Content plays a vital role in business-to-education (B2E) marketing, and our annual survey of B2E marketers confirms this.
Download the Report: 2022 Education Marketing Trends & Insights
According to our survey, 84 percent of marketers plan to develop new content assets in 2022. That’s up from 76 percent in 2020 and 78 percent in 2021. What’s more, half of the survey respondents rated content marketing as a “5” on a five-point scale of importance—and 53 percent said it’s an even more important strategy for them this year than in 2021.
By offering content that has value to prospects, companies can further engage with them and build relationships that ultimately lead to sales. To maximize success, however, companies need to be strategic in how they approach their use of content—and this includes creating specific types of content to achieve different goals.
In our survey, 78 percent of B2E marketers said they do this now. However, that leaves one in five who could be doing better.
Tailored Content: A powerful testament
Those who create different types of content suited for different purposes place a higher value on the use of content in their marketing—and they also have a more positive outlook on their company’s sales prospects. This might be because they’ve experienced more success from being highly strategic in their approach.
Among those who said they vary their use of content for different purposes, 83 percent said content marketing was important to their plans for 2022—and 58 percent said it was “very important.” 90 percent said they plan to develop new content assets this year.
Related Resource: B2E Content Marketing Checklist
For those who said they don’t create specific types of content to achieve different goals, only 53 percent described content marketing as important to their plans for 2022, and just 33 percent said it was very important. One-third said they would not be developing new content assets this year.
More striking was the difference in outlooks between those who do and those who don’t differentiate in their use of content. Among those who do, 90 percent were optimistic about their company’s prospects for revenue growth in 2022. Ten percent were neutral, and none were pessimistic. Among those who don’t, 73 percent were optimistic, 20 percent were neutral and 7 percent were pessimistic.
These figures are a powerful testament to the importance of being highly strategic in the use of content for education marketing. For insights on how B2E marketers can do this effectively, check out the full report here. And if you need help with developing a sound content strategy, a firm with proven experience—like CB&A—can help.