The study, 'Content Marketing: Puncturing the Hype and Getting Practical', found that of the 82% of organisations with a content marketing strategy, over 90% see it having a significant business impact through increasing web traffic and sales leads.
Key findings
The report also reveals that businesses are setting metrics to track success and prove the value of good content. Over three quarters (83%) measure the effectiveness of content through web traffic, while 63% measure through media coverage and just over half (53%) through click analysis.
Ricardo Adame, corporate vice president of global communications at AVG Technologies, commented, "Measurement has always been key to demonstrating success of communications and marketing programmes, but I would argue that particularly for content marketing there is an opportunity to be even more accurate. By defining our metrics carefully and building in additional measures to provide context, a detailed picture is created that enables us to measure the ROI after a campaign has completed and adjust our approach during its lifespan to achieve maximum impact."
Chris Talago, executive VP and GM EMEA at Waggener Edstrom, said, "Content marketing offers a way to engage your audiences and proves your business' worth as a trusted source of information. It has had a transformative effect on the way brands reach and retain their customers, but with so many voices, getting to grips with content marketing best practice is not easy. Our research suggests that businesses are starting to understand the potential ROI content marketing can generate, but before this impact is fully realised, factors including budget and staffing need to be addressed."
The full results of the content marketing survey can be found here. The South Africa sample included responses from members of Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA).