7 Ways B2C Content Marketing is Evolving in 2018

How is B2C content marketing evolving today?

10 years ago, Blendtec’s first “Will it Blend?” video brought in a whopping 6 million views and 385,000 subscribers. These numbers were impressive — but not as impressive as the money the video brought in for the brand: a 700% growth in revenue.

Content marketing isn’t going away. In fact, it’s becoming more and more significant to B2C companies in both brand-building and conversion rates (content marketing budgets are increasing and content is becoming more integral to the sales process)

Content marketing is evolving, but are B2C content marketers evolving with it?

Alongside our B2B study that we released earlier this year, we looked to answer this question by surveying over 300 B2C content marketers from various B2C industries. Here’s what we discovered.

 

1. 45% of B2C Marketers Don’t Target Their Content at All

A lot of B2C brands make the mistake of trying to sell to as many people as possible but the cooker-cutter approach rarely works in any industry – especially when you have a specific product, and that product has a specific customer in mind.

Out of the 300 B2C marketers surveyed, 45% don’t tailor their content to a specific buyer’s persona or stage of the buyer’s journey.

Quality, timing, and relevance are important to how a customer views a brand. So, don’t waste your content: buyer personas and buyer’s journeys are essential to making sure your content makes an impact and invokes a purchase at the right moment.

 

2. 27% of B2C Marketers Don’t Recycle Older Content

Even less frequently than their B2B counterparts, 27% of B2C marketers don’t repurpose older content onto different channels or into different formats. Only 38% “always” or “often” recycled older content.

While B2B marketing is limited in distribution channels (there are fewer businesses than consumers), B2C content marketers are potentially able to reach more people with more channels and in more creative ways.

Here’s a great example of how AmFam repurposed fifty unused home advice resources and distributed them onto different channels.

 

3. 4 out of 10 B2C Content Marketers Don’t Have an Editorial Calendar

With something as basic as an editorial calendar, it’s hard to imagine that not every content marketer has one. Which makes this statistic even more surprising: 4 out of 10 B2C marketers don’t plan out their content in advance.

We don’t need to tell you that planning out your content out is integral to a successful content marketing strategy. And if it’s any more incentive: marketers that document their content strategy consider themselves more effective at content marketing (so, do it!).

 

4. 22% of B2C Marketers Rate Themselves “Poorly” in Mobile Optimization

Consumers spend more than 15 hours a week consuming content on their smartphones, and some of these consumers are even researching when physically in a store. You’re constantly hearing about how mobile is important but now it’s not just important – it’s a necessity.

While 29% of B2C marketers rate themselves “good” in mobile optimization, it’s hard to believe but 22% rate themselves “poorly.”

 

5. B2C Marketers Use Blogs and Videos 3x More Than Any Other Content Type

Unsurprisingly, B2C brands are more likely to use blogs and videos to get the attention of their customers.

Not only is video marketing a growing content medium for brand-building, it’s also affecting bottom lines: marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than marketers who don’t use video.

Consumers want to feel safe, secure and informed throughout the buying process – it makes sense that B2C marketers are using blogs and video to connect with consumers than whitepapers, webinars, or e-books.

 

6. 40% of B2C Marketers Check Out Their Competition Once a Year or Not At All

How can you beat your competitors if you don’t know how they’re selling to your customers? According to our survey, 4 out of 10 B2C marketers rarely or never check out their competitors’ content strategies.

 

7. 38% B2C Content Marketers Rarely Use Data for Their Content Distribution Strategy

Content marketers never want to talk about data (content is an art), but how can you decide what channels to use if you don’t know what works best? An astonishing 38% rarely use data in deciding what distribution channels to use in their strategy.

Knowing what works best for your brand will help you not work harder, but smarter. After all, not all content strategies are equal – test, measure, and tailor it to your brand.

 

B2C Marketers Still Need Help in Targeting The Right Customers

With the changing customer behavior, acquiring customers is proving to be more and more difficult. Instead of the customer coming to you, you need to come to them — connect with the right content at the right time and on the right device. You do that with audience segmentation and data implementation – two things, according to our data, B2C marketers seem to be falling behind in.

Want to compare against B2B content marketers? Get the B2B Content Marketing Trends report here.

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