There was a time when media organizations like TV stations, newspapers and magazines created audiences and marketers bought advertising into those audiences. As mainstream media audiences continue to decline, savvy marketers use content marketing tactics such as blogs, white papers and social media to tell the unique stories of their businesses, showcase themselves as thought leaders and build their own audiences to which they can market.

Joe Pulizzi founded the Content Marketing Institute in 2007 to educate organizations on the benefits and execution of content marketing. Each year, the CMI conducts a survey to gauge the state of content marketing across organizations. Last month, Pulizzi released the results of the 2016 B2B study, which clearly shows how much the discipline has grown, but also the opportunities still present in the practice.

The most striking finding from the survey is that 55 percent of marketers said it is unclear within their organization what an effective or successful content marketing program looks like. So, if you aren't yet using content marketing or don't know if you are doing it right, take heart. You are still in the majority.

Other key findings from the survey include:

  • Approximately one-third of respondents considered themselves in the early stages of content marketing, one-third in the adolescent stage and one-third in the sophisticated/mature stage.

  • B2B marketers allocate 28 percent of their total marketing budget, on average, to content marketing— the same percentage as this year.

  • Lead generation (85 percent) and sales (84 percent) will be the most important goals for B2B content marketers over the next 12 months.

  • Over the past six years, B2B marketers have consistently cited website traffic as their most often used metric. This year, however, we also asked them to rate metrics by importance. The most important metrics are sales lead quality (87 percent), sales (84 percent) and higher conversion rates (82 percent).

  • The most used content marketing tactic is social media, which is used by 93 percent of respondents. Other most-used tactics included case studies (82 percent), blogs (81 percent), e-newsletters (81 percent), in-person events (81 percent) and articles on the company website (79 percent).

The full research results are available from CMI here: B2B Content Marketing 2016.

To learn more about content marketing and how to better use in it your organization, check out CMI's online Getting Started Guide.

Source: Erik Johnson is a frequent blogger and speaker on digital marketing and social media, and was recently named one of the top 100 wine influencers on social media. He is the director of digital marketing at ClubCorp and maintains his personal blog at tabulatubular.wordpress.com. When not fused to the comfy chairs at Starbucks, Johnson is most likely either playing hockey or exploring the wonderful world of wine.