80 percent of B2B marketers say they are focused on building audiences through content marketing initiatives. In addition, 78 percent of marketers credit the content creation process while 72 percent cite strategy for increasing their continued success in such initiatives. How do you engage with your prospects, and then how do you convert them? It’s one of the biggest lead gen challenges for today’s marketers. According to Chief Marketer’s “2018 B2B Lead Gen Outlook” report, 58 percent cite engagement as one of the top items on their to-do lists. Among other areas, the survey, conducted among 205 B2B marketing organizations nationwide, researched some of the content approaches marketers are using to move prospects through the funnel. Here’s what it uncovered:

Dare to be different. If you’re not different from the competition, why should customers buy from you?” It’s a question that brands ask themselves a lot. Maybe too much. According to Tomorrow People’s “Dare to be Different: The State of B2B Content Marketing Differentiation” report, only 16 percent of B2B marketers have a formal, documented strategy for differentiation. And while 48 percent have a strategy, it isn’t documented. The report, which queried 172 B2B marketers from around the world, examined the marketers’ primary reasons for differentiating the content that they produce by channel or audience. Here’s a look at the results:

This article appears in the new May/June 2018 issue of Connect magazine published by NextPage, which can be found online here. If you would like a free print subscription to Connect, please click here.