Small and large companies create original content, but they may need to consider new approaches to make campaigns more successful.

In a study of 200 Fortune 500 chief marketing officers, Mass Relevance and the CMO Club demonstrated that even the most successful companies struggle to produce high-quality content at the necessary rate. While 95 percent acknowledge content marketing is an important strategy for their 2014 brand marketing, an equal number report a top challenge is finding and creating new, timely, engaging content.

Time and bandwidth at a premium

Specifically, around 18 percent of marketers say it’s difficult to find a steady stream of leads that are relevant to their brands and target audiences. Another 35 percent say they struggle with the actual production process, creating fresh content for their websites.Fortune 500s biggest content challenge is time

It’s interesting to see that large businesses with full marketing teams struggle with the same basic issues that plague smaller organizations – a lack of time and resource.

Earlier this year, the Content Marketing Institute released the 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report for small B2Bs, in which 34 A survey of Fortune 500 CMOs said a top struggle is finding a steady stream of content.percent of participants said their biggest challenge is not having enough time. Around 13 percent said they struggle to produce enough content and 8 percent revealed they find it difficult to produce the kind of content that engages readers.

As content investments rise, pressure to prove ROI grows

Time and resourcing challenges might be omnipresent, but companies large and small are moving full steam ahead with their content marketing strategies. Along with a stronger focus on this tactic, CMOs and business owners are raising the bar for their ROI expectations, too. Two-thirds of Fortune 500 CMOs said they expect their content marketing campaigns to produce positive results this year.

To deliver stronger results without pushing their resources to the limit, marketers may need to shift the way they think about content creation.Content marketing ROI grows

In the past, companies were largely focused on being in the right place at the right time (with some original content). That meant showing up in popular searches and co-opting social media conversations with a timely news article, blog post or long-form asset that would point viewers back to brands’ websites.

Now, successful businesses are thinking more about how they can carve out a niche and bring fresh value to conversations that are already taking place. It’s not so much about getting into the party, as it is about having meaningful conversations with people who are there and creating a lasting impression that will lead to future invitations.

Interested in turning your best assets into something fresh that brings new value to prospects? Check out our latest infographic about how to do more with less

 

Lauren Kaye is a Marketing Editor at Brafton Inc. She studied creative and technical writing at Virginia Tech before pursuing the digital frontier and finding content marketing was the best place to put her passions to work. Lauren also writes creative short fiction, hikes in New England and appreciates a good book recommendation.