Content marketing is on the rise internationally
Content marketing is also becoming an increasingly important part of the communication mix in SwitzerlandOn the initiative of the CMF, more than 600 communication and marketing decision-makers from nine countries were surveyed. The second ICMF study was carried out by the Swiss market research institute zehnvier. The nine countries in this year's ICMF study are Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland and the USA.the results and trends to be derived from the 2016 ICMF international survey on content marketing:Increase in budgets for the number one in the communications mixContent marketing is the "new normal" of communication: internationally, content-driven communication already accounts for more than 20 percent of communication budgets, with the USA leading the way at 28 percent. This also highlights the trend: content marketing is continuing to gain ground, albeit at different speeds. Depending on the country, budgets are expected to increase by between 14 and 69 percent by 2020; growth expectations are particularly high in the Eastern European markets of Croatia and Poland. There is also a broad international consensus that content marketing will play an even greater role in the communication mix of the future than it does today.
Content promotion as an undisputed success factorWith regard to the importance of content promotion, i.e. the targeted promotion of content via paid and earned media with the aim of achieving greater attention for own content, there is an international consensus among the respondents: publicizing own content is seen as a success factor in all countries participating in the study. The decision-makers in the companies are of the opinion that greater investment in content promotion will further boost the success of content marketing. It can be deduced from this study result that companies will invest even more in promotion in the future.
Power duo content marketing and advertisingAdvertising and content marketing are often played off against each other - the study paints a different picture: the future does not lie in a battle between content marketing and advertising, but in the optimal integration and coordination of these forms of communication. In this respect, the answers showed a broad international consensus. Content marketing and advertising, if cleverly planned and implemented, are seen as the power duo in communication.
Quality before quantityOne expected result is the uniform international statement that the quality of content is becoming more and more important and that mere quantity is of less and less interest.The big challenge: the organizationIt is often not addressed in the general discussion about content marketing, but is declared as a shortcoming and challenge by the companies in the study: There is a clear need for optimization in the organizational area for many companies - those responsible for communication expect content marketing to be more centralized within the company; this expectation is particularly pronounced in Austria, the USA and Croatia.
Strategy problem childThe answers from all countries were largely consistent in the study: Many companies do not yet have a clear content strategy. Only the USA (59%) has made somewhat more progress in this respect.
