Knowing your marketing landscape is critical to your product marketing success. That’s why Media Relations Agency has once again compiled statistics and trends to help you make smarter decisions about your 2024 content marketing budget and strategy.
2024 content marketing overview
Two things stood out as we reviewed what the experts had to say.
1.There is a strong emphasis on becoming a trusted resource and thought leader.
I wrote more about this in my October 2023 blog. When people consistently find value in your content, they are more likely to come to you first when it’s time to buy. Think in terms of growing your fan base, not just having more followers.
2. In a lean economy, don’t go dark if you can keep spending.
This advice comes from HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report, and it’s worth sharing in its entirety. It states: “A general marketing principle dictates that market share (SOM) tends to strongly correlate with share of voice (SOV — the percentage of promotional expenditure spent by the brand).
Specifically where a brand SOV is higher than SOM, the brand market share tends to grow, and the opposite is valid. If SOV falls below the brand’s SOM, then market share is likely to fall over the year following. The principle is valid in both B2C and B2B.
In times of recession, just keeping promotional spend flat will put your brand in a dominant position. As an example, if all the companies in your category cut their promotional spend in half, suddenly your budget that was 10% of the total share of voice now doubles to 20% as a result.
Therefore, cutting the marketing budget during a recession is a risky strategy. It may provide some short-term relief, but the subsequent loss of market share that follows will be extremely difficult to regain when the crisis is over and during the recovery.”
How does your budget compare?
- 48% of B2B marketers say less than 10% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.1
- 45% of B2B marketers expect their 2024 content marketing budget to increase over 2023.1
The most commonly cited challenges
Two of the most frequently cited challenges are creating the right content and creating content consistently.1
- 30% of respondents say they have trouble creating enough content to keep up with external demand.1
What type of content will be most popular in 2024?
- 30% of marketers are creating content that reflects their brand’s values.2
Content that prioritizes your brand’s humanity will resonate strongly with today’s consumers, especially Millennials and Gen Z. Sharing your sense of purpose will go a long way toward creating awareness of your brand and nurturing loyalty.
There will also be a strong focus on SEO. Internet Live Stats reports that on average, Google now processes more than 40,000 search queries per second. With SEO’s low upfront cost and high success rates, marketers see it as one of the best ROI values.
Selecting the right channels for your 2024 content
It comes as no surprise that social media will continue to play an important role in 2024 product marketing. DataPortal.com reports the number of social media users is growing at a rate of 9.6 users per second.
Where should you distribute your content?
- 90% of B2B marketers use social media platforms, followed by blogs (79%), email newsletters (73%), email (66%), in-person events (56%), and webinars (56%).1
- 84% of B2B marketers chose LinkedIn as their favorite social media platform.1
- 86% use paid content distribution channels such as social media advertising, promoted posts and pay per click ads.1
Per HubSpot, the content types with the highest reported ROI include:
- Blogs
- Videos (the popularity of which grew significantly this year)
- Social media shopping tools
What about Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Undoubtedly, AI has been leading content marketing conversations and will likely continue to do so in 2024. However, this is still uncharted territory. Marketers are striving to learn how best to use this tool and overcome its inherent limitations.
For now, about half of B2B marketers (51%) are using generative AI to brainstorm new content topics. About 45% also use it as a free tool for researching headlines and keywords.1
More advanced, tech-savvy digital marketers, such as Media Relations Agency’s certified marketing pros, have a handle on maximizing AI’s value for our clients. If there’s a way to use it for your benefit, we’ll find it!
Keeping up with the trends is one essential way in which Media Relations Agency works to help our clients’ messages rise above the chatter, earn the trust of their prospective buyers and become industry thought leaders. We want to drive more awareness of your products.
Call us at 952-697-5269 or use this form to get a proposal.
- Content Marketing Institute
- HubSpot
