fbpx

Long live the king: New report reveals a dramatic increase in marketing content in 2022

by | Sep 28, 2022 | Public Relations

If it was ever a secret that content is king, it seems the cat is out of the bag now. Three in four (76 percent) tech companies are at least doubling their content development efforts year-over-year, and nearly 30 percent of companies are producing three to five times more content than in 2021, new research from integrated comms agency 10Fold reveals.

The firm’s new report, The Role of Content in 2022 for Tech Marketing, is based on an international survey conducted by Sapio Research in the summer of 2022, highlights that marketing execs ranked social media and video as their most effective content.

The survey analyzed the type of content that marketing execs from both B2B and B2C tech companies prefer, how often companies publish content, how frequently content is delivered and how companies evaluate the content they use to deliver their desired outcomes.

Five key takeaways:

Long live the king: New report reveals a dramatic increase in marketing content in 2022

Dramatic increases in content production

The report revealed companies are developing content at a record pace to accelerate business, perhaps to make up for lost revenue from the pandemic. Nearly all respondents reported increasing their volume of content, with a full 74 percent stating they produce one to two times more content than they did in 2021. Nearly 30 percent of companies reported they are developing three to five times more content than last year. Not surprisingly, to keep up with this dramatic increase in content development, 92 percent of respondents secured more budget in 2022.

Long live the king: New report reveals a dramatic increase in marketing content in 2022

Not all content is created equal

The results highlighted bigger investments in social media and video content across all categories of respondents. One-third of the respondents ranked research reports, newsletters, case studies, webinars and brochures as most important types of content. More than 25 percent of the respondents included infographics, animations and blogs as their priority for content. The content used the least (by less than 20 percent of the respondents) included slide shows, eBooks, contributed articles and white papers.

Long live the king: New report reveals a dramatic increase in marketing content in 2022

“Technology companies are understandably pivoting their marketing strategy to accelerate business in a world recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Susan Thomas, CEO of 10Fold, in a news release. “The data is clear: content is increasing in importance. Especially content delivered in easily consumable formats, such as video and social posts. In highly competitive markets, we will see publishing frequency and content volume continue to accelerate to capture the required attention and engagement of target audiences.”

Long live the king: New report reveals a dramatic increase in marketing content in 2022

Third-party resources required

With the historic workforce changes over the past two years, securing staff to deliver on these increasing content demands is a challenge that has impacted development. Only 5 percent of respondents said they create all of their content in-house, highlighting the reliance on third parties. Companies with revenues ranging from $50 million to $500 million, which made up 56 percent of respondents, outsourced 51 percent of their content. Companies rank their outsourced resources highly, with 73 percent of respondents describing third-party content as “above average” or “excellent.”

Long live the king: New report reveals a dramatic increase in marketing content in 2022

Measuring content success and content planning

When respondents were asked how they knew their content was working, most suggested they used Google analytics to track key performance indicators, such as length of stay on key content web pages. Looking at the results by revenue of the company, we found that companies with revenue of $500 million or more rely just as heavily on feedback from the sales team as they rely on analytics. Similarly, when planning content, most companies rely on website analytics and content calendars. However, the largest revenue category also relied on sales feedback to determine content priorities for the future.

Long live the king: New report reveals a dramatic increase in marketing content in 2022

Download the full report here.

The report details how marketers, including both B2B and B2B & B2C companies make decisions about the content they use. 10Fold hired Sapio Research to deploy an online survey to 484 marketing executives with decision-making and budget authority working for B2B or B2B & B2C technology companies in the United States, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. All respondents verified they have decision-making and budget authority. Those technology marketing executives surveyed sell into the services, manufacturing, energy, security, health-tech, and ad-tech industries. Results are accurate to ± 4.5% at 95 percent confidence limits assuming a result of 50 percent.  

Richard Carufel
Richard Carufel is editor of Bulldog Reporter and the Daily ’Dog, one of the web’s leading sources of PR and marketing communications news and opinions. He has been reporting on the PR and communications industry for over 17 years, and has interviewed hundreds of journalists and PR industry leaders. Reach him at richard.carufel@bulldogreporter.com; @BulldogReporter

RECENT ARTICLES