case studies? The answer ranges from sales enablement, lead generation/ nurturing campaigns and awareness that success with a product is the norm rather than the exception.
- Sales enablement: With a broader range of case studies available sales is able to show much more relevant case studies to prospects. We often hear from our clients that their prospects want to see evidence from what their current users are seeing – in their specific vertical, persona, or solution.
- Lead Generation and Nurturing: Customer proof in the form of case studies can help drive targeted lead generation campaigns and spark interest in the targeted segment.
- Success Awareness: A small number of case studies are seen as exceptional results, not the norm for all customers. A higher number of case studies showcases the typical experience of a product/service.
More case studies enable more specific outreach & marketing efforts overall. The sales team can show relevant case studies to more prospects, and marketing team members can use specific case studies in targeted outreach.
Stay Tuned: Next week we’ll dive into which type of content is most credible with prospects & more about the voice of the customer.
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