A new study of chief marketing officers found that a key priority for the group was to increase investment in content creation, management and distribution.
The survey was fielded by digital asset manager Bynder in collaboration with an independent research firm, and asked 1,297 global CMOs their priorities during a particularly tight economic time. Key findings included:
- CMOs are intent on maintaining content production even as they cut costs. Key priorities include centralized platforms for managing customer data and streamlining production.
- Tech and consumer goods companies are most interested in maintaining or increasing investment in content creation and distribution. 69% of marketers worldwide said they consider those investments to be a tactical decision that will safeguard their finances.
- Key goals for brand content are to deliver information about products and services, as well as to demonstrate competitive differentiation.
- A priority for CMOs in the coming few months is to cut tech costs by streamlining tools and reducing external expenditures on agencies. 57% of consumer goods marketers said they also want to reuse and repurpose content instead of creating it new.
Flexibility has become the name of the game for brand publishing teams over the past few months. Reckoning with cost-cutting, many are scrambling to figure out how they can continue creating high-quality content at a lower cost. Some are experimenting with content repackaging, as we reported previously, while others are trying to reconfigure internal teams to squeeze the most value out of them.
Now wanted: Audience development
Audience development is fast becoming a priority for brand publishers as a host of changes throttle their audience growth and disrupt established audience-building approaches.
“It’s not surprising to me given that [brand publishers] have probably realized that just hiring someone to create the editorial isn’t enough. You also need someone with a deep strategy background,” said Chandra Turner, career coach and founder of recruiting firm The Talent Fairy.
One financial brand’s head of editorial said that they realized the need for someone to run audience development when it became clear that building an audience would take longer than many in the company expected or understood. This person said they realized that they specifically looked for someone who could understand how the site could grow without simply relying on search. “We’re so reliant on organic search. What other avenues do we have? Especially when Facebook is changing, or we have this existential threat of AI.”
Also worth noting:
- TNR explores how digital media companies became addicted to traffic at all costs – and how it cost them dearly.
- One fun thing: Refinery29’s latest money diary features a content marketing specialist in San Francisco making $75,000.
- Decrypt Media’s editor-in-chief, Dan Roberts, is the new editor-in-chief at Variant, an early-stage VC fund for web3 companies. Variant will be building out an editorial operation that will include a podcast, a newsletter and essays.