Navigating work in a big group comes with distinctive challenges, particularly in instances of change.
But one factor stays fixed – communication endures as one of many thorniest points.
So it’s no shock in our newly launched Enterprise Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – Insights for 2023, effectively over half (64%) of enterprise content material markers say speaking amongst inside groups/silos is a problem.
That’s one of many findings from the evaluation of the 278 enterprise entrepreneurs (these working in corporations with at the very least 1,000 staff) who accomplished our annual content material advertising and marketing survey.
64% of enterprise #content marketers say communicating among teams/silos is a challenge, according to @CMIContent #research via @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet
Here’s a snapshot of the content material advertising and marketing practices, challenges, alternatives, and 2023 plans they shared with us.
Common challenges of enterprise content material entrepreneurs
Close in reputation to the inner communication problem is creating content material that appeals to completely different phases of the journey (62%). Among the opposite most often cited challenges of enterprise entrepreneurs: expertise integration (41%), accessing subject material specialists to create content material (38%), reaching consistency with messaging (37%), growing consistency with measurement (37%), and differentiating services and products from the competitors’s (37%). Interestingly, solely 24% say persevering with to make a enterprise case for content material advertising and marketing is a problem (and 1% say they don’t have any challenges.)
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In their open-ended (qualitative) responses, many enterprise content material entrepreneurs informed us they need to see content material advertising and marketing centralized inside their group. Even extra expressed a need to see silos torn down.
Lynn Heidmann, senior director of content material advertising and marketing at Dataiku, discovered an answer at her enterprise. Though the central content material advertising and marketing crew owns content material creation for international advertising and marketing campaigns, it isn’t the one crew producing external-facing content material. Other groups create all content material for companions, prospects, and prospects.
To preserve a constant content material strategy and preserve everybody updated, the central content material advertising and marketing crew shares “lots of best practices [things like central messaging documentation, style guides, etc.] and offer(s) up our time for reviewing other teams’ work, involving them in our workflows where we can try and streamline as much as possible.”
Technology is a matter
Tools and expertise could be an particularly fraught difficulty in enterprises. Buying selections generally takes ages, and options that work effectively for one crew won’t go well with one other.
In a brand new query on the annual survey, we requested entrepreneurs in the event that they thought their group had the fitting expertise to handle content material throughout the group. Only 23% say sure. Nearly a 3rd (31%) say no. Even extra (37%) say they’ve the expertise however aren’t utilizing it to its potential.
Having and utilizing the fitting expertise units top-performing content material entrepreneurs aside. Of those that assume their group is extraordinarily or very profitable with content material advertising and marketing, 38% say they’ve the fitting expertise to handle content material throughout the group in comparison with 23% of all enterprise entrepreneurs.
Enterprise marketers who report being extremely or very successful are more likely than all marketers to have the right tech to manage #content across the organization, according to @CMIContent #research via @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet
That is smart to CMI’s chief technique advisor Robert Rose who not too long ago mentioned, “Any marketing technology worth purchasing involves implementation, training, user learning curve time, and ongoing administration.”
Is tech an answer to all of your content material woe? No. Does that imply it’s not value addressing? Of course not. The first step, Robert advises, is to get your processes so as earlier than looking for the tech to assist them.
“I’ve been advising clients and colleagues to worry less about which new technology will be a must-have for 2023,” he writes. “Instead, work on developing the muscle to evolve content activities into repeatable processes.”
(Read extra of Robert’s recommendation on this Rose-Colored Glasses column, Your 2023 Planning Shouldn’t Be All About That Tech.)
More differentiators of prime performers
Top-performing enterprise entrepreneurs additionally stand other than their friends by at all times/often making their content material completely different. They craft content material primarily based on phases of the client’s journey (72% vs. 47%) and prioritize the viewers’s informational wants over their group’s (81% vs. 61%).
Eighty % of the highest performers say they at all times/often differentiate their content material from the competitors in comparison with 53% of all enterprise entrepreneurs who say the identical.
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How do they do it? Well, the identical methods are hottest among the many prime performers and all entrepreneurs: producing higher high quality content material (86% of prime performers, 85% of all entrepreneurs) and overlaying matters/tales that their rivals don’t (71% for prime performers and all entrepreneurs).
But the highest performers usually tend to do these items than all entrepreneurs:
- Produce extra content material (41% of prime performers vs. 31% of all entrepreneurs)
- Do a greater job distributing content material (38% vs. 29%)
- Promote actively the content material they publish (58% vs. 53%)
Jeff Revilla, digital advertising and marketing director for Smail Auto Group, manages all content material operations for 10 franchises. He says his group differentiates its content material by taking the purchasers on journeys about what they’re most focused on – the autos’ options.
“Most of the content in automotive centers around the dealer screaming, ‘We have inventory’ or ‘Look at these deals!’ We took a different approach. Instead of talking about us, we created a series of videos that take the customer through a journey of the vehicle. We only mention our name in the intro, never talk about price, and only focus on the features that a car owner would care about. Once we figured out that formula, our YouTube growth was exponential.” Since 2008, Smail Auto Group’s YouTube channel has had virtually 2.5 million views.
In-person occasions are again
This pattern doesn’t shock me in any respect – in-person occasions are again. We’ve seen it and took part in it.
Sixty-three % of enterprise entrepreneurs report utilizing in-person occasions this 12 months – that’s 2.5 instances greater than the earlier 12 months’s survey.
Use of in-person events by enterprise marketers jumped 2.5 times this year over last year, according to @CMIContent #research via @EditorStahl. Click To Tweet
In addition, 56% count on their group’s in-person occasion funding to extend in 2023 in contrast with their 2022 funds.
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Having the fitting content material to assist these in-person occasions can prolong the viewers’s expertise and the enterprise’s funding.
Dataiku’s Lynn Heidmann shares that her crew has a hand in shaping the narrative of the model’s occasion content material. “A memorable, well-crafted message on stage is what people come to events for, so that’s what works best, and we try to support that,” she says.
And ensure to capitalize on the occasions for future content material. “We’ve had great success with on-site surveys, which are a great way to collect data that you can reuse in later content pieces,” Lynn says.
Video funding continues to rise
Another discovering everybody (enterprise or not, content material marketer or client) already sees? The use of video.
Among enterprise content material entrepreneurs, using video elevated to 87% from 79% the earlier 12 months, making it the second most frequently used kind of content material. Now it’s second solely to quick articles/posts (89%).
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Among the opposite content material property used within the final 12 months:
- Virtual occasions/webinars/on-line programs (77%)
- Long articles/posts – greater than 1,500 phrases (71%)
- Case research (68%)
- Infographics/charts/dataviz/3D fashions (68%)
- E-books/white papers (64%)
- In-person occasions (63%)
- Podcasts and different audio content material (44%)
- Research studies (42%)
- Livestreaming content material (27%)
- Print magazines or books (23%)
Video additionally tops the listing of predicted content material advertising and marketing investments in 2023, with 83% anticipating to spend cash on video for his or her enterprises.
Among the opposite widespread classes for funding:
- Owned-media property (67%)
- Paid media (67%)
- Events – digital, in-person, hybrid (63%)
- Earned media (53%)
- Social media/neighborhood constructing (53%)
- Getting to know audiences higher (38%)
- User expertise design (36%)
- Audio content material (25%)
- Content applied sciences (20%)
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Video’s place on the prime of the funding listing is sweet information as a result of it’s one of many prime 5 content material property that produced the most effective outcomes for enterprise entrepreneurs within the final 12 months.
Will 2023 be a bumpy experience?
Your crew might develop or shrink. Your funds might rise or fall. Your content material might succeed or wrestle. To handle these shocking and anticipated occasions, use these and the remainder of the findings to get your bearings for the remainder of 2023.
Amy Fair, content material advertising and marketing supervisor at SpyCloud, sums up the 2023 vibe for enterprise and different entrepreneurs fantastically: “I would encourage folks to continue to nurture their networks to ensure they have a robust support system at all times … You never know when you could be impacted, and making sure you have built solid relationships with colleagues who are there for you can be a lifesaver, both literally and figuratively.”
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Cover picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute