There is a growing disparity between marketing strategies and the consumption trends of target audiences. The 2018 State of B2B Content Consumption and Demand Report for Marketers report from NetLine Corporation shows that marketers are prioritizing C-level executives on their target accounts. But the consumption gap — the time between when a user initially receives or downloads content and when they actually read it — is among the highest for C-level executives, who are often busy and inundated with information.
Instead, the report suggests marketers focus their efforts on supporting staff members and individual contributors, such as managers and VPs, who are less likely to be busy but can be equally influential in the purchasing decision process.
“Marketers are woefully hopeful that C-level employees are spending hours on their content, doing the research and making the decisions … when that’s just not realistic,” said David Fortino, SVP of Audience and Product at NetLine Corporation, in a statement to Demand Gen Report. “Individual contributors are those employees whose purpose and interests lie in research, gathering data and reporting to influencers who will ultimately guide decision-making. Job levels below C-level, such as individual contributors, managers and directors are highly engaged with content.”
The report, which compiled first-party data on content consumption and demand, also offers valuable insights into content consumption trends by industry and company size. Additional findings include:
- Professionals in the biotech and pharma industries take the most time before consuming content, unlike members of the financial industry who average less than a day;
- Companies with 1,000-2,499 employees or 10,000-19,999 employees are the quickest to consume content;
- E-books were the most popular type of content; and
- Software and skillset guides, as well as content with numbers and lists in the title top the list for downloads.
The NetLine report reminds marketers to remain conscientious of consumption trends, which can vary greatly according to title, company size and industry. It also emphasizes the importance of tailoring the content creation and delivery accordingly.
“It’s easy to get myopic and self-serving when building a pipeline with content,” said Fortino. “Quality surpasses quantity in value time and again, [and when] combined with a targeting strategy that leverages realistic and existing consumption behavior can repair those errors.”
