Content & Buyer's Journey Benchmark Report

Executive Summary

Content marketing is a brilliant strategy. Organizations of all sizes are recognizing that content is the best way to influence buyers during their journey from need realization to purchase decision. In fact, Demand Metric’s Lead Generation Benchmark Report for 2014 reveals that content marketing is the top area for investment over the next 12 months.

As a strategy, content marketing isn’t new, but it has certainly come into its own as an approach to influence customers across their entire journey. This influence is especially seen at the beginning of the journey, when they are self-educating and out of view of the vendors that could provide them with the solutions they seek. So from an adoption perspective, content marketing is now mainstream, and most organizations have some sort of content initiative in place.

Marketers have witnessed an evolution in content marketing formats. It’s still said that “content is king”, but many marketers are observing growing signs of content fatigue. Even a brilliantly written and beautifully designed white paper must now take its place alongside thousands, even millions of others. Static content is increasingly failing to impress, even if it performs well from an SEO perspective.

Marketers are finding that formats that used to work don’t pull audience interest like they once did. The content clutter that is producing content fatigue is causing marketers to innovate with new forms of content, and the common denominator of what works best is engagement. Any content that stimulates engagement with a member of the target audience is far more effective and influential than content that doesn’t.

In a study sponsored by ion interactive, Demand Metric conducted a survey to explore how effectively marketers are using content to influence the buyer’s journey.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Executive Summary
3. The Buyer's Journey
4. Content Performance
5. Buying Stage Content Effectiveness
6. Content Marketing Problems
7. Analyst Bottom Line
8. Acknowledgements
9. About ion interactive
10. About Demand Metric
11. Appendix - Survey Background

Research Methodology

This Demand Metric Content & the Buyer’s Journey Benchmark Study survey was administered online during the period of May 28, 2014 through June 4, 2014. During this period, 244 responses were collected, 185 of which were complete enough for inclusion in the analysis. The data was analyzed using SPSS to ensure the statistical validity of the findings.

About the Sponsor

ion interactive is a marketing apps platform that generates leads and revenue with engaging, highly interactive, digital marketing experiences that can be created and tested without developers.

ion interactive is used to differentiate brands, increase engagement and improve conversions in content marketing, social marketing, email marketing and advertising campaigns.