New Research: With Economy Rattled, Marketers Spending on Content/Social Media

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: December 17, 2008

We’ve just completed our December Junta42 readership study and frankly, I’m surprised. I bought into the thinking, like most other marketing and publishing professionals, that marketers would hold back spending in all categories during these tough times.

I was wrong.

According to our research findings, marketers are continuing to stash more and more funds into their own content and social media initiatives. A full 56% of survey respondents stated that they will be increasing their content marketing spending in 2009 (remember, this study was completed the first week of December).

There will be some naysayers about this survey. Junta42 subscribers, for the most part, have already bought into the fact that content marketing is the future of marketing, making them (most likely) predisposed to spending more in that area. Regardless, the results are staggering, and clearly tell us that corporate content initiatives aren’t just a luxury anymore – they are necessity – the engine behind the entire marketing program.

Please check out the full results here, including who the respondents were, decision-making authority, and core content tactics for 2009.

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http://www.reallypractical.com Mark Nagurski

While I agree a survey of Junta42 subscribers would certainly trend in that direction, I suppose we could hazard a guess as to a few of the reasons regardless.
A few possibilities …
1. A reaction to the declining effectiveness of traditional advertising – which is only heightened by customer apathy in a downturn
2. A correlation between content and search engine marketing
3. A similar connection with the rise in social media marketing – with content as the meat in the social media sandwich
4. Relative cost of content creation compared to say, print advertising – making the move more attractive as budgets contract
5. An added emphasis on customer retention
My gut instinct is that content marketing is well suited to a difficult market.
Difficult times tend to highlight the failings of accepted methods – content marketing offers a compelling alternative.
http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

Mark…couldn’t have said it better myself. Excellent stuff.
Joe