By: Emarketer | Tuesday, April 24 2012
Print, websites
and email remain top content marketing formats
Companies have long emphasized the role of content for providing
customers and prospects with useful information and meaningful insight, and the
rise of digital distribution and production channels over past years has
certainly propelled content marketing to new heights and investments.
According to a March 2012 report from ContentWise and the Custom Content Council,
North American marketers spent $40.2 billion to produce and distribute content
marketing last year, up slightly from $40.1 billion in 2010.
Keeping with tradition, print garnered the majority of budgets
(58.7%) in 2011. Investment in electronic content formats, such as websites and
email, were down slightly, yet spending on other forms of content
marketing—which includes events and video—rose 44.4%.
Companies’ interest in content marketing is a growing trend. Not
surprisingly, Custom Content Council and ContentWise found 52% of North
American companies used video for content marketing in 2011, a number that has
increased sharply since 2009, when it accounted for only 37% of North American
marketers’ content investment. Websites and emails remained the most common
digital content marketing formats, used by 82% and 71% of companies,
respectively, in 2011.
Since 2009, web and email have quickly closed in on print usage.
That year, 91% of North American companies used print, compared to 77% that
used websites and 66% that used email. The cost-efficiency of producing and
distributing digital content—coupled with the ever-increasing amount of time
the US population spends consuming digital media—are two factors driving
greater adoption of electronic content marketing formats.
A good portion (35%) of North American companies planned to
invest more in website content this year, with an even larger percentage (54%)
expecting to do so with video. Email appears to remain a tried-and-true content
marketing tactic, and most marketers are already comfortable with their level
of investment: just 15% plan to do more with email. The vast majority plan to
keep email investment as is.
Read the original article here.