Infographic: Content Marketing vs. Traditional Advertising

Another infographic gone for good. Alas. But good content below:

Content marketing is starting to rival traditional advertising as a tool for companies to begin relationships with new customers. The following marketing infographic from Marketo outlines some of the new tactics and promotional strategies being used by companies to reach more people online.

To carry out a social media strategy, business are using the following tactics (by percentage): non-blogging social media (79%), article posting (78%), in-person events (62%), e-newsletters (61%), case studies (55%), blogs (51%), white papers (43%), webinars (42%), print magazines (42%), videos (41%), microsites (30%), print newsletters (25%), podcasts (16%), digital magazines (15%), mobile (11%), virtual conferences (11%), and ebooks (9%).

Companies with less than ten employees use, on average, 6 of the above tactics.

Companies use the following social networks to distribute and promote their content: 55% Twitter, 54% Facebook, 51% LinkedIn, 38% YouTube, and 8% other. [Obviously this research was done before Pinterest boomed.]

The biggest challenges facing content marketers include the following:

36% producing engaging content

21% producing enough content

20% budget to produce content

11% lack of top executive buy-in

9% producing a variety of content

Content marketing budgets are growing: 51% of businesses are increasing spending over the next 12 months, 45% are maintaining their current level of spending, and only 2% are planning to decrease their content marketing spending.

Charity Showcase

In celebration of American Heart Month (February) . . . The American Heart Association works to teach people how to identify heart attacks and strokes as well as funds research and treatment for heart disease. Donate via http://www.americanheart.org, or by calling 800-242-8721.

Curator: John Kremer