The Big Content Spend: How & Where Are Brands Placing Their Content Budgets (Infographic)

by Julia McCoy | Aug 17, 2015 | Infographics

In today’s infographic, we’re taking a look at just how big of an investment companies are putting into content marketing this year. What kind of brands believe in content, and invest in it as a major form of marketing? What kind of investments are being made? With numbers in the billions, the findings may (or may not) surprise you. Read, enjoy, share, comment!

Transcript – Revised to Reflect Accurate Budget Statistics 9/1/15

Content Budgets: Why Content Marketing Is A Main Marketing Focus in 2015 And Beyond

Just where are brands putting their money? Content marketing (content budgets exist!). Here are some crazy statistics about the importance of content in the marketing sphere for 2015.

The average per company content marketing budget is more than $1.8 million (annual).
60% of those who have a documented strategy rate themselves highly in terms of content
marketing effectiveness.
27 million pieces of content are shared every day
59% of marketers expect their organization’s content marketing budget to increase spending in the next 12 months for 2015
Marketers invest over 25% of their marketing budget on content marketing
9 out of 10 organizations currently market with content

What Types of Businesses Are Investing in Content Marketing?

Both B2B and B2C are spending a content budget. Here’s more about that.

55% of B2B organizations and 59% of B2C organizations will increase their content marketing budget this year
91% of B2B marketers use content marketing and 70% are increasing the amount of content they create since last year

How Are Big Brands Spending on Content Marketing?

If you don’t think content marketing is important, check out these major brands and the value they place on content.

Coca-Cola now spends more money creating content than on television advertising.
Red Bull employs roughly 135 people for its content marketing & media strategy.
20 community managers and designers create content everyday as part of Nestlé’s digital editorial team.

Why Are We Seeing Such an Increase in Content Marketing Investments?

Because people finally realize it’s vital to a great online marketing strategy. Content budgets (and big spends) are happening. Also, see below.

61% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that shares custom content.
35% of Fortune 500 CMOs claim that creating fresh content was their biggest challenge in 2014.
B2B companies find a 67% increase in leads per month when they create content
Content creation is considered the most effective SEO practice.
64% of people say the customer experience is more important than price in their choice of a brand.

4 Signs You May Need to Increase Your Content Marketing Budget

Your content marketing is not effective. B2B marketers who feel they are least effective only allocate 16% of their budget to content. Marketers who rate themselves to be most effective assign 37% of their budget to content.
You don’t focus on hiring talent. In the next year, 56% of leading business bloggers plan to hire additional resources.
You’re not frequently and consistently producing fresh content. 77% of marketers report that they plan to increase content production in the next year.
The quality of your content is damaging your ROI. 31% of marketers claim that they need to improve the quality of their content.

And…

7 Steps To Guide You To Invest in Effective Content Marketing

Hire writers first. Most marketers, when initially entering into content marketing, invest first in a writer.
Work with talented writers. The top 3 reason people choose to follow brands on social media is that they share content that is interesting to the reader.
Outsource qualified writers. 62% of companies outsource their content marketing to create consistent, quality content.
Invest in an effective strategy. 48% of B2B marketers use at least one content marketing strategy. B2C marketers use 12 content marketing tactics on average. A further 35% percent document their strategy and results.
Focus on blogs. Blogs help to give websites on average a whopping 434% more indexed pages, highly effective for SEO.
Become more effective. Only 32 % of all B2C marketers are effective at content marketing.
Invest in visual content. 82% of companies are prioritizing visual content in their content marketing budget (like infographics).

Resources

Tags: brands investing in content | content budgets | content spend