Essential truths about content marketing today

Content marketing is a mammoth, seemingly all-encompassing concept whose definition varies greatly depending upon whom you ask.

Firm figures on the extent of global spending on content marketing aren’t easy to come by. So we pacify ourselves knowing that content marketing is “big” and getting bigger every year.

A bold few try to help our peers get a handle on exactly what’s going on behind the content marketing curtain in terms of priority and spending, and sometimes their insights are not what you might expect.

Let’s look at recent facts and figures:

Quality remains the chief challenge.

Despite the rise in prominence of content marketing, many brand representatives concede they don’t have it all figured out. The challenges mirror those in other marketing areas, but chief among them remains the ability to produce content that audiences value.

According to a survey of brand, agency and media executives commissioned by The Content Council, the biggest challenges confronting content marketing are creating engaging content (63 percent), lack of budget (53 percent), lack of time (50 percent) and proving ROI (49 percent).