A research report of 400 marketers' perspectives, priorities and plans for content distribution and content marketing success. Brought to you by 614 Group and OneSpot

1. CONTENT
CLARITY
400 MARKETERS’ PERSPECTIVES, PRIORITIES
AND PLANS FOR CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
AND CONTENT MARKETING SUCCESS
JULY 2014

2. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
FOREWORD
WHAT DO MARKETERS WANT AND EXPECT FROM CONTENT MARKETING?
HOW ARE MARKETERS APPROACHING CONTENT DISTRIBUTION?
HOW ARE MARKETERS BUDGETING AND SPENDING ON CONTENT MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION?
BACKGROUND & METHODOLOGY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
4
6
13
20
25

3. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ONTENT MARKETING HAS TAKEN the
digital marketing world by storm.
With the barriers to content creation and
distribution still falling down all around us,
marketers have set out on a neverending
quest to build their respective publishing and
media empires. But they’re not just publishing
for the sake of publishing. The point of taking
on yet another new discipline in the ever
expanding marketing mix is to make marketing
work better.
This report, based on responses from
more than 400 marketing professionals,
seeks to understand where we are in the
transformational journey to content-centric
marketing. Is content marketing performing?
What values and approaches have been
assigned the highest priority? And specifically,
how well are we doing at getting our content
in front of the right people to drive business
outcomes?
Several notable themes emerge from the data,
but following are the top takeaways:
MARKETERS ARE FAR FROM SATISFIED WITH
THEIR CONTENT MARKETING EFFORTS.
• More than half (54%) of marketers are not satisfied with
their current content marketing efforts.
• Marketers identified driving business results as the
toughest challenge of content marketing.
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION IS HIGH PRIORITY BUT
EARLY IN ITS EVOLUTION.
• Marketers rank Targeting Precision, Reach and KPI
Optimization as the most important attributes of
content distribution.
• Nearly half (47%) of marketers are not satisfied with
their ability to target content distribution to the right
audience.
• 1 in 5 marketers currently are not making use of any
targeting approach for placing their content.
WE’RE STILL IN THE EARLY DAYS OF PAID
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION, BUT SPENDING IS SET
TO INCREASE.
• Less than 60% of marketers are currently using paid
channels for content distribution.
• While Content Creation currently enjoys the greatest
share of content marketing budgets (37% on average),
it’s Content Distribution that will see the biggest increase
in share of budget over the next 12 months
• More than two thirds (69%) of marketers feel that
native advertising is interesting and valuable as a niche
form of advertising, and 22% believe native is where all
advertising is heading.
The full report follows with all the details that
put into perspective the mindset, motivations
and stages of maturity in the context of
content marketing.
C

4. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 4
FOREWORD
HERE IS SIMPLY NO DOUBT THAT
CONTENT—and the exponentially
increasing quantities that every business
produces—will affect the business. As a
recent Google white paper called Return On
Information concluded, the volume of content
and data is growing so fast that it may soon
reach the “too much” stage where at actually
“interferes with productivity rather than
contribute to it”.1
In his 1954 book The Practice Of Management
Peter Drucker concludes that:
“The purpose of business is to create a
customer. The business enterprise has
two and only two functions: marketing
and innovation. Marketing and innovation
produce results. All the rest are costs.
Marketing is the distinguishing, unique
function of the business.”
Somewhere along the digital road we find
ourselves on, that idea seems to have been
lost. In so many cases, Marketing is simply a
service function within the business. Its sole
job to produce ever more voluminous amounts
of content that describes the value of our
brand, or our product or service so that sales
can sell more efficiently, customer support
can service more effectively and all manner
of customer interfaces are simply cleverly
designed.Today, it’s time for marketing reclaim
its ability to create value. Marketing can be
the unique, distinguishing function of the
business—but only if its goal is to create the
value that continually evolves customers from
aware, to interested, to engaged to sold and
then onward to loyal and evangelistic. Content
and experiences—and the business’ ability to
create, manage and promote them—will be
the single most important key to this evolution.
And promotion may be one of the most
important elements of all. As this study you’re
about to read found—content marketers
are both simultaneously frustrated by the
results they’re getting, while recognizing
that traditional paid promotion can help
drive consumption of the content itself. The
marketer’s willingness, freedom and expertise
to promote the value they are creating will
be a critical part of the success of content
marketing. In short: developing valuable
content products may be as, or in some
cases more, valuable than the products and
Robert Rose
Chief Strategist
Content Marketing
Institute
The Marketer’s New Job Is To Create
Value
T
B Y R O B E R T R O S E , C H I E F S T R A T E G I S T , C O N T E N T
M A R K E T I N G I N S T I T U T E
(Continued)

5. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 5
FOREWORD
services they are supporting. Promoting them
with considered investment and care will be
important.
It’s simple: content in marketing isn’t new.
Content Marketing is. Content can be managed
as a strategic asset that it has (or can) become
for enterprises—or it can be an expensive
byproduct that ultimately weighs down a
company as it tries to navigate the broader
disruptions taking place.
As you’ll see in this extraordinarily interesting
study—marketers are hungry for the change
working hard to find the “results” in the early
going of content marketing. Promoting the
value we create will be one critical factor in
finding those results.
1
Return On Information: Improving your ROI with Google Enterprise Search http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/gsa-google-returnoninformation.pdf

6. WHAT DO MARKETERS
WANT AND EXPECT FROM
CONTENT MARKETING?

7. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 7
Brand engagement and lead generation are marketers’ top content marketing objectives, but B2C and B2B marketers
have vastly different agendas.
CONTENT MARKETING OBJECTIVES
Marketers want and expect many outcomes from their
content marketing efforts, but Lead Generation tops the
list, cited by 23% of respondents as the most important
objective. Brand and Product Engagement (20%) and
Thought Leadership (16%) follow closely behind.
TOP CONTENT MARKETING OBJECTIVES
LEAD GENERATION
BRAND ENGAGEMENT
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
BRAND POSITIONING
GENERATING TRAFFIC
CUSTOMER SERVICE
DIRECT SALES
SOMETHING ELSE 1%
9%
10%
11%
11%
16%
20%
23%

8. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 8
THE B2B VS B2C DIVIDE IN CONTENT MARKETING OBJECTIVES
As you might expect the objectives B2C marketers are
focused on differ greatly from those of B2B marketers.
While 28% of B2C marketers name Brand and Product
Engagement as their top content marketing priority, only
9% of B2B marketers put that same objective at the top
of their list. Conversely, 38% of B2B marketers say Lead
Generation is the top objective, while only 11% of B2C
marketers name lead gen as most important.
Top content marketing objectives of consumer brands are very different from those of B2B brands.
B2C B2B
TOP CONTENT MARKETING OBJECTIVES: B2C VS B2B MARKETERS
BRAND
ENGAGEMENT
GENERATING
TRAFFIC
LEAD
GENERATION
CUSTOMER
SERVICE
DIRECT
SALES
BRAND
POSITIONING
THOUGHT
LEADERSHIP
9%
28%
14%
13% 13%
11% 11% 10%
5%
10%
3%
38%
7%
27%

9. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 9
Marketers are performing well in some areas of content marketing, but not so well in others. As a result, more than half
of marketers are not satisfied with their current efforts.
CONTENT’S DISCONTENT
54% of marketers feel that their organizations are falling
either a little short (38%) or well short (15%) of their most
important objectives.
34%
5%
8%
15%
38%
FALLING A
LITTLE SHORT
FALLING
WELL SHORT
EXCEEDING
BY A LITTLE
MEETING THE
OBJECTIVE
FAR
EXCEEDING
MARKETERS MEETING CONTENT MARKETING OBJECTIVES
TYPES OF CONTENT MOST COMMONLY
PUBLISHED BY MARKETERS
1
2
3
4
5
6
BLOGS
VIDEOS
SOCIAL
PHOTOS
CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES
INFOGRAPHICS

10. MORE THAN HALF OF MARKETERS ARE
NOT SATISFIED
WITH THEIR CURRENT
CONTENT MARKETING EFFORTS.
1/2

11. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 11
PERFORMANCE ACROSS CONTENT MARKETING DISCIPLINES
Marketers feel their organizations are performing well in
creating (68% performing well or very well) and sharing
(60%) content, but generally underperforming in driving
business results (66% underperforming or not performing
at all) and measurement (56%).
I have a client that is very successful with social
distribution, house email lists and earned PR. This
success means they don’t go as far as they could with
paid, targeted content distribution.”
Marketers are doing very well in some areas of content marketing but struggling to drive business results.
“
IN THEIR WORDS
— S U R V E Y R E S P O N D E N T
NOT PERFORMING WELL AT ALL
PERFORMING VERY WELL PERFORMING WELL
UNDERPERFORMING
BUSINESS RESULTS
MEASUREMENT
TARGETING
CURATING
DISTRIBUTING
SHARING
CREATING
4% 10%30% 56%
8% 14%36% 42%
10% 6%42% 41%
8% 7%47% 38%
12% 3
3
48% 37%
18% 50% 29%
ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN CONTENT MARKETING DISCIPLINES
12% 445% 40%

12. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 12
“
— S U R V E Y R E S P O N D E N T
Marketers see driving business results as the most challenging aspect of content marketing.
MOST CHALLENGING ASPECT OF CONTENT MARKETING
CONTENT MARKETING CHALLENGES
At 29%, driving business outcomes tops the list of most
challenging aspects of content marketing, while creating
content (25%) and measuring content’s performance (15%)
follow closely behind.
Content distribution and promotion has been a challenge.
We actually removed the blog portion of our website
because having little content or wrong content seemed
worse than not offering it.”
IN THEIR WORDS
BUSINESS RESULTS
CREATION
MEASUREMENT
TARGETING
DISTRIBUTION
CURATION
SHARING
29%
25%
15%
12%
10%
6%
2%

13. HOW ARE MARKETERS
APPROACHING CONTENT
DISTRIBUTION?

14. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 14
When it comes to content distribution and promotion, marketers place the most value on targeting precision, scale and
KPI optimization.
TOP CONTENT DISTRIBUTION FACTORS
HOW MARKETERS RANK IMPORTANCE OF CONTENT DISTRIBUTION ATTRIBUTES65% of marketers ranked targeting as one of the top two
most important attributes in determining distribution
success, with 52% indicating scale or reach and 22%
indicating KPI optimization.
TARGETING PRECISION
SCALE OR REACH
KPI OPTIMIZATION
ANYALYTICS / REPORTING
CONTEXTUAL FIT
FORMAT OF PLACEMENTS
BRAND SAFETY
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

15. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 15
“
— S U R V E Y R E S P O N D E N T
Web properties, social networks and organic search are the most widely used distribution channels with native and
content discovery platforms showing the most room for growth and adoption.
CONTENT DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
MARKETER USAGE OF DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS87% of marketers are using their own websites as a means
to distribute content, while 80% are using social networks
and 76% are relying on organic search. In comparison, only
24% are using publisher native offerings, 18% are using
content discovery/recommendation platforms and a scant
7% cite using in-feed native platforms.
The vast majority of our distribution efforts are all around
earned media - media coverage, syndication and by-
lined columns on some of the most respected sites in our
industry.”
IN THEIR WORDS
OWN WEBSITE
SOCIAL SHARING
ORGANIC SEARCH
NEWSLETTERS
PRESS
PAID SEARCH
DISPLAY MEDIA
CONTRIBUTING
MICROSITE
VIDEO ADS
PUBLISHER NATIVE
CONTENT DISCOVERY
IN FEED PLATFORMS
87%
80%
72%
59%
59%
51%
48%
44%
28%
26%
24%
18%
7%

16. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 16
More than half of marketers have embraced basic content targeting approaches, but only a small minority have explored
use of more sophisticated content targeting methods.
TARGETING CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
USE OF TARGETING APPROACHES FOR CONTENT PLACEMENTThe greatest number of marketers (56%) are targeting
content distribution based on demographics, firmographics
and interests. While only 24% are using behavioral
targeting, and only 22% are using third party data sources
for content targeting. Additionally more than 20% of
marketers indicated not making use of any targeting
approach and that generating traffic and clicks was the
main goal.
DEMOGRAPHICS
SITE PLACEMENT
KEYWORD MATCHING
BEHAVIOR TARGETING
3RD PARTY SOURCES
NO TARGETING
56%
49%
42%
24%
22%
20%

17. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 17
CONTENT TARGETING SATISFACTION
SATISFACTION WITH TARGETING CONTENT FOR DISTRIBUTION
SOMEWHAT
SATISFIED
SOMEWHAT
DISSATISFIED
VERY
DISSATISFIED
VERY
SATISFIED
45%37%
10%
9%
As a result of using mostly basic content targeting
techniques, nearly half of marketers (47%) are dissatisfied
with their ability to distribute content to the right target
audience.
Marketers report mixed levels of satisfaction with their current ability to target content distribution.

18. MARKETERS ARE PURELY FOCUSED ON
TRAFFIC & CLICKS
AND DON’T HAVE A TARGETING APPROACH
FOR PLACING THEIR CONTENT.
1IN
5

19. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 19
Marketers see unique value in native advertising but aren’t betting the farm just yet.
MARKETER ATTITUDES TOWARD NATIVE ADVERTISING
MARKETER ATTITUDES TOWARD NATIVE ADVERTISINGAs one method of content distribution most marketers
(69%) characterize native advertising as a valuable, niche
form of advertising but not necessarily a mainstream ad
offering. 22% of marketers feel that native advertising is
where all online advertising is headed, and 9% feel that
native advertising is a passing fad.
A VALUABLE
NICHE
WHERE ALL
ONLINE
ADVERTISING
IS HEADED
A FAD
SOON TO BE
FORGOTTEN
69%
22%
9%

20. HOW ARE MARKETERS
BUDGETING AND SPENDING
ON CONTENT MARKETING
AND DISTRIBUTION?

21. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 21
Content creation currently gets the greatest share of content marketing budgets.
CONTENT MARKETING BUDGET ALLOCATION
Marketers are spending more on content creation (37%
of budget on average) and distribution (30%) but less on
curation (19%) and measurement (15%).
CREATION
CURATION
MEASUREMENT/
OPTIMIZATION
37%
30%
19%
15%
AVERAGE CONTENT MARKETING BUDGET ALLOCATIONS
DISTRIBUTION

22. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 22
Over the next 12 months, content distribution will be the most common spending growth area within content marketing.
Content distrubution is most frequently cited by marketers
(58%) as on the rise within their content budgets, with
measurement/optimization closely following (52%).
CONTENT MARKETING BUDGET CHANGES
ANTICIPATED SHIFTS IN CONTENT MARKETING BUDGETS
OVER NEXT 12 MONTHS
INCREASE SOMEWHAT DECREASE SIGNIFICANTLY
DECREASE SOMEWHAT
STAY ABOUT THE SAME
INCREASE SIGNIFICANTLY
DISTRUBUTION/PROMOTION
MEASUREMENT/OPTIMIZATION
CREATION/PROCUREMENT
CURATION 27% 3
5%
58%
10% 48%
39%
46%
36%
30%
16% 43%
12% 40%
1
11
12

23. OF MARKETERS PLAN TO INCREASE THEIR PAID
CONTENT DISTRUBUTION
BUDGETS IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS.
58
%

24. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 24
Use of paid distribution channels for content is significantly less common than use of earned and owned channels.
Only 60% of marketers are using paid channels to promote
their content, compared with 77% and 87% using earned
and owned channels respectively.
AVERAGE CONTENT DISTRIBUTION BUDGET ALLOCATION FOR PAID,
EARNED AND OWNED PROMOTION CHANNELS
USE OF PAID, EARNED AND OWNED CHANNELS FOR DISTRIBUTION
USE OF PAID, EARNED AND OWNED CHANNELS FOR CONTENT DISTRIBUTION
OWNED CHANNELS
EARNED CHANNELS
PAID CHANNELS
NONE OF THE ABOVE 3%
60%
77%
87%
EARNED
CHANNELS
OWNED
CHANNELS
PAID
CHANNELS
25%
31%
44%

25. BACKGROUND &
METHODOLOGY

26. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 26
21%
BACKGROUND & METHODOLOGY
The Content Clarity study was conducted by OneSpot and
The 614 Group during May and June 2014. The study is
based on online survey responses from 487 U.S. marketing
professionals from B2C and B2B brands as well as
agencies. Following is a breakdown of respondents by type:
MARKETING ORGANIZATIONS REPRESENTED
LOCATION OF RESPONDENTSAGE OF RESPONDENTS
OTHER B2C BRAND
B2B BRAND
AGENCY
21%
24%
25%
30%
60+
45–60
18–29
30-44
10%
24%
30%
35%
PACIFIC
NEW
ENGLAND
MID
ATLANTIC
SOUTH
ATLANTIC
14%
7%
14%
20%SOUTHWEST
SOUTHEAST
NORTHEAST
CENTRAL
NORTHWEST
CENTRALMOUNTAIN
10%
5%
16%9%
6%

27. CONTENT CLARITY JULY 2014 27
ABOUT ONESPOT
OneSpot helps brands build audiences
and drive business results from content.
Offering the only platform that combines
content marketing with the scale and data
intelligence of the existing online advertising
ecosystem, OneSpot helps brands make their
content work harder and smarter. For more
information visit www.onespot.com
ABOUT THE 614 GROUP
614 Group empowers companies to optimize
digital marketing efforts and grow revenue by
implementing measurable results solutions.
614 Group focuses on four practice areas:
content monetization and revenue strategy,
brand safety, technology and digital systems
integration and corporate strategy. For more
information visit www.614group.com