It’s here! The Association of Data-Driven Marketing Australia and the Content Marketing Institute have published their 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report for Australia.

Each year it gives us the best available insight into what local brands are experiencing with their content marketing. Nic and Sarah’s guest today is Jodie Sangster, CEO of ADMA.

Here are some key take-outs:

• This year’s report shows there is a high level of commitment to content marketing. Five years ago around 20 per cent of companies were investing in content, now it’s up around 70 per cent. It’s a serious strategy.
• There’s a move towards adopting a content marketing strategy, rather than doing things in an ad hoc way.

“In the last 18 months we’ve seen a massive shift as content marketing has become much more robust and a definite discipline within marketing, and organisations are adopting a strategy”. — Jodie Sangster, CEO of ADMA

• Brands are also getting better at producing content that is getting results — they’re creating higher-quality content and they’re producing it more efficiently.
• We’ve stepped back from the “hype” stage of content marketing. Rather than racing to get on board with the new discipline, organisations have stepped back and are being more strategic. They’re also using the tools available to them.

“We’ve moved out of the experimentation phase and we’re really looking at this as a professional discipline.” — Sarah

• Small business is getting good outcomes, possibly because it is easier for them to enact a strategy — the whole process is easier for them. It becomes more complex for larger organisations. Larger organisations should focus on four or five goals and achieve those first, rather than trying to achieve everything.
• Brands are learning how to treat their data better so that it can deliver a return on investment. The “disconnect” is at a management level because content marketing has a longer lead time — it’s not about immediate sales. Marketers need to explain this properly to the C-suite going into it.

“One person’s definition of content marketing is extremely different to someone else’s. So there needs to be some clarity around the definition — so in February we are launching a piece of research that delves into that, tries to put some boundaries around it, but also looks at the biggest problem in content marketing, which is measurement.” — Jodie Sangster, CEO of ADMA.

Here are the links you might need

• Here are the full CMI and ADMA Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report 2017. 
• Jodie mentioned ADMA’s event series. Find out more here. 
• And here’s Jodie’s blog on why customers need a seat at the boardroom table. 

Have you heard the one about…

Recently James, Sarah and Nic took a close look at the #StopFundingHate campaign.

And here’s a discussion about whether chasing viral content is killing trust.

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