B2B marketers are more effective at content marketing, using more tactics and distributing content on more social networks

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A new study from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, and sponsored by Brightcove (NASDAQ: BCOV), shows that B2B marketers are increasingly using content marketing and distributing content across more social networks to help increase awareness and website conversions. The study shows that 93% of B2B organizations are marketing to customers and prospects with a range of content-based tactics and 73% are producing more content than they did one year ago. The success of these content marketing efforts is also growing, with 42% of B2B marketers indicating they are more effective at content marketing versus 36% last year.

"Heading into 2014, many B2B marketers are feeling more confident than ever about the effectiveness of their content marketing strategies," said Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute and author of Epic Content Marketing. "Though the industry is still in the early adoption phase of content marketing, it's clear that many are seeing success and are continuing to increase their tactics and devote more resources, and budgets, to producing great content experiences."

According to the study, B2B marketers are using an average of 13 content marketing tactics (up from 12 last year), including social media (excluding blogs -- 87%), articles on a company's website (81%), eNewsletters (80%), blogs (76%), in-person events (76%), case studies (73%) and videos (73%). Infographics saw the largest year-over-year increase in usage, with 51% of B2B marketers using infographics this year versus 38% last year.

B2B marketers are also using social media more frequently than last year, using an average of 6 social platforms, up from an average of 5 last year. The most popular channels include LinkedIn (91%), Twitter (85%), Facebook (81%) and YouTube (73%). Social media platforms with the biggest increase year over year include SlideShare, Google+ and Instagram.

Other interesting findings from the report include:

• Brand awareness is the top organizational goal for B2B content marketing, followed by lead generation and customer acquisition.
• Web traffic and sales lead quality maintained their position as the top content marketing metrics for the third consecutive year. Over the last four years, direct sales have consistently decreased in importance as a measurement criteria for B2B marketers.
• 58% of B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget over the next 12 months versus 54% last year.
• On average, 30% of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing, down slightly from 33% last year.

"It's exciting to see how quickly content, and the ability to distribute that content to audiences via social channels, has grown in significance for B2B marketers," said Steve Rotter, vice president of marketing at Brightcove. "Content marketing, and particularly video, helps brands to drive more demand, increase conversion rates and generate a higher return on their marketing investments."

B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends -- North America reports on the findings gathered from the fourth annual content marketing survey conducted by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs about content marketing in the B2B space. The research was sponsored by Brightcove. More than 1,200 B2B marketers in North America from diverse industries and a wide range of company sizes responded to the survey in July and August 2013. Download the full report today.

About the Content Marketing Institute:
The Content Marketing Institute is the leading global content marketing education and training organization. CMI teaches enterprise brands how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multi-channel storytelling. CMI's Content Marketing World, the largest content marketing-focused event, is held every September, and Content Marketing World Sydney, every March. CMI also produces the quarterly magazine Chief Content Officer, and provides strategic consulting and content marketing research for some of the best-known brands in the world. CMI is a 2012 and 2013 Inc. 500 company.

About MarketingProfs:
MarketingProfs (www.marketingprofs.com) is a marketing education and training company that offers actionable know-how designed to make you a smarter marketer. More than 600,000 MarketingProfs members rely on our free daily publications, virtual conferences, and more to stay up-to-date on the most important trends in marketing—and how to apply them to their businesses.

About Brightcove
Brightcove Inc. (NASDAQ: BCOV), a leading global provider of cloud services for video, offers a family of products that revolutionize the way organizations deliver video experiences. The company's products include Video Cloud, the market-leading online video platform and Zencoder, a leading cloud-based media processing service and HTML5 video player technology provider. Brightcove has more than 6,300 customers in over 65 countries that rely on Brightcove cloud content services to build and operate video experiences across PCs, smartphones, tablets and connected TVs. For more information, visit http://www.brightcove.com.

This press release may include forward-looking statements regarding anticipated objectives, growth and/or expected product and service developments or enhancements. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of the following words (among others): "believes," "expects," "may," "will," "plan," "should" or "anticipates," or comparable words and their negatives. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees but are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the expectations contained in these statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K. Brightcove assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release in the event of changing circumstances or otherwise, and such statements are current only as of the date they are made.

InkHouse for Brightcove
Lisa van der Pool, 781-966-4142
lvanderpool@inkhouse.com

Source: Brightcove Inc.

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