Let's explore the landscape for Content Marketing in 2020. We'll cover strategies, best practices, top trends, and interesting statistics that are impacting how B2B and B2C businesses are using content marketing to fuel growth and improve customer relationships. According to the Content Marketing Trend Study 2020 conducted by Statista, more than half of companies would like to see more effective planning in content marketing and nearly half say they need to improve processes.
Content marketing is essential for supporting key marketing strategies. 85% of B2B and 80% of B2C businesses use content marketing to boost the brand and its image. Over 75% of all respondents report using content marketing to improve customer acquisition. While, over half say they use content marketing to increase customer retention as well.
B2B and B2C businesses use content marketing differently in terms of frequency, format, and channels. For example, B2C companies publish content more frequently than B2B businesses; while, B2B companies use whitepapers over three times more than their B2C counterparts. However, almost three-quarters of all companies would like to use video in the future. Finally, personalized content is one of the most important topics for both B2B and B2C fields, with over 81% of all businesses reporting that it is crucial.
In terms of channels, Facebook takes the lead as the top channel preferred by B2C businesses, while LinkedIn takes the lead as the top channel preferred by B2B companies.
Here are some of the most common content marketing challenges and factors for success for both B2B and B2C businesses.
Here are ten of the top tactics used by the most successful content marketing programs:
Communicating industry news and trends to boost brand image within the market.
Supporting e-mail marketing with newsletters to build subscribers.
Providing exclusive content that is interesting for existing customers and new leads.
Creating personalized content and offers for new and existing customers.
Increasing engagement with the audience with more interactive content.
Use storytelling and target specific audience segments to increase conversions.
Build credibility with social proof like testimonials, ratings, or influencer marketing.
Balance your user experience with achieving your goals. To achieve your goals you have to create smooth user experiences that people enjoy.
Choose the right channels for reaching your audience. Focus more of your budget on outreach on key channels and use other channels to further organic growth.
Bring in other voices to your channels. Share valuable content from other outlets to diversify your content for your audience.
Join in on the conversation. If you have a question or would like to share some of your knowledge on the topic - drop a comment below. Cheers!