“Finally, we’ve got some benchmarks!” was my overriding thought after reading CMI’s ‘Content Marketing in Australia: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends’ report. It comes at a perfect time too, with the Australian market becoming increasingly subscribed to the idea of content marketing.
After dissecting the information further, I realised that there’s a lot more to this report than just the proof that Australian businesses are seeing results from content marketing. The research throws up some very valuable key insights, too. And, like any piece of research, it throws up a few questions as well.
Without further ado, here are my eight takeouts from the Content Marketing in Australia report:
1. Australians are matching their international counterparts: At last we can see how we’re doing against the other two main segments and we’re doing pretty well, thanks very much. I think the Asian segment will provide us with some more surprises once that area is benchmarked too, so stay tuned.
2. We are ‘into’ content marketing: Across the board, Australian marketers are embracing content marketing (96%) and the value it represents. This is common across both the B2B (98%) and B2C (91%) segments. No major surprises here as we generally consume a fair amount of content, whether it’s news from the traditional media or content from owned assets.
3. Spending is on the up: What’s more interesting is that the majority of marketers are going to increase their spend (61%) and only 2% will decrease it (this number increases to 70% for the B2C segment). I would suggest that the inherent value of the story is resonating with the end consumer, hence the increase in the B2C segment.
4. Outsourcing is okay: Local content marketers have no issue outsourcing their content marketing (on average 57% do so). I think this is a reflection of the local marketers’ trust in agencies as well as the number of freelancers available in the marketplace. One of the by-products of the mass layoffs of journalists by the major media companies is that brands now have access to highly skilled journalists that weren’t available five years ago.
5. Social media is a great content channel: As we’ve always stated, social media is an important component to any content marketing strategy. And Australian marketers agree, with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube the main channels used to distribute the content they have developed. Interestingly, Google+ has already overtaken Pinterest.
6. Measurement, measurement, measurement: There’s no doubt that measurement of content marketing is on the up and website traffic, social sharing and qualitative customer feedback are at the top of the tree in terms of measurement criteria. I believe we’ll see an increase in sales and lead quality in the coming 12 months as a result.
7. There’s bang in the buck: The most effective content marketers use more content marketing tactics, more social media platforms and plan to increase their content spend next year… enough said!
8. Help: The challenges facing local marketers are the same around the world. They can’t produce enough quality content that engages and they don’t have enough money to spend on it. I think as companies see the returns on the content marketing spend this will become less of an issue. Once they start to see these returns, buy-in from senior management will no longer be an issue.
From our end there have been no major surprises – just another opportunity to continue to have a dialogue with current and potential customers. We’ve witnessed all of the above in the past two years but now have the stats to prove what we’ve been saying all along – it’s all about relevant, quality content and measuring what you have.
Craig Hodges
CEO
King Content