Where Is Content Marketing Headed in 2014? [INFOGRAPHIC]

As the year 2013 comes to an end, marketing experts and internet professionals are taking a look forward to what the marketing terrain will be like in the year 2014, especially in the area of content marketing.

2013 has experienced a lot of innovative changes as far as marketing is concerned. There were a whole lot of new tools and conventions to deal with. But in all of these content marketing stood out! Today, content marketing is not just a buzz word but something that every business now takes as a MUST.

For example, in a recent survey conducted by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute, it was revealed that 93% B2B organizations now use content-based tactics for their marketing campaigns while 73% indicated they now produce more content than the previous year!

These are not mean figures. They are definitely an indication of what to expect in content marketing trends for 2014. The following infographic from Uberflip gives a concise view of what the trends will be like in content marketing in 2014.

So, whether you are a B2B or B2C business and you are among those who intent drive out-standing results for your content marketing spend in  2014 then you need to study this infographic very carefully because you will definitely get something from it!

Enjoy!

So, how are you preparing to make good use of what the experts say about the content marketing in 2014?

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18 Growing B2B Content Marketing Trends to Share

Every year the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs collaborate on a content marketing survey of B2B marketers. This year’s results are based on responses from 1,416 North American B2B marketers from all industries and all size companies. And just like last year, the adoption of content marketing and the sharing of it using social media continues to grow. We have selected some key data points from the survey and listed them for you below, complete with buttons to share on Twitter and LinkedIn. The complete study is embedded at the end of this post.

1. 91% of B2B Marketers use content marketing  

2. 87% of B2B Marketers use social media to distribute their content  

3. 77% of B2B Marketers use blogs as part of their content marketing  

4. 55% of B2B Marketers believe ebooks are an effective marketing tactic  

5. 83% of B2B Marketers use LinkedIn to distribute their content  

6. 80% of B2B Marketers use Twitter to distribute their content  

7. 80% of B2B Marketers use Facebook to distribute their content  

8. 39% of B2B Marketers use Google+ to distribute their content  

9. 23% of B2B Marketers use Slideshare to distribute their content  

10. 79% of B2B Marketers use content marketing for brand awareness  

11. 71% of B2B Marketers use content marketing for lead generation  

12. 54% of B2B Marketers plan to increase spending on content marketing  

13. 33% of B2B Marketing budgets are dedicated to content marketing  

14. 44% of B2B Marketers outsource their content marketing  

15. 59% of B2B Marketers tailor content to the profile of the decision maker  

16. 64% of B2B Marketers are challenged to produce enough content  

17. 52% of B2B Marketers are challenged to produce content that engages  

18. Only 36% of B2B Marketers believe their content marketing is effective  

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What’s the Difference Between an E-Book and a White Paper?'

A client of the sales lead generation firm Find New Customers (and Marketo user) – a software firm in CT, asked me “What’s the difference between white papers and E-books.”

They had white papers they had outsourced in the past, but the term E-book was new and unfamiliar to them. (They were a somewhat junior marketing company.) I explained as best I could the key differences between the two – E-books have shorter length and more graphics, but they still seemed confused. I actually wrote an E-book for them, but I needed a better way to explain the differences. I found it and want to share it with you.

I recently met with Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs at Netprospex at the #marketingbfast and got a copy of her book Content Rules. I’ve read it in the past, but when I opened it,  I found Chapter 13 – What’s the Difference Between an E-book and a White Paper. Bingo!

This chapter has a great chart detailing the differences between an e-book and white paper on page 172 which I wish to share with you (and our client.) I also wish to say that it was nice finally meeting Ann and thanks for another copy of the book.

Here are the key differences at a glance from the book. Buy the book and read it too.

White Papers	E-books
Long and linear – a deep read	Broken into smaller chunks – designed for skimming and scanning
Data centric – often based on formal research	Concept centric – based on ideas and trends of interest
Text-heavy	Visually heavy – main text supplemented with call-outs, bullet lists
Formal – impressive expert speaks to you.	Casual and collegial – a conversation among equals

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