The latest “Content Marketing Insight Report” documents a major shift in the marketing demands on small and medium sized businesses (SMBs).
“The traditional marketing funnel consisting of awareness, opinion, consideration, preference, and purchase is shifting to a more complex and dynamic process that incorporates user-generated content (ratings and reviews), word of mouth and recommendations, along with new marketing access points like mobile and social media,” notes the report summary from Research and Markets. “This shift has forced SMB advertisers to engage in multiple formats and styles.”
Among the report’s featured findings are:
- Integrated solutions are the order of the day. “An evolution is taking place in which formerly single-point solutions (e.g., listings, reputation management, social media) are becoming more integrated and focused on satisfying the three core tenets of a robust content marketing program: content creation, management, and distribution.”
- Managing location and social data is critical. “Modern online content marketing solutions leverage location and social media data to provide accurate and relevant information. Managing that data, along with the components that facilitate the creation, management and distribution of SMB content has become a viable growth business for some solution providers.”
- SMBs are more open than ever to seeking professional assistance. “More SMBs are making the decision to partner with professional marketers in their efforts to engage with customers and prospects online.”
That last takeaway is backed up by a recent Local Commerce Monitor (LCM) survey showing that 40.9 percent of queried small businesses indicate they’re willing to pay for assistance in fine-tuning and updating their online marketing venues.
