More traffic, more sales. There are tons and tons of strategies to achieve those goals floating around.
We've all been there: we try something new, but we don't get the results right away. It's around this time that most people throw their arms up in exhaustion and say “this doesn't work.”
And that's what a lot of people have done with content marketing. They “tried it for a while,” but are convinced it “doesn't work.” In fact, around this time last year, most businesses were struggling with their content marketing efforts.
But now, according to the Content Marketing Institute, “62% of B2B marketers in North America say that their organization's overall approach to content marketing has been much more or somewhat more successful.”
The top two reasons for their success are: “doing a better job with content creation (85%) and developing or adjusting their content marketing strategy (72%).”
The folks at CMI have compiled a list of what the top performers are doing differently, and have given us a taste:
Top performers are “all in” with content marketing
As I explored in my opening keynote talk at Content Marketing World — and in this follow-up blog post — one of the biggest differences we see between marketers who are top performers and those who aren’t is level of commitment: 91% of top performers are extremely or very committed to content marketing, compared to 63% of the overall sample and 35% of the bottom performers (those who characterized their overall content marketing approach as minimally or not at all successful).
It’s just like being a parent or a driver: You can’t be “kind of” in and expect positive results. It simply doesn’t work that way. Make content marketing a priority or focus your efforts elsewhere.
Top performers are realistic about what content marketing can achieve — and how long results will take
91% of top performers indicate that their organizations are realistic about what content marketing can achieve, compared to 68% of the overall sample and 41% of bottom performers.
On top of this, 77% of top performers agree that leadership gives them ample time to succeed, compared to 52% of the overall sample and 26% of bottom performers.
Top performers deliver consistently
Just in case you missed one of the previously detailed keys: It’s critical to deliver consistently. Eight-five percent of top performers deliver content consistently, compared to 58% of the overall sample and 32% of bottom performers.
Top performers focus on measurement
Not only do top performers commit, stay realistic, and deliver consistently, they also continuously check on content marketing progress (sounds like the basics of any long-term commitment such as a marriage or even a workout program). Eighty-eight percent of the top performers measure content marketing ROI, compared to 72% of the overall sample and 56% of the bottom performers.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
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