Content Marketing Challenges for SMEs

Posted by Sarah Mitchell on 16 September 2010 | 4 Comments

Tags: content marketing, SME, SMB, B2B

Good marketing campaigns are rife with challenges. Content marketing, in particular, presents the added difficulty of putting you in role of a publisher. Unless you're in the writing and publishing industry, creating great content doesn't always come naturally. A new report out this week from Junta42 and MarketingProfs offers insight. Titled, B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, the survey polled over 1,100 marketers unaware the focus of the study was on content marketing.

Content, Content, Content
I was drawn to the section on challenges. Producing great content and producing enough of it occupy more than half of the marketers responding to the survey. That's no surprise. We all struggle with trying to find a new spin on tired topics, getting the right content to the right people or even anticipating what is going to excite our customers. Over 11% of respondents indicated getting executive buy-in to a content marketing strategy was tough. This is definitely one area where SMEs have an advantage.

Lower Rates of Outsourcing with SMEs
I work with a lot of SME organisations who don't have the luxury of big staffs and budgets. Smaller companies are using content marketing with success and the report bears this out. What it also shows is that SMEs are less likely to outsource their content marketing activities. Companies with less than 100 employees are well under the 50% mark while 77% of large companies outsource some or all of their content marketing. This surprised me. The general perception is bigger organisations have more time and money to spend working "on" their business. The study shows what they're probably doing is working smarter.

Take-Away
First and foremost, download the report. It's the most comprehensive study I've seen on a segment of the marketing industry getting a lot of attention. The B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report isn't theory or philosophy but hard data showing what's working and what's not. Secondly, consider ways you can be more effective in producing the content you want. Working harder doesn't always take you where you need to be. And, yes, this is the voice of experience speaking on that topic.

What challenges are you experiencing in your content marketing strategy?

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