A new survey shows that content marketing is becoming increasingly common with businesses seeing more success.

The CMI and Brandpoint  2012 Digital Content Marketing Survey found that businesses are looking to improve their use of content marketing by outsourcing their efforts in the next 12 months. Many have turned to content marketing experts in the past and seen enough benefits to further their efforts moving forward. Seventy percent plan to outsource at least one form of content in the coming months, and only 13 percent do not outsource online content marketing initiatives.

While video marketing was the most frequently named form of marketing companies plan to outsource, with 32 percent of respondents indicating they’ll hire partners for video creation, Brandpoint found that several other kinds of content are on businesses’ radars.

Blog marketing, which 16 percent of companies are currently using third parties for, will be outsourced by 17 percent moving forward.

News content marketing campaigns are also likely to see substantial outsourcing. While the amount of companies looking to partner with third parties for articles (22 percent) remains unchanged from Brandpoint’s study a year ago, it’s clear that companies have seen success with their sustained investment in professional content writers.

Social media marketing is also a commonly outsourced new media marketing channel, with 17 percent of companies assigning their social content efforts externally. Using one firm to handle both website and social content creation and distribution can ensure that the strategies are aligned effectively.

Although it garners less focus that social content, blogs or articles, the segment of content marketing demonstrating the most growth is mobile content, according to Brandpoint. In last year’s survey, 5 percent of companies expressed an interest in outsourcing their creation of content designed for mobile users. With smartphones on the rise, the figure has increased to 13 percent. The survey didn’t note what type of content businesses are planning for mobile, so this figure may reflect overlap with blog, article and/or other content investments that will also be optimized for mobile as well as the traditional web. Nonetheless, the nearly 200 percent growth demonstrates a greater understanding of changing consumer web habits.

Brafton recently reported that 66 percent of consumers said they turn to their smartphones to find more information on products they plan to buy while in stores. Creating website content that mobile users can access without issue will help businesses appeal to them and guide them to conversion.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.