How B2C Budget for Content Marketing on Social Media

Do you have a monthly budget for content marketing on Social Media?

Are you producing Quantity? Quality?

You’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king.” It’s still true today and will likely hold true in 2018 and beyond. B2C content marketing should be a part of your website if it isn’t already.

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.

However, if you don’t do it purposefully, you could end up spinning your wheels.

As content marketing maturity grows, organizations tend to spend more of their total marketing budget on content marketing. Those in the:
• Young/first steps phase spend 19%
• Adolescent phase spend 25%
• Sophisticated/mature phase spend 33%.

While it’s true that content marketing has been a buzzword in recent years, marketers are increasingly recognizing the imperativeness of having a strong content marketing strategy and are starting to funnel more of their resources towards developing one. In this blog post, we break down the key takeaways from the study B2C Content Marketing – 2018 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America.

COMMITMENT TO CONTENT MARKETING IS AT AN ALL TIME HIGH

Content marketing is defined as “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly de ned audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Out of the top performers, (respondents who characterize their organization’s content marketing approach as very successful) 91% stated that their organization is extremely committed to content marketing, 73% stated that their organization’s content marketing is sophisticated or mature, 64% have a documented content strategy.

B2C SUCCESS COMPARED TO A YEAR AGO

A quarter (24%) of those surveyed say their organization’s overall content marketing approach is extremely or very successful; we consider these respondents B2C content marketing top performers.

In marketing, I value quality over quantity, great writing, building an audience over stuffing a pipeline full of so-called prospects. So here are a few of my favorite takeaways from this year’s research:

83% of all B2C content marketers surveyed agree their organization is focused on building audiences (i.e., one or more subscriber bases); that’s an 18% increase from last year. And nearly all—94%—of the top-performing B2C content marketing programs say they are focused on building audiences.

Takeaway: B2C marketers get it: A clearly defined audience is one of the foundations of a successful content program. Without it, content is merely a tiny voice in the wilderness—shivering, alone, friendless.

77% of B2C marketers agree their organization values creativity and craft in content creation and production (compared with 88% of top performers).

Takeaway: Metrics and measurement are important. But the art in marketing is just as important as the science! (Maybe more so.)

B2C PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL MARKETING BUDGET

B2C CONTENT MARKETING BUDGETS WILL INCREASE

B2C marketers spend 26% of their marketing budget on content marketing. While this percentage may seem low, close examination reveals that it doesn’t include paid promotion and amplification, search and/or influencers. It’s likely that these items are included in other areas of marketing.

Roughly a third of B2C content marketers don’t outsource any part of the content marketing process.

37 percent of B2C marketers are increasing their content budgets and putting more effort toward this type of marketing. More companies understand the value of content, both immediate value and long-term, and they’re hiring more and more marketing managers to meet their needs.

To keep up, you need to allocate a bigger chunk of your budget to this type of marketing.

B2C CONTENT MARKETERS ARE AUDIENCE FOCUSED

B2C content marketing is becoming full fledged below-the-line marketing.Unlike branding, content marketing helps businesses to attract an audience, support their pre-purchase information needs, and close sales. Content marketing still incorporates branding elements but it’s not the main focus.

85% of B2C marketers focus their content marketing on building their audience. This is a tactic straight out of Joe Pulizzi’s playbook; he laser-focuses on building his house file.

Owning access to your audience is key. It reduces your distribution cost and is part of your business assets.

68% of B2C marketers create content for their audiences versus their brand. Among best-in-class B2C marketers, this percentage increases to 84% and decreases to 43% for worst-in-class B2C marketers. This makes sense since, at its best, content marketing provide prospects with the information they need to make purchase decisions.

STORYTELLING

Brand storytelling uses a familiar communication format to engage consumers at an emotional level. Rather than just spew facts and figures, storytelling allows you to weave a memorable tale of who your company is, what you do, how you solve problems, want you value and how you engage and contribute to your community and the public in general.

Fast Fact: 65% of people who feel an emotional connection to a brand say its because “they care about people like me”

B2C MARKETING BUDGET FORMULA

So, how much should you spend?

If you’re new to content marketing, consider allocating 25 to 30% of your total marketing budget. The U.S. Small Business Administration recommends companies doing under $5 million a year in sales consider spending 7-8% of gross revenue on marketing and advertising.

So, if you are a small business that does $500,000 in sales per year, your total marketing spend might be $37,500, of which 30% ($11,250) may go to content marketing. This is a conservative estimate, and many businesses can (and do) benefit from scaling these figures considerably. That being said, use this formula to estimate your spend:

[$ annual revenue] x 0.075 x 0.3 = [$ annual content marketing budget]

Do you currently invest in content marketing? If not, what’s kept you from trying it?

mmunity.com/infographics/much-companies-spend-content-marketing-infographic-01825072

5 FACTORS BREAKING YOUR B2C CONTENT MARKETING BUDGET

When you budget, you do so with an ROI in mind. You have to justify the spending and ensure that you do not overspend. A poorly conceived content marketing strategy is often the number one reason that leads to your program not yielding the desired results. Then, in an effort to stop the slide, more money is pumped into it. Before you know it, you have overshot the allocated budget with very little to show for it.

Another reason why businesses cannot stay within the budgets is poor execution of the strategy. Let us take a more detailed look at the factors that can break your B2C content marketing budget.

1. Get in sync. The B2C content marketing exercise should be in sync with your marketing objectives. These could be customer acquisition, customer retention or tapping new markets. Get your articles, videos, social media posts, ebooks, blogs and syndicated content tied in to the overall objective.

2. Keep your eyes open. Not measuring your content marketing performance is akin to driving with a blindfold. You can manage it effectively only if you can measure it. Content that gains traction with your readers deserves to be recognized and its promotion expanded to additional channels, or for a longer term.

3. Know your audience. Targeting the wrong audience is a surefire way to overshoot your budget. It adds to the cost when B2C content marketers engage with the wrong kind of audience and pursue communication. By the time they realize it, they’ve spent time and money that could have been used elsewhere on more productive and profitable activities. This is an area where customer personas are very handy.

4. Staffing. Not having the right people on the job is another factor that can lead to businesses overspending. There are always costs with hiring, but there are other associated costs that are often overlooked. Be sure to consider the costs of training, oversight and damage control if you choose to hire a junior person.

5. Expect to spend on tech. Marketing tools are evolving by the day. Technical upgrades, if not factored into the budget, can cause a spike in the spending. According to a Gartner study, by 2018 the marketing department will be spending more than the IT department on technology. That includes technology for content marketing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Strive for Improving your content.

There’s a lot of boring, useless content being produced these days. We’re all very aware of that (and sick of it). The good news is that content marketing is improving and teams are learning how to create more compelling content and how to achieve more.

Focus on Quality

Whether you’re a seasoned content marketer or just starting to learn about which content marketing strategy to pull into your campaign, now you know how to connect with your customers with targeted B2C content. To make the most of it, use a combination of articles, blog posts, videos, infographics and podcasts, which Blue Glass calls a “multi-channel content marketing strategy.”

That will help you drive engagement and nurture relationships, wherever your target audience happens to be.

We’re only in the first inning of the content marketing game. Expect more improvement, refinement, and sophistication in the years to come, meaning that there’s still time for you and your marketing team to up your game and achieve greater content marketing success.

While content marketing remains a key marketing trend for 2018 and beyond, there’s room to improve your business’s implementation to yield better results.

To this end, document your B2C content marketing strategy starting with your content marketing mission. Then align your content creation with your strategy and other business needs.

In the process, use every opportunity to build your housefile.

Further, continue to focus on the successful content you create that moves your business forward while stopping efforts that utilize more resources than they’re worth.

About Blair

Blair Evan Ball is a Social Media Coach and founder of Prepare1, a company that works with businesses, individuals and non-profits. He is a former executive with a Fortune 50 company, and his national division did $1Billion+ in sales annually.

Blair has written three e-books: Facebook for Business Made Easy, Facebook Pages for Business Made Easy, and WordPress Blog Setup Made Easy.

Blair also educates, trains entrepreneurs and business professionals how to amplify their brand, increase revenues, and raise more funds.

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