Brands recognize content marketing is key for web success and find it's effective for driving leads from social networks to company websites.

Content marketing is reaching the tipping point where approximately half of brands have now created a formal content strategy, according to IMN‘s 2013 Content Marketing Survey. This marks an impressive buy-in leap since 2012, when only 28 percent had established an explicit plan for their branded content. Publishing collateral to company web pages provides SEO value, but marketers see social media as the most effective channel for distribution.

More than half of respondents (51 percent) list social networks as the content marketing vehicle that fuels the strongest results. Websites were close behind (44 percent), followed by newsletters (42 percent) and email blasts (42 percent).

Marketers are also finding video content more effective in 2013 than they did last year, with 18 percent naming this type of media as the best avenue for content marketing success compared to just 3 percent last year.

18 percent of marketers cite video as most effective for content marketing success.

Social media content distribution may be seen as a winning strategy because it helps brands reach their performance benchmarks. Incoming leads are far and away the most important measure of success, according to respondents.

Brafton previously reported that 70 percent of consumers say they click through to brands’ blog content after reading stories shared on social networks. As content marketing continues to mature, brands will go beyond basic metrics and adjust their collateral to achieve sophisticated goals.

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.