B2B marketers recognize the value of content marketing and are committed to making their content marketing strategies work, according to the new report, B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends, released earlier this month by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute.

Among the 1,092 marketers surveyed:

• 90 percent are using content marketing strategies, such as article posting (79 percent), social media –excluding blogs (74 percent), blogs (65 percent), e-newsletters (63 percent), case studies (58 percent) and in-person events (56 percent).
• 60 percent said they will increase spending on content marketing in 2012.

What’s more, outsourcing for content is in on the rise, as well.

This year, more than half (62 percent) of those who participated in the study said they use outsourcing for at least a portion of their content marketing initiatives. In last year’s survey, 52 percent said they used outsourcing.

Why the interest in content marketing strategies? According to the survey results, B2B marketers use content marketing to achieve a variety of different objectives, including: Read more →

Earlier this year, I launched Corporate Writers, LLC, a company that provides a wide range of professional writing services to firms both large and small.

Do you need to fill a gap in your marketing and communications department? Are you feeling overwhelmed with an upcoming deadline for a white paper or by-lined article? Perhaps you can’t keep up with the daily demands of your company blog?

Our team can help.
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Last Wednesday morning, I attended the launch of the Content Revolution Tour in Boston. Listening to C.C. Chapman, co-author of Content Rules, and Becki Dilworth, Vice President of Digital Strategy at Bridgeline Digital, the message was loud and clear:

Social media is here to stay and that means we are on the threshold of an entirely new era in content marketing.
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The corporate blog remains an important internet public relations tool for fast-growing companies in the U.S.

New data from the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth shows that half of the Inc. 500 companies surveyed now have a corporate blog –that’s a steady increase from 45 percent in 2009, 39 percent in 2008 and only 19 percent in 2007.
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Working from a home office has its benefits:

• I schedule my own time.
• Wardrobe costs are low.
• I can multi-task with the occasional load of laundry.

But, there are downsides, too. For me, one of the most significant is this:

• Working at home can get lonely.

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