Although manufacturers are still significantly behind other B2B businesses, in the latest research report by Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs they showed a marked improvement in those documenting their content marketing strategy, i.e. 31% this year, up from 18% last year. 
But what difference does it really make anyway? If you're vested in content marketing, and are making headway, is a documented content marketing strategy all that important? Well, let's see what the data says.
Of those companies surveyed that characterized their overall content marketing approach as extremely or very successful, 41% had a documented content marketing strategy. While that certainly leaves a lot of room for improvement, by comparison, it's a huge win, as only 8% of those manufacturing firms that characterized their efforts as unsuccessful had a documented content marketing strategy.
As nicely summarized in the report by CMI founder, Joe Pulizzi:
"Other important keys to their increased success over the last year included doing a better job with content creation, making content marketing a greater priority, and spending more time on content marketing.
"While the progress is encouraging, more manufacturing leaders need to make it clear within their organizations what an effective or successful content marketing program looks like. And, perhaps most importantly, they need to more fully commit to content marketing."
Documented Strategy = Success
One of the benefits of a documented content marketing strategy is that it focuses your efforts and helps you solidify your plans. Too often, as with all planning, when we fail to document our intentions, those "best intentions" often fall short. From the same study, I find it interesting that roughly the same percentage of marketers who had documented their strategy (31%) also saw their content marketing efforts significantly improve in effectiveness since last year (30%). Hmmm. Think there might be a correlation there? (Hint: Yep!)
Need Help?
Documenting your content marketing strategy doesn't have to be as daunting as it sounds. A simple process of considering why, who, where, what, how, and when can help you firm up and document your strategy. If you'd like assistance in developing a documented content marketing strategy, please give us a call. We'd love to help. As a top content marketing agency, we've seen excellent results stem from just such a process.
