B2B Content Sharing: The Surprising Benefits Of A Balanced Attack

The results of our 2013 B2B Content Preferences Survey continue to offer up food for thought. There’s a comprehensive summary available at Demand Gen Report, but today I wanted to share some results that didn’t get as much attention when I wrote that DGR feature.

Here’s the raw survey data, which I think is descriptive enough to include here:

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First, let’s set aside the outliers: Podcasts are increasingly rare as B2B content assets, and interactive presentations (such as Brainshark or Slideshare) are an up-and-coming format that is still gaining traction.

Next, look at that “frequently” column. The most-shared content formats turn out to be white papers, blog posts and case studies. Infographics — the format most often associated with shareability — falls in the middle of the pack. Taking a broader view, however, shows that our respondents at least sometimes share a very broad range of content formats. Even “heavier” content like white papers and webinars tend to get shared by a surprisingly large number of B2B buyers.

These findings work against the conventional wisdom about content-sharing practices; there are many good reasons to create infographics, for example, but it’s a mistake to assume B2B readers are more likely to share them than to share other formats.

I’ll leave you with two takeaways:

  • Experiment with ways to make all of your content even easier to share. More of our clients, for example, are using tools like Click to Tweet that generate shareable callouts in their E-books and white papers. Given the level of sharing already going on here, it makes sense to facilitate the process as much as possible.
  • These findings once again illustrate the value of a balanced content-marketing attack. Give your readers a wide variety of content formats, and you’re likely to find that they all deliver a significant return on investment.

-Matthew McKenzie

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