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Content marketing leads marketing’s investment in artificial intelligence tools. But despite the new shiny advantages of AI, content marketers must still know how to create contagious content marketing; measure core content marketing ROI; how to convert content to customer leads; cost-effective ways to create future content, and more.

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Digital content is the key to engagement in today's connected marketplace. According to Cision, content marketing exceeded $300 billion in 2019. According to a survey by the Content Marketing Institute, most successful B2B marketers spend 40 percent of their budgets on content marketing. Meanwhile, the rapid proliferation of digital channels and formats — along with the insatiable appetite of customers in every market for fresh and relevant content — is pushing marketers to invest even more.

The CMO Council's Content ROI Center is dedicated to advancing the discipline of content marketing. We are a go-to source of thought leadership, insight and services to help marketers more fully leverage the power of content to drive business opportunities, influence purchasing decisions, and grow brand presence.

RELATED RESOURCE: CMO Council Content ROI Center

In our Content Marketing report on combining insights and influence with marketing science, we find out how marketers can make content convert to customers in the report, ‘Making Content Marketing Convert’. Digital content is indispensable in driving business opportunities, market education and customer engagement.

Yet, many marketing organizations lack the necessary capabilities and processes to keep pace with a growing content marketing imperative. This report sheds light into the problems marketing organizations face in elevating the business impact of content development, distribution and lead conversion. It goes further to offer commentary and advice on the top 10 essentials for effective authority leadership-driven content marketing, such as:

1. Partner with credible and trusted sources.
2. Produce relevant and compelling strategic insights.
3. Add customer-contributed views and validation.
4. Present authoritative, newsworthy and enriched content.
5. Engage qualified, verified and predisposed audiences.
6. Target the whole influencer, specifier and buyer ecosystem.
7. Embrace multi-channel distribution, promotion and syndication.
8. Authenticate content consumption and buyer engagement.
9. Ensure lead legitimacy and compliance.
10. Cultivate, Activate and convert prospect flow.

DOWNLOAD this report for free: ‘Making Content Marketing Convert’

Content marketers face challenges on multiple fronts though, and marketers can spend a third of their marketing budget on content, yet lack the capability to measure ROI. Content strategies are built on budget and time, not on customer and market trends. Content quality is hit or miss. Scattershot content distribution turns off customers.

In this report available to our members, ‘Making Content Grow into Customer Flow’, CMO Council warns that marketers better turn their fortunes around before marketing efforts become devalued and content budgets shrink. They need to improve content quality and be more selective with distribution, as well as better measurement of content’s impact.

This report, produced in partnership with Rock Content, is based on a CMO Council survey of 195 marketing leaders and eight in-depth interviews with executives from IBM, ABC Entertainment Marketing Studios, Autodesk, The Economist, Fast Company, Fuzzy Door, Guinness World Records and Boston Ballet.

DOWNLOAD this report by becoming a CMO Council member

Are marketers missing the mark with their content? In our CMO White Paper, ‘The Omnichannel Experience’, we found that for 42% of marketers, content is the most vital tool for lead acquisition, yet it’s consistently underutilized. Omnichannel communication in today's digital climate requires cohesive, accessible and impactful content narratives to resonate with rapidly evolving audience needs. For many brands, gaps in communication, inconsistent cross-functional priorities and unclear metrics to gauge customer satisfaction have all resulted in lower levels of engagement.

Marketers need to know how to stay ahead of their competition while maintaining their existing customers and properly leveraging their value proposition to new leads. This whitepaper from our partners at Acquire dives into the information marketers need to know while making sink-or-swim decisions in this time of recovery and realigning priorities. Learn how to get answers to the right questions with data, create authentic, bi-directional conversations with consumers, and pivot your content to fit into the conversations customers are having about your brand.

DOWNLOAD this White Paper for free: ‘The Omnichannel Experience’

CMO Council Webinar, ‘Optimize Value of Content Spend’, covers how to get the greatest ROI from existing content, such as re-structuring agreements to support content reuse, and how to create future content as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. As part of a four-part webinar series, the CMO Council and KPMG explored strategies for maximizing returns from prior investments, effectively managing assets and agencies, and improving plan and spend agility.

WATCH our Webinar on Demand: ‘Optimize Value of Content Spend’

This webinar was the second of a four-part webinar series put on by the CMO Council and KPMG. It focused on how to get the best return on your existing content and ways to plan for the most efficient and cost-effective ways to create future content. Learn more about the other webinars in the series here: 

• Maximize Returns on Martech Spend
• Stretch Spend Through Better Agency Management
• Increase Plan and Spend Agility