Junta42 Content Marketing blog

In-source or Outsource Content Marketing?

The answer is...Yes.

According to a soon-to-be-released research report from MarketingProfs/Junta42, 55% of b-to-b marketers outsource some portion of their content marketing. Larger companies (1,000 employees or more) are 60% more likely to outsource than micro-companies (less than 10 employees).

Makes sense, right?  Smaller companies with smaller budgets doing more with less resources.

It may make sense, but business-wise, it's not smart.

In my opinion, 100% of companies should be outsourcing at least part of their content marketing. Don't get me wrong...it's natural to want to do everything ourselves.

But get this...if we really want to position ourselves as the leading experts in our industry, we must outsource portions of our content marketing.  Why?

Brian Solis Rocks Latest Junta42 Top Content Marketing Blogs

This is our ninth installment of the Junta42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs.  Since our first back in January of 2008, Brian Solis has finished in the Top 10 five times, including a second, fourth and fifth place. This time the popular author, speaker and social media blogger earned a clear first place. Congratulations Brian.

We started with reviewing 81 content marketing related blogs in 2007.  Today's Top 42 contains nearly 400 blogs. For those interested, here's how we judge the Top 42. Special thanks to our lead researcher, Janet Robbins, who goes through each one of these blogs individually every quarter.

Junta42 Launches Content Marketing Institute

I'm really excited to announce the launch of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

The idea of CMI is simple - while there are a lot of great blogs, books and experts out there in and around content marketing, there are still so many questions.

• How do I develop a content marketing strategy?
• How do I create content that my audience will find valuable?
• What are the best content marketing tactics for my audience and expertise areas?
• How do I best manage the content marketing process? If I decide to outsource, how do I do that?
• How do I measure what's working (and what's not) to make changes?

Frankly, the questions will never stop. The answers...they will continually change.

The hope of CMI (what I call the great experiment), is to bring the best and brightest minds in the content marketing and content strategy industries together to help marketing professionals answer these how-to questions.

CMI is launching as a daily source of how-to content marketing information, followed this summer by a membership site dedicated to content marketing training and education. 

In the meantime, please check out this inaugural post for CMI entitled How to Launch the Content Marketing Institute in 6 Steps.

What can you do? Sign up now to receive CMI updates and get notified as we move toward the membership portion this summer.

Thanks for being part of this important effort!

If you'd like information on contributing or possibly sponsorship, just shoot us a note here.

New Junta42 Top Content Marketing Blogs Released - Convince Converts

We are excited to release the eighth installment of the Junta42 Top Content Marketing blogs list. We started with 81 blogs in 2007. For this release, we individually reviewed more than 350 blogs on the basis of content marketing excellence (click here for an explanation of how we review).

Special thanks to our lead researcher, Janet Robbins, who actually goes through each one of these blogs individually every quarter.  If you ever need a top notch research specialist, call Janet.

Congratulations to each of the top 42 content marketing blogs, especially Jay Baer from Convince and Convert for his number one status. For those interested, here's a rundown of the past winners (a very exclusive list):

Release #8 (April 2010): Convince and Convert
Release #7: Online Marketing Blog
Release #6: Tippingpoint Labs
Release #5: Marketing with Meaning
Release #4: Online Marketing Blog
Release #3: Copyblogger
Release #2: Copyblogger
Premier Release (August 2007): Nigel Hollis (Millward Brown)

A handy list of the Top 42 is below.  Click here for the entire Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs list (including all 350+).

1 Convince and Convert
2 Conversation Agent
3 Online Marketing Blog
4 Web Ink Now
5 Writing on the Web
6 Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
7 Direct Marketing Observations
8 Connected Marketer
9 Marketing Interactions
10 The Lunch Pail
11 White Paper Pundit
12 Marketing with Meaning
13 IdeaLaunch
14 PR 2.0
15 ContentMarketingToday
16 Influential Marketing Blog
17 Moola Days
18 Buzz Marketing for Technology
19 Rexblog
20 eMedia Vitals
21 PR 20/20
22 Sparksheet
23 Pamorama
24 B2B Bloggers
25 Brain Traffic
26 Copyblogger
27 Web Strategy by Jeremiah
28 ConverStations
29 Simple Marketing Blog
30 Conversation Marketing
31 Ducttape Marketing
32 Post Advertising
33 Hard Knox Life
34 Social Media Examiner
35 TippingPoint Labs
36 Writing White Papers
37 Proactive
38 SEOptimize
39 FASTforward Blog
40 Social Media Explorer
41 AriWriter
42 jaffe juice

Related Articles:

• TopRank on Top for December 2009 Top Blogs Release
• Junta42 Blogs Announced: Tipping Point Rises to the Top
• Marketing with Meaning Truly Meaningful as Junta42's Top Blog

15 Content Marketing and Social Media Keys To Success

I put this post together for a couple reasons.  

First, I've participated in 15 interviews over the past three weeks, and I'm starting to dream this stuff. Putting it in a blog post helps me get sleep. Second, today is Junta42's third anniversary (4/2/2007). 

Junta42 was officially started with this blog post on April 26, 2007 entitled "Why Content Marketing?" Here is the last paragraph from that post:

One thing is for sure, it is the organizations, not individual users or publishers, that have the greatest opportunity (and possibly learning curve) to create valuable content that makes an impact on people. Smart organizations are doing it now. More will come. Things are going to get interesting.

That statement was true then, and is even more so today. You are the publisher, and you can and will do great things. Here's a few points that may help.

Engagement: Understanding It, Achieving It, Measuring It - A Complimentary White Paper

What is engagement?  What does it really mean in marketing? How should we measure it? What tactics can we employ to help enhance it?

Those are exactly the questions Keith Wiegold and I try to tackle in our latest white paper - Engagement: Understanding It, Achieving It, Measuring It.

In this white paper we:

• Define Engagement and what it means for your customers and your efforts
• Recognize Engagement as a strategy that serves to achieve specific marketing objectives
• Work to uncover the dynamics of measuring Engagement
• Discuss a variety of social media and content marketing practices that maximize Engagement

The rationale for the white paper is summed up nicely with Keith's comments:

Everyone is talking about engagement, but we were hard pressed to find a source that put a stake in the ground and said 'this is what engagement really means, this is how it strategically impacts marketing goals, and this is how you can measure it,' let alone achieve it”.  This white paper tackles all of this, plus provides some great tactical thoughts on how to ensure customer engagement.

I believe you'll find some excellent information that will help to position the role and importance of engagement in your own organization (as well as some wicked charts you'll love). AND, this white paper is GATE-FREE...meaning no sign-up required.  In exchange, all we ask is that, if you like it, please share it with a friend or colleague. Download the engagement white paper here.

To see the ZMAGS version, click here.

Enjoy!

Inbound Marketing vs. Content Marketing; Hubspot vs. Junta42

Junta42 has been receiving quite a few calls/emails regarding our content marketing matching service versus the new Hubspot inbound marketing marketplace. In response, I took a few minutes to explain what I believe is the difference based on what Hubspot has shared.  

Here are the highlights from the video:

Inbound Marketing vs. Content Marketing

Inbound marketing is a subset of content marketing.  Although both look at how to attract and retain customers with compelling, consistent content, inbound marketing focuses most of the energy on online channels.  Content marketing takes a more holistic approach, looking at your content strategy as it relates to all channels (online, print, in-person and mobile).  An effective content marketing strategy must also look at how the content program needs to be integrated with traditional marketing efforts.

Hubspot vs. Junta42

Hubspot's new "ebay for marketing services" is a marketplace that's much different than Junta42's "vendor matching service for content marketing". A marketplace, while still very valuable - ala eLance - still puts most of the work on the brand's shoulders in finding a content provider.  Hubspot has developed a valuable service here for inbound marketing for a certain size (mostly smaller) companies needing inbound marketing services. It's a good move for Hubspot, which hopes to get people signed up to use their software and help retain those customers that are having trouble developing a solid online story.

Junta42 is not a marketplace.  We take input from the brand on the content needs (through a five-minute survey and conversations with the client), project needs, audience target, project size and more.  From that, we "match" the brand with one to five pre-qualified content marketing experts, saving the time and resources that it takes to search for the right provider, and the hassle of doing a formal RFP. We ensure that the vendor understands the type of project (print, online, in-person), the content area, and understand the art of content marketing storytelling.

It's also important to note that Junta42 experts handle the full breadth of content marketing services, including events and print content marketing, and not solely on inbound marketing solutions that Hubspot does.  For more details on the types of projects we've matched up, check out this 2009 Junta42 annual report or our content marketing customer testimonials.

For more on Junta42, check out our "How Junta42 Works" page.

Junta42 Announces Content Marketing Giveaway

Junta42 is again putting our money where our content is...

Today we launched the $4200 in 42 Days contest where Junta42 will contribute $4200 toward a brand's content marketing effort.

Simply put, it works like this.  From now until 4/2/2010 any project submitted through the Junta42 system will be eligible for the $4200.  All you have to do is sign up to the Junta42 content marketing matching service and select one of our expert, pre-qualified vendors.  That's it.

See more details here.  Any thoughts or questions? Just shoot them over.

Special Report - Content Marketing Spending Continues to Rise

The results are in.  Content marketing spending will rise again in 2010.

The 3rd Annual 2010 Junta42 Content Marketing Spending Survey found for the third straight year that marketers will again put significantly more money into content marketing initiatives.

Go here for the complete content marketing spending survey results and a complimentary download of the final report.

Content Marketing Spending Takeaways:

• 6 of 10 marketers are increasing content marketing spending in 2010. Only 7% are decreasing spending.
• According to the 259 survey respondents, average content marketing budgets are 33% of the total marketing budget (up from 29% in 2008)
• Small companies spend more than 2x the amount on content marketing as to larger companies.
• Of all content areas, marketers are increasing their focus on mobile content solutions more than any other area (as a % growth from 2009).
• Content marketing spending overall increased 11% from 2008 to 2010.

Click here to see the entire report (with pretty charts and everything).  Enjoy!

Who's Outsourcing Content? - A Junta42 Annual Report

We just delivered the Junta42 annual report email to the Junta42 content marketing vendors and I thought I would share it with the community.

As you'll see in the email, these are high-level numbers.  Over the next few weeks, we'll be putting together a "State of Content Marketing Outsourcing" (better title to come) that will take the mounds of data we have on content marketing projects and put it together in a handy report.  If there is anything specific you'd like to see, please let me know.

>>>>Start of Email

Hi John:

 

First off, I wanted to thank you for your ongoing support of Junta42. It's people like yourself that have made our little experiment a content marketing success.

 

We launched Junta42 in beta July of 2008, and officially launched the matching service in October of the same year. The entire team here at Junta42 felt it was a good time to update our expert content vendors (such as yourself) on what has happened over the past 12 months.  So, here goes (NOTE: We'll be putting a more detailed report to go out to the community in the next few weeks).

 

Project Statistics

 

Over the past 16 months we have seen:

• 455 total projects
• 204 approved projects (13 repeat customers)
• An average of 13.6 approved projects per month
• An average of 3 approved projects per week
• 685 total leads distributed to our content vendors
• 170 total certified content vendors in the Junta42 system
  

We have worked hard over the past year to approve only legitimate projects with real content budgets. Unfortunately some have not been so promising.  We are continuing to refine our approval process and are seeing major improvements in this area.

 

Types of Clients

 

We have had literally every type of client imaginable use the Junta42 service, from solopreneurs to large associations to multi-billion dollar businesses. Just to give you a feel, here are some of the brands that have used the Junta42 matching service:

• Xerox
• Home Depot
• Deluxe
• Minco
• SAE International
• Mettler-Toledo
• Euro RSCG
• US Government
• Syntel
• PKF North America
• Norandex
• Conergy
• First Midwest Bank
• Honda
• Oldcastle Architectural
• RIM (makers of Blackberry smartphones)
• Citrix Online
• WMH Tool Group
• United Methodist Communications

I'd love to say that all these projects closed, but many of these content projects were put on hold due to the economic conditions.  From our records, a good number of these projects are still in internal discussion. That said, a few of the closed projects we are able to disclose include:

• RIM (makers of Blackberry smartphones) - Email Newsletter project to Future US
• First Midwest Bank - Custom Magazine project to Imagination
• SAE International - Website project to Hanley Wood Marketing
• United Methodist Communications - Email Newsletter project to Wise Group
• Optimum Marketing Solutions - Website Content project to Spotted Wombat
  
• ACS Creative - Blogging project to Significant Info 

As we get more approvals to share closed projects, we'll be sure to pass them on.

Types of Projects

The biggest request for project type revolves around:

• Custom magazines (38 projects)
• Blogs/Social Media (23 projects)
• Websites/Microsites (22 projects)
• White Papers (17 projects)
• Email Newsletters (16 projects)
• Print Newsletters (15 projects)

The most popular content expertise areas include:

• Marketing & Media (21 projects)
• Business Services/Financials (20 projects)
  
• Internet/E-commerce (11 projects) 
• Computer Software (10 projects)
• Information Technology (10 projects)
• Healthcare/Hospitals (9 projects)
• Real Estate (7 projects)
  

Since our launch, we've delivered $11.6 million dollars in leads to our expert vendors, an average of $80,034.00 per project. Here is the breakdown of disclosed budgets (in USD):

• $10,000 - 76 projects
• $25,000 - 29 projects
• $50,000 - 11 projects
• $100,000 - 9 projects
• $250,000 - 13 projects
• $500,000 - 5 projects
• $1,000,000 - 3 projects
• Budget Undisclosed - 58 projects
  

I hope this sheds some light on how the last year has been for us.  Looking forward to helping you grow your business in 2010. If you would like to know more about how our system works, check out our How It Works page, or possibly our Vendor FAQ page.

 
Also, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact me at joe[at]junta42.com or my office line at 216-941-5842.
 
Thanks again, and on with the content revolution!

Joe

 

Joe Pulizzi

Founder and Chief Content Officer

Junta42