Global Content Survey Of Brand Marketers & Their B2B Audiences

The Economist Group MISSING THE MARK: GLOBAL CONTENT SURVEY OF BRAND MARKETERS AND THEIR B2B AUDIENCES Business Executives to Marketers: Stop Marketing We surveyed 500 global business executives about what they are looking for from content providers and 500 global marketers about how they are building their content strategy. 01 GLOBAL BUSINESS EXECUTIVES ARE SEEKING SUBSTANCE WHILE COMPANIES ARE LARGELY STILL MARKETING of global business executives said that the primary purpose for seeking business content is researching a business idea 75% of marketers said they connect their content directly to a product or service 93% GLOBAL DECISION MAKERS JUDGE SUCCESS OF CONTENT ON ITS 02 DISTINCTIVENESS WHILE MARKETERS JUDGE SUCCESS ON SALES GLOBAL BUSINESS EXECUTIVES UNIMPRESSED BY CONTENT WHEN IT'S TOO SELF-SERVING 67% 71% of executives said content that contained timely or unique information had a meaningful impact on their perceptions of a brand said the content they didn't like seemed more like a sales pitch than valuable information MARKETERS THEMSELVES SITE A DISCONNECT BETWEEN THEIR GOALS AND HOW THEY MEASURE SUCCESS 85% 70% of marketers said they create content primarily to build brand awareness of brands said they measure the effectiveness of their content by calls from customers and prospects 03 EXECUTIVES DECIDEDLY OLD SCHOOL WHEN IT COMES TO BUSINESS CONTENT TEXT STILL RULES 85% 78% of executives report preferring text over video and audio when making business decisions report using their laptop or desktop to view content most frequently 5% 7% said that yideos were helpful reported using a smartphone prominently for content consumption AS DOES SEARCH 63% 30% of business executives said they use online search as a primary of companies use SEO or SEM tool to find content CONTENT CREATION NEEDS TO BE A HOLISTIC, COLLABORATIVE EFFORT 04 CONTENT CREATORS ARE LOOKING TO INCLUDE THEIR C-SUITE IN THEIR CONTENT STRATEGY 65% 51% 34% said they involve C-level involve communications involve public relations executives executives executives 31% 63% said it is "highly understood and integrated" of brands felt their content strategy is understood and integrated throughout the organization MARKETERS ARE STILL STRUGGLING WITH HOW TO JUSTIFY THEIR INVESTMENT IN CONTENT of companies feel they aren't getting sufficient ROI for their content 40% **** don't feel they even have sufficient metrics to measure content ROI 33% Doveloped in association with FLAGSHIP peppercomm