This research from the Content Marketing Institute and LinkedIn shows how the continuing popularity of content marketing in business-to-business (B2B) marketing has highlighted common flaws in the way organisations are structured to manage their content marketing.
The report starts by showing how changing buyer behaviour has demanded an increased focus on content marketing since, of prospective buyers:
The report goes on to compare the performance of highly aligned sales and marketing teams with less well aligned teams. Across the board, the highly aligned content marketing and sales teams collaborate far more frequently than the low aligned.
This chart reviews these success factors for alignment around content marketing activities:
The areas where they saw the biggest gaps between the high and low aligned were: How to use the content (81% vs.25%) and when to use the content (79% vs 19%). Success factors suggested to support alignment from this chart are:
The report also considers broader issues of sales and marketing alignment that we consider in our sales and marketing integration guide including goal setting, lead profiling and scoring and measurement.
By Dave Chaffey
Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.
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