We’re not short of options when it comes to content marketing research – you just need to know where to look.

And, when it comes to sheer authority, few have achieved more esteemed research status than the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

Founded in 2011 by Joe Pulizzi, this organisation regularly publishes new insights that cause content marketers to take note.

Key stats from the latest content marketing research

So, today, we’ll take a look at the highlights from the CMI’s most recent set of B2C and B2B content marketing research:

B2C Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends

These are the key findings from CMI’s B2C Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report:

  • B2C content marketing budgets are increasing: 57% expect their content marketing budget to go up during 2019 (with around 30% of those surveyed expecting an increase of 10%+).
  • B2C marketers will spend more on content creation: 56% of marketers that spent more in 2018 chose content creation as their area of focus, with 37% choosing paid content distribution.
  • Loyalty is top-of-mind, but marketers can do more to support retention: 66% of consumers spend more on brands they feel loyalty towards. However, while 81% of B2C marketers are concerned with content creation that builds loyalty, just 52% of marketers used content marketing to build loyalty in 2018, and most marketers focus on top-of-funnel goals (e.g. brand awareness).
  • Investment correlates with successful results: 40% of the organisations with the highest commitment to content marketing report their efforts as ‘extremely’ successful, compared to just 8% with the lowest commitment.
  • Sponsored social media content is the top paid method of content distribution: Of the 68% of B2C marketers who use paid methods, 77% use sponsored content on social media.

B2B Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends

These are the key findings from CMI’s B2B Content Marketing 2019: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report:

  • Benefits of documented strategy made clear: 81% of respondents cited both team alignment and convenient content development as the main advantages.
  • Credibility/trust crucial for success: 96% of the most successful marketers have cultivated trust with their audiences.
  • Marketers aren’t building customer profiles on real info: Just 42% of marketers are conversing with customers in order to create their customer personas.
  • Email marketing and educational content top the charts: 87% of marketers are using the former, while 77% are leveraging the latter to nurture their audience.
  • Persuasion beats a pitch: 90% of top-tier marketers prioritise sharing information over an overt pitch, compared to only 56% of the bottom rung.
  • Content creation spending is up: 56% of marketers cite this as the area in which spending has increased most over the last year.
  • Algorithms causing headaches (still): Marketers ranked changing search algorithms (61%) and social media algorithms (45%) as the most pressing issues of importance.

If all this has you interested, why not dive headlong into both pieces of content marketing research to see what else you discover?