B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024 [Research]

Creating standards, guidelines, processes, and workflows for content marketing is not the sexiest job. But setting standards is the only way to know if you can improve anything (with AI or anything else).

Here's the good news: All that nonsexy work frees up time and resources (human and tech) that you can then apply to bring your strategies and plans to life.

But in many organizations, content still isn't treated as a coordinated business function. That's one of the big takeaways from B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Outlook for 2024 research, conducted by Content Marketing Institute with MarketingProfs and sponsored by Brightspot.

A few symptoms of that reality showed up in the research:

Marketers cite a lack of resources as a top situational challenge, the same as they did the previous year.
Nearly three-quarters (72%) say they use generative AI, but 61% say their organization lacks guidelines for its use.
The most frequently cited challenges include creating the right content, creating content consistently, and differentiating content.

I'll walk you through the findings. There's a lot to go through, so feel free to use the table of contents to navigate to the sections that most interest you.

Note: These numbers come from a July 2023 survey of marketers around the globe. We received 1,080 responses. This article focuses on answers from the 894 B2B respondents. The original version of this article appeared on the CMI website.

AI use
Team structure
Content marketing challenges
Content types, distribution channels, and paid channels
Social media
Content management and operations
Measurement and goals
Overall success
Budgets and spending
Top content-related priorities for 2024
Content marketing trends for 2024
Action steps
Methodology

AI: 3 out of 4 B2B marketers use generative tools

Of course, we asked respondents how they use generative AI in content and marketing. As it turns out, most experiment with it: 72% of respondents say they use generative AI tools.

So, how do content marketers use the tools today? About half (51%) use generative AI to brainstorm new topics. Many use the tools to research headlines and keywords (45%) and write drafts (45%). Fewer say they use AI to outline assignments (23%), proofread (20%), generate graphics (11%), and create audio (5%) and video (5%).

Some marketers say they use AI to do things like generate email headlines and email copy, extract social media posts from long-form content, condense long-form copy into short form, etc.

Only 28% say they don't use generative AI tools.

Most don't pay for generative AI tools (yet)

Among those who use generative AI tools, 91% use free tools (e.g., ChatGPT), 38% use tools embedded in their content creation/management systems, and 27% pay for tools such as Writer and Jasper.

AI in content remains mostly ungoverned

Asked if their organizations have guidelines for using generative AI tools, 31% say yes, 61% say no, and 8% are unsure.

Why some marketers don't use generative AI tools

A lack of guidelines may deter some B2B marketers from using generative AI tools; other reasons include accuracy concerns (36%), lack of training (27%), and lack of understanding (27%). A sizeable 22% cite copyright concerns, and 19% have corporate mandates not to use them.

How AI is changing SEO

We also wondered how AI's integration in search engines shifts content marketers' SEO strategy. Here's what we found:

31% are sharpening their focus on user intent/answering questions.
27% are creating more thought leadership content.
22% are creating more conversational content.

Over one-fourth (28%) say they're not doing any of those things, while 26% say they're unsure.

Will the AI obsession ever end?

Many B2B marketers surveyed predict AI will dominate the discussions of content marketing trends in 2024.

As one respondent says: "AI will continue to be the shiny thing through 2024 until marketers realize the dedication required to develop prompts, go through the iterative process, and fact-check output. AI can help you sharpen your skills, but it isn't a replacement solution for B2B marketing."

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Team structure: How does the work get done?

Generative AI isn't the only issue affecting content marketing these days. We also asked marketers about how they organize their teams.

Among larger companies (100+ employees), half say content requests go through a centralized content team. Others say each department/brand produces its own content (23%), and the departments/brand/products share responsibility (21%).

Content strategies integrate with marketing, comms, and sales

Fully 70% say their organizations integrate content strategy into the overall marketing sales/communication/strategy, and 2% say it's integrated into another strategy.

Just 11% say content is a standalone strategy for content used for marketing, and 6% say it's a standalone strategy for all content produced by the company.

Only 9% say they don't have a content strategy, and the remaining 2% say other or they're unsure.

Employee churn means new teammates; content teams experience enlightened leadership

More than one-fourth (28%) of B2B marketers say team members resigned in the last year, 20% say team members were laid off, and about half (49%) say they had new team members acclimating to their ways of working.

Although team members come and go, the understanding of content doesn't: Over half (54%) strongly agree, and 30% somewhat agree, that the leader to whom their content team reports understands the work they do. Only 11% disagree. The remaining 5% neither agree nor disagree.

And remote work seems well-tolerated: Only 20% say collaboration was challenging due to remote or hybrid work.

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Content marketing challenges: Focus shifts to creating the right content

We asked B2B marketers about both content creation and noncreation challenges.

Content creation

Most marketers (57%) cite creating the right content for their audience as a challenge. That is a change from recent years, when "creating enough content" was the most frequently cited challenge.

One respondent points out why understanding what audiences want is more important than ever: "As the internet gets noisier and AI makes it incredibly easy to create listicles and content that copy each other, there will be a need for companies to stand out. At the same time, as...millennials and Gen Z [grow in the workforce], we'll begin to see B2B become more entertaining and less boring. We were never only competing with other B2B content. We've always been competing for attention."

Other content creation challenges include creating it consistently (54%) and differentiating it (54%). Close to half (45%) cite optimizing for search and creating quality content (44%).

About one-third (34%) cite creating enough content to keep up with internal demand, 30% say creating enough content to keep up with external demand, and 30% say creating content that requires technical skills.

Other hurdles

The most frequently cited noncreation challenge, by far, is a lack of resources (58%), followed by aligning content with the buyer's journey (48%) and aligning content efforts across sales and marketing (45%).

Fully 41% say they have issues with workflow/content approval, and 39% say they have difficulty accessing subject-matter experts; 34% say it is difficult to keep up with new technologies/tools (e.g., AI); and just 25% cite a lack of strategy as a challenge, 19% say keeping up with privacy rules, and 15% point to tech integration issues.

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Content types, distribution channels, and paid channels

We asked content marketers about the types of content they produce, their distribution channels, and paid content promotion. We also asked which formats and channels produce the best results.

Effective content types and formats

Which formats are most effective? More than half (53%) say case studies/customer stories and videos deliver some of their best results. Almost as many (51%) cite thought leadership e-books or whitepapers; 47%, short articles; and 43%, research reports.

Effective content distribution channels

Which channels perform the best? Most marketers in the survey point to in-person events (56%) and Webinars (51%) as producing better results. Email (44%), organic social media platforms (44%), blogs (40%), and email newsletters (39%) round out the list.

Effective paid content channels

SEM/pay-per-click produces good results, according to 62% of those who use paid channels. Half say social media advertising/promoted posts produce good results, followed by sponsorships (49%), partner emails (36%), and digital display advertising (34%).

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Asked which organic social media platforms deliver the best value for their organization, B2B marketers pick LinkedIn by far (84%). Only 29% cite Facebook as a top performer, 22% say YouTube, and 21% say Instagram. Twitter and TikTok are cited by 8% and 3%, respectively.

So it makes sense that 72% say they increased their use of LinkedIn over the previous12 months, while only 32% boosted their YouTube presence, 31% increased Instagram use, 22% grew their Facebook presence, and 10% increased X and TikTok use.

Which platforms are marketers giving up? Did you guess X? You're right: 32% of marketers say they decreased their X use in the previous 12 months. Among the respondents 20% say they decreased their use of Facebook, 10% decreased Instagram use, 9% pulled back on YouTube, and only 2% decreased their use of LinkedIn.

Interestingly, there was a significant rise in B2B marketers who use TikTok: 19% say they use the platform—more than double from last year.

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Content management and operations

To explore how teams manage content, we asked marketers about their technology use and investments and the challenges they face when scaling their content.

Content management technology

Asked which technologies they use to manage content, B2B marketers point to:

Analytics tools (81%)
Social media publishing/analytics (72%)
Email marketing software (69%)
Content creation/calendaring/collaboration/workflow (64%)
Content management system (50%)
Customer relationship management system (48%)

But having technology doesn't mean it's the right technology (or that its capabilities are used). So, we asked whether they felt their organization had the right technology to manage content across the organization.

Only 31% say yes; 30% say they have the technology but aren't using its potential; and 29% say they haven't acquired the right technology.

Content tech spending will likely rise

Even so, investment in content management technology seems likely in 2024: 45% say their organization is likely to invest in new technology, whereas 32% say their organization is unlikely to do so; 23% say their organization is neither likely nor unlikely to invest.

Scaling content production

We introduced a new question to understand what challenges B2B marketers face while scaling content production.

Almost half (48%) say it's "not enough content repurposing." Lack of communication across organizational silos is a problem for 40%; 31% say they have no structured content production process; 29% say they lack an editorial calendar with clear deadlines; 10% say scaling is not a current focus.

Among the other hurdles: difficulty locating digital content assets (16%), technology issues (15%), translation/localization issues (12%), and no style guide (11%).

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Measurement and goals: Generating sales and revenue rises

Almost half (46%) of B2B marketers agree their organization measures content performance effectively; however, 36% disagree, and 15% neither agree nor disagree. Only 3% say they don't measure content performance.

The five most frequently used metrics to assess content performance are conversions (73%), email engagement (71%), website traffic (71%), website engagement (69%), and social media analytics (65%).

About half (52%) mention the quality of leads, 45% say they rely on search rankings, 41% use quantity of leads, 32% track email subscribers, and 29% track the cost to acquire a lead, subscriber, or customer.

The most common challenge B2B marketers have while measuring content performance is integrating/correlating data across multiple platforms (84%), followed by extracting insights from data (77%), tying performance data to goals (76%), organizational goal setting (70%), and lack of training (66%).

Regarding goals, 84% of B2B marketers say content marketing helped create brand awareness in the previous 12 months. Fully 76% say it helped generate demand/leads; 63% say it helped nurture subscribers/audiences/leads, and 58% say it helped generate sales/revenue (up from 42% the previous year).

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Success factors: Know your audience

To separate top performers from the pack, we asked the B2B marketers to assess the success of their content marketing approach: 28% rate the success of their organization's content marketing approach as extremely or very successful; another 57% report moderate success; and 15% feel minimally or not at all successful.

The most popular factor for successful marketers is knowing their audience (79%).

That makes sense, considering that "creating the right content for our audience" is the top challenge. The logic? Top-performing content marketers prioritize knowing their audiences to create the right content for those audiences.

Top performers also set goals that align with their organization's objectives (68%), effectively measure and demonstrate content performance (61%), and show thought leadership (60%). Collaboration with other teams (55%) and a documented strategy (53%) also help top performers reach high levels of content marketing success.

We looked at several other dimensions to identify how top performers differ from their peers. Of note, top performers…

Are backed by leaders who understand the work they do
Are more likely to have the right content management technologies
Have better communication across organizational silos
Do a better job of measuring content effectiveness
Are more likely to use content marketing successfully to generate demand/leads, nurture subscribers/audiences/leads, generate sales/revenue, and grow a subscribed audience

Little difference exists between top performers and their less successful peers regarding the adoption of generative AI tools and related guidelines.

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Budgets and spending: Holding steady

To explore budget plans for 2024, we asked respondents whether they have knowledge of their organization's budget/budgeting process for content marketing. Then, we asked follow-up questions to the 55% who do have budget knowledge.

Content marketing as a percentage of total marketing spend

Here's what they say about the total marketing budget (excluding salaries):

About a quarter (24%) say content marketing takes up one-fourth or more of the total marketing budget.
Nearly one in three (29%) indicate that 10-24% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.
Just under half (48%) say less than 10% of the marketing budget goes to content marketing.

Content marketing budget outlook for 2024

Next, we asked about their 2024 content marketing budget: 45% think their content marketing budget will increase compared with 2023, whereas 42% think it will stay the same and only 6% think it will decrease.

Where will the budget go?

We also asked where respondents plan to increase their spending.

Fully 69% of B2B marketers say they would increase their investment in video, followed by thought leadership content (53%), in-person events (47%), paid advertising (43%), online community building (33%), Webinars (33%), audio content (25%), digital events (21%), and hybrid events (11%).

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Content marketing predictions for 2024: AI is top of mind

In another open-ended question, we asked, "What content marketing trends do you predict for 2024?" You probably guessed the most popular trend: AI.

Here are some of the marketers' comments about how AI will affect content marketing:

"We'll see generative AI everywhere, all the time."
"There will be struggles to determine the best use of generative AI in content marketing."
"AI will likely result in a flood of poor-quality, machine-written content. Winners will use AI for automating the processes that support content creation while continuing to create high-quality human-generated content."
"AI has made creating content so easy that there are and will be too many long articles on similar subjects; most will never be read or viewed. A sea of too many words. I predict short-form content will have to be the driver for eyeballs."

Other trends:

Greater demand for high-quality content as consumers grow weary of AI-generated content
Importance of video content
Increasing use of short video and audio content
Impact of AI on SEO

Among related comments:

"Event marketing (webinars and video thought leadership) will become more necessary as teams rely on AI-generated written content."
"AI will be an industry sea change and strongly impact the meaning of SEO. Marketers need to be ready to ride the wave or get left behind."
"Excitement around AI-generated content will rise before flattening out when people realize it's hard to differentiate, validate, verify, attribute, and authenticate. New tools, processes, and roles will emerge to tackle this challenge."
"Long-form reports could start to see a decline. If that is the case, we will need a replacement. Logically, that could be a webinar or video series that digs deeper into the takeaways."

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Methodology

For their 14^th annual content marketing survey, CMI and MarketingProfs surveyed 1,080 recipients around the globe—from a range of industries, functional areas, and company sizes—in July 2023. The online survey was emailed to a sample of marketers using lists from CMI and MarketingProfs.

This article presents the findings from the 894 respondents, mostly from North America, who indicated their organization is primarily B2B and that they are either content marketers or work in marketing or communications, or in other roles involving content.

Thanks to the survey participants, who made this research possible, and to everyone who helps disseminate these findings throughout the content marketing industry.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

About Content Marketing Institute

Content Marketing Institute (CMI) exists to do one thing: advance the practice of content marketing through online education and in-person and digital events. We create and curate content experiences that teach marketers and creators from enterprise brands, small businesses, and agencies how to attract and retain customers through compelling, multichannel storytelling. Global brands turn to CMI for strategic consultation, training, and research. Organizations from around the world send teams to Content Marketing World, the largest content marketing-focused event, the Marketing Analytics & Data Science (MADS) conference, and CMI virtual events, including ContentTECH Summit. Our community of 215,000+ content marketers shares camaraderie and conversation. CMI is organized by Informa Connect. To learn more, visit www.contentmarketinginstitute.com.

About MarketingProfs

MarketingProfs is your quickest path to B2B Marketing Mastery

More than 600,000 marketing professionals worldwide rely on MarketingProfs for B2B Marketing training and education backed by data science, psychology, and real-world experience. Access free B2B marketing publications, virtual conferences, podcasts, daily newsletters (and more), and check out the MarketingProfs B2B Forum–the flagship in-person event for B2B Marketing training and education at MarketingProfs.com.

About Brightspot

Brightspot, the content management system to boost your business

Why Brightspot? Align your technology approach and content strategy with Brightspot, the leading Content Management System for delivering exceptional digital experiences. Brightspot helps global organizations meet the business needs of today and scale to capitalize on the opportunities of tomorrow. Our Enterprise CMS and world-class team solves your unique business challenges at scale. Fast, flexible, and fully customizable, Brightspot perfectly harmonizes your technology approach with your content strategy and grows with you as your business evolves. Our customer-obsessed teams walk with you every step of the way with an unwavering commitment to your long-term success. To learn more, visit www.brightspot.com.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephanie Stahl is general manager of CMI, where she leads its event, digital, print, and e-learning operations. Previously, Stephanie served as VP of content marketing for UBM's Technology portfolio.

X/Twitter: @editorstahl

LinkedIn: Stephanie Stahl

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Table of contents

AI: 3 out of 4 B2B marketers use generative tools