We recently picked up on some research that, while a few months old, came out as a 2012 Content Marketing Report. 
 
The study found nine out of 10 B2B marketers are already on board with content marketing – yet it’s a growing field. The Collective Content view on this is simple: you can have all the channels in the world, all the marketing nous, but you need some substance to get would-be customers properly engaged with you.
 
Top content marketing methods
79% – Articles
74% – Social media (other than blogs)
65% – Blogs
63% – E-newsletters
58% – Case studies
56% – In-person events
52% – Videos
51% – White papers
46% – Webinars
31% – Microsites
31% – Magazines (traditional print)
30% – Traditional media
24% – Research reports
22% – Branded content tools
20% – Print newsletters
16% – E-books
16% – Podcasts
15% – Mobile content
14% – Digital magazines
10% – Virtual conferences
 
Some observations:

Nearly all these areas grew year-on-year. The exception is anything with the word ‘print’ in its name.

Adoption rates, for most of the above tactics, are higher at large companies. But there are notable exceptions eg 78% of medium-sized companies reported using social media but the number was less for large companies at 65%

It was the first year Google+ was an option for respondents – and it was in with a bullet, 13% saying they’re making use of it

Echoing those with the highest follower counts across social media, those marketers who replied saying they use all the above tactics are more likely to consider themselves “effective”.
 
In our upcoming post we’ll be talking about organisations’ main goals for content marketing and criteria used to measure success.
 
The study was based on interviews with 1,092 B2B marketers in August 2011.