Here are the top content marketing trends in the B2B space for 2020. We look at organic vs. paid distribution and content marketing budgets vs. ROI on content.

1. 2020 B2B CONTENT
MARKETING TRENDS
AND BUDGETS
TOP RATED
Linkedln Twitter
YouTube Instagram
Facebook
95% 86%
53% 46%
83%
TOP RATED
Linkedln Facebook
Instagram YouTube
Twitter
76% 66%
17% 11%
29%
Social Media Advertising/Promoted Posts
Sponsorships
(e.g., booths, workshops, branding)
Search Engine Marketing
(SEM). Pay-Per-Click
Banner Ads Promoting
Your Content (e.g., ebook webinar)
Partner Emails Promoting
Your Content (e.g., ebook, webinar)
Native Advertising/Sponsored Content
(not including social media platforms)
Other
72%
66%
61%
46%
31%
14%
0 20 40 60 80
32%
Fact check our content to
ensure accuracy
Prioritize the audience’s
informational needs over
our sales/promotional message
Craft content based on
specific stages
of the customer journey
95%
92%
81%
88%
66%
50%
74%
48%
26%
0 20 40 60 80 100
Less than $100,000
$100,000 to under $500,000
$500,000 to under $750,000
$750,000 to under $1,000,000
$1,000,000 or more
Unsure
There is no content marketing budget
36%
18%
18%
19%
4%
2%
3%
Most Successful
All Respondents
Least Successful
$272,000
$185,000
$109,000
0 $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000
Large
(1,000 + Employees)
Medium
(100-999 Employees)
Small
(1-99 Employees)
$405,000
$213,000
$81,500
0 $100,000 $200,000 $500,000$300,000 $400,000
Email Engagement
(e.g., open, clicks, downloads)
Website Traffic
(e.g., page views, backlinks)
Website Engagement
(e.g., time spent, bounce rate,
form completions)
Social Media Analytics
(e.g., shares,
followers, views, likes)
Conversions (e.g., traffic to
subscribers, leads to sales
Email Subscriber Numbers
(e.g., growth, unsubscribers)
Search Rankings
Marketing Qualified
Lead Metrics
(e.g., MQLs, SQLs)
90%
88%
86%
83%
78%
64%
51%
49%
100806040200
I want to specially thank the Content Marketing Institute, Marketing
Profs and Sitecore for putting together this report.
Now what are the differences between an organic content
distribution and paid content distribution in the last 12 months of
content marketing?
Organic content distribution includes social media, the organizations
website and blog and email and speaking events. Now there's
notable differences between top performers and all respondents.
Now speaking in events, 70% believe that that's their best organic
content distribution channel, whereas only 63% of all respondents
believed that.
Now there's also guest posting and articles at third-party
publications. Top performers are 63% of all top performers believe
that's a great place to be, whereas only 48% of all respondents noted
that was a great channel.
What are the top social media platforms that B2B content marketers
have used in the past 12 months for organic content? Now, top rated
is LinkedIn followed by Twitter and Facebook.
Now what about paid content distribution? B2B marketers have
used in the past 12 months that includes social media advertising
and promoted post with 72% of the surveyors saying that social
media advertising is what they use. What are the best paid social
media platforms for content marketing? The top rated is LinkedIn,
followed by Facebook and Twitter.
Now, what are part of the processes that content marketers are
using to get their content in line with internal standards? 95% of the
most successful marketers, fat check their content, ensure accuracy,
and 88% prioritize the audiences information needs over sales and
promotional messages. What's interesting is 74% of the most
successful content marketers craft content based on specific stages
of the customer journey, which is great. I wonder how many of that
dovetails with having a documented content marketing strategy.
No, let's think about budgets and ROI. Roughly 36% spend less than
a $100,000 on B2B content marketing. 19% spend between $100,000
to $500,000. Now on average, the most successful companies
spend $272,000 on content marketing on average. That does not
always align with the size of organization.
For example, large employers with a thousand plus employees
spend a $405,000 on average on content marketing. Whereas
medium size employers, roughly 100 to 999 employees spend
$213,000 on average. Small employers, between one to 99
employees spend $81,500 annually on content marketing.
And does your B2B organization measure content marketing ROI?
That's pretty unfortunate that 43% say yes and 44% say no. So it's
important to measure your content marketing ROI and justify the
budget in your marketing spend for content marketing.
What's important to be able to have a system to track when you
have an inbound lead that looks at your website and downloads a
white paper all the way to them becoming a customer. That way you
can track how, how long it takes them in the buyer journey one, and
how much that lead is worth. Then, you can back out your marketing
budget based on the number of leads you want to get.
Now, what are exactly are the metrics that a B2B marketers are
using to track their ROI? The top three are email engagement,
website traffic, and website engagement.
It’s interesting is that only 49% of B2B marketers are tracking
marketing qualified lead metrics such as MQLs and SQLs. That
number should be higher to understand the ROI on content
marketing spend.
Now where do the KPIs stand? So does your B2B organization use
metrics to measure content performance? Luckily, 80% say yes.
Organic vs. Paid Content Distribution
Processes B2B Content Marketers Have
Budgets and ROI on Content Marketing
Organic Content Distribution Channels
B2B Marketers Used in Last 12 Months
Organic Social Media Platforms
B2B Content Marketers Used
in Last 12 Months
Notable Differences Between
Top Performers and All Respondents
(B2B Use of Organic Content
Distribution Channels)
Social Media
Speaking/Events 70%
63%
Media/Influencer
Relations
46%
34%
Guest Posts/Articles in
Third-Party Publications
63%
48%
Their Organization's
Website/Blog
Email
Speaking/Events
Guest Posts/Articles in
Third-Party Publications
Media/Influencer
Relations
Other
91%
89%
87%
63%
48%
34%
15%
0 20 40 60 80 100
0 20
Top Performers
40 60 80
Base: B2B content marketer. Aided List; multiple responses permitted.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Base: B2B content marketer whose organization used organic social to distribute content in the last 12 months.
Aided list; multiple responses permitted.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
All Respondents
Other content types used in last 12 months:
Medium (11%); Pinterest (10%);
Quora (5%); Reddit (5%);
Snapchat (3%); and Other (7%).
Paid Social Media Platforms
B2B Content Marketers
Used in Last 12 Months
Paid Content Distribution
Channel B2B Marketers
Used in Last 12 Months
2019 Annual Budget for
B2B Content Marketing (Average)
(All Respondents)
Does Your B2B Organization
Use Metrics to Measure
Content Performance?
2019 Annual Budget for
BIB Content Marketing (Average)
(By Content Marketing Success Level)
2019 Annual Budget for
BIB Content Marketing (Average)
(By Company Size)
Concepts BIB Marketers
Always/Frequently Take Into Account
While Creating Content
For Their Organization
Base: B2B content marketer whose organization used paid social to distribute in the last 12 months.
Aided list; multiple responses permitted.
Note: 16% of respondents indicated their organization did not use paid distribution channels in the last 12 months.
Base: B2B content marketer whose organization used at least one paid distribution channel in the last 12 months.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Note: Slight decrease is defined here as a decrease of 2 to 7 percentage points.
Base: B2B content marketer who answered each concept.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Note: Marketers who reported their organization has no content marketing budget were not asked to specify
If the expenditures come from a general marketing or other fund. The survey did not specify whether to include
content marketing salaries, nor did it ask respondents to break out areas of content marketing spend.
Base: B2B content marketers. Aided list.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Base: B2B content marketers.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Base: B2B content marketers whose organization uses metrics to measure content performance.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Base: B2B content marketers whose organization uses metrics to measure content performance.
Aided list; multiple responses permitted.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Base: B2B content marketers whose organization uses metrics to measure content performance.
2020 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Other paid social used in last 12 months:
Pinterest (2%); Snapchat (2%); Medium (2%);
Reddit (1%); Quora (1%); and Other (5%).
Most Successful All Respondents Least Successful
80%
6%
14%
Yes
No
Unsure
Did Your B2B Organization Establish
KPIs to Measure Content Marketing
Initiatives in the Last 12 Months?
Metrics B2B Marketers Tracked to
Measure Content Performance
in Last 12 Months (Top 8)
65%
27%
8%
Yes
No
Unsure
Does Your B2B Organization
Measure Content Marketing ROI
44%
43%
13%
Yes
No
Unsure