According to a study completed earlier this year, small businesses spend a much greater portion of their marketing budgets on content development. Smaller companies (99 employees or fewer) are spending 40% of their marketing budget on content as compared to larger companies spending just 18%. The survey by Junta42 was completed in January, 2010 among 259 marketing professionals.
Here are some additional results:
- According to the survey, content marketing spending comprises 33% of the total marketing budget (up 11% from 2008)
- Smaller companies spend more than 2x that of larger companies on content marketing
- Only 7% of marketers are spending less on content in 2010
- 59% of marketers surveyed plan to increase content marketing spending in 2010, compared with 56% in 2009 and 42% in 2008.
Why the focus on content? Content is how we share our expertise. And we all know that people like to buy from people that know what they are talking about. It is our way to share something of value. A way to start new relationships. A way to embed the right keywords and be found online. Content is the currency that makes social media work, and much less expensive than other forms of marketing.
With the right content and long-tail (more words in a search phrase) keyword strategy, anyone can start to get exposure to large, but high quality niche audiences online. And you can get started with just a computer and an internet connection.
As a company’s content strategy grows over time, there are many applications. The chart below shows the most popular among all respondents from the survey.
So often we stand behind our expertise as though it was a delicacy to be shared with just a chosen few. We should be finding more and more ways to let our expertise be discovered in as many places by as many of the right people as possible. That is the promise of social media. More small businesses need to understand that content these days is a mission critical part of marketing their business.
