2013: The year lead nurturing took overThree trends that affected B2B technology copywriters

We write marketing content for

lots of top B2B technology

brands

We’re Radix Communications

like Rackspace,

Networks First,Oracle, Tata Consultancy Services and

Spirent

(pleased to meet you)

Coming up

• Content marketing goes mainstream

• Lead nurturing takes off

• Visual content continues to rise

• Predictions for 2014

A lot happened in B2B marketing during 2013, but which trends have really impacted B2B copywriters like us?

From lead nurturing to visual content, a lot has happened since our 2012 look up from the copywriting trenches.

So what changed during 2013?

Content marketing became the new norm...

... and B2B marketers became more confident

with using it.

In the US, 93% of B2B

marketers now use content marketing

(91% in 2012)

Number of different

formats used 13 (12 in 2012)1

1 Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

The adoption

rate of content marketing as a

strategy has steadied

2 B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

This suggests that the number of content formats used by B2B marketers has plateaued, as the increase is only by 1, as opposed to 4 in 2012.2

42% of marketers say they’re effective

at contentmarketing

Compared to 36% in

20123

3 B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

With increased

use has come increased

confidence

In 2013, Radix saw a 50% increase on 2012 in the number

of client content marketing projects

In 2013 we wrote a huge range of content

In 2013, Radix saw increased demand for social media and infographics and decreased demand for blog posts and enewsletters.

Social Media 23.26%

Infographics 15.43%

Blog Posts 10.87%

Video Scripts 10.65%

Account Specific Content 8.26%

eBooks 8.26%

Case Studies 6.09%

White Papers 4.35%

Brochures 2.83%

Datasheets 2.61%

eNewsletters 2.17% Web Copy

2.17%

Advertorial 1.74%

Comic Strips 0.87%

Placed Articles 0.43%

Social Media, 17.26%

Infographics, 14.33%

Blog Posts, 18.24%

Video Scripts, 2.93%

eBooks, 9.45%

Case Studies, 9.45%

White Papers, 1.95%

Brochures, 1.95%

Datasheets, 5.21%

eNewsletters, 11.07%

Ezines, 2.61%

Advertorial, 1.95%

Worksheets, 1.95% Checklists, 1.63%

2012-2013 2011-2012

The range of content used remained mostly unchanged in the wider B2B community - here are the main tactics used in 2013.

B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

And these were the main tactics used in 2012.

Marketing automation has taken off

where 2012 saw our clients only just realising what they could achieve with automation, in 2013

we saw a surge in its use, especially for lead

nurturing.

53% of B2B

marketers are using it4

36.7% are using it for lead

generation and 36.1% to

nurture5

4 Holger Schulze - Marketing Automation Report 20145 Holger Schulze - B2B Content Marketing Trends 2013

How prevalent

is marketing automation?

Radix has seen increased demand for different subject line options as clients bring A/B testing to their email marketing campaigns.

The next step for B2B marketers, now that they are used to their marketing automation systems, is to bring in greater personalisation of content - creating really relevant content for the person who’s received it.

For 71%

of Holger Schulze’s survey

respondents...

6 Holger Schulze - B2B Content Marketing Trends 20137 Holger Schulze - B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

Audience relevance

is now the most important element of effective content

marketing6 Taking the top

spot from ‘compelling

storytelling’ in 20127

In 2013, Radix went from producing no account-specific

content to it making up over 8%

of our output

Visual content explosion

Visual content has continued to increase in

popularity.

But the biggest

increase was infographics,

climbing from 38% to 51% usage8

8 B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

Videos and

infographics continue to be

popular 73% of

marketers who responded to CMI/

MarketingProfs survey use

video

There has been an increase in the use and variety of visual content by Radix’s clients, with videos and infographics being joined by comic strips.

Video script output went from 3% in

2012 to 10.7% in 2013

Infographic

requests climbed from 14%

to 15.4%

Radix almost produced as many video

scripts as it did blog posts in

2013

9 Holger Schulze - B2B Content Marketing Trends 2013

Which is unsurprising when marketers in 2013 were more likely to outsource video creation than any other form of content.9

So what does 2014 hold for B2B copywriters?

There’s still room for plenty of change.

“Now everyone’s on the content marketing bandwagon there’s this huge sea of content out there. So the challenge for marketers is:

how do you still get noticed? I think what we’re going to see in 2014 is content becoming a lot more specific. It’ll be more tailored to

the buyer, and it’ll deal with specific problems the buyer may have. That means creating more content, but each piece will be very

highly targeted – and therefore much more likely to get viewed, downloaded or read by the right person.”

Hyper-specificity will rule

Fiona Campbell-Howes, MD, Radix Communications

“Content marketers will discover that it takes more than publishing content to move the needle.”

Just having content won’t be enough

Ardath Albee, B2B Marketing Strategist, Marketing Interactions, Inc.10

10 Content Marketing Institue - 50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014

Distribution - getting that content to the right person at the right time - will be equally important

“The good news for content providers, is that prices are actually going up in the corporate content market. That’s partly because so

many companies are piling into the space that the only way to stand out is to create exceptional material, and that costs more.”

Marketers will start to realise the value of quality content

Dan Lyons, Marketer, Hubspot 11

11 Hubspot Blog - Contently, Riding Corporate Media Wave, Raises New Funding

“For $1000, Debi gets 50 product descriptions, 20 blog posts, 2 videos and select graphic designs. She agrees that occasionally

it is necessary to retain professionals for high quality content. She can’t churn out high-volume and low-cost content all the time. If the company wants to demonstrate thought leadership, professionally

done content for videos and white papers is necessary.”

Pam Didner, Global Integrated Marketing Manager, Intel12

12 Pam Didner - How many content pieces can you create with $1,000?

Marketers will start to realise the value of quality content

“The pressure of more customers doing their own research further into the buying process will finally force sales and marketing to transform themselves into truly customer-centric cultures that

use data and personalization to deliver valuable, informative and entertaining content.”

Marketing will need to be truly customer focused

Michael Brenner, Vice President Marketing & Content Strategy, SAP13

13 SAP Business Innovation blog - Top Marketing Predictions For 2014

SourcesContent Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

Holger Schulze - Marketing Automation Report 2014

Holger Schulze - B2B Content Marketing Trends 2012

Holger Schulze - B2B Content Marketing Trends 2013

Content Marketing Institue - 50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014Hubspot Blog - Contently, Riding Corporate Media Wave, Raises New Funding

SAP Business Innovation blog - Top Marketing Predictions For 2014Pam Didner - How many content pieces you create with $1,000?

About Radix

Radix is a copywriting agency for the content marketing era. We work with marketers to develop programmes of content that guide customers through every stage of the buying process.

We specialise in the B2B technology sector, with expertise in enterprise hardware and software, networking and electronics.

We’ve written for innovative tech companies large and small, including Fujitsu, GFI, Oracle, Rackspace, Salesforce and Spirent.

We have a monthly podcast that explores trends and issues in B2B technology copywriting. You can listen to it here.