61% of SMBs do not outsource content creation

Three-quarters (74%) of small businesses surveyed by BusinessBolts.com currently use content marketing to increase awareness of their brand and products, and to grow business.

The most widely used content marketing channels are articles (74%) followed by blog posts (64%) and social media (49%). Just 38% of small business marketers are currently creating video content but, according to the study, even more (53%) plan to create video content in 2013.

The top three benefits reported were increased traffic (77%), improved search engine rankings (71%), and growing awareness of the brand (70%). Increasing sales came in 4th at 59%.

However, most (62%) aren't spending more than $100 per month on content marketing and 28% spend between $100 and $500 per month. Similarly, they aren't spending a lot of time each week on content marketing - 43% spend 1-1.5 hours each week while 19% spend less than an hour on the task. Seventeen percent spend 1-6 hours each week.

You might think this is due to a lot of content creation being outsourced, however BusinessBolt.com's survey found that 61% do not outsource content creation.

When asked which questions marketers want answered most of all with regard to content marketing the number one query was how to use content marketing to gain the most SEO benefit. Other questions included how to find good writers, which forms of content were the most effective and how they could create "stand out" content.

A copy of the survey results can be found online (.pdf).

Tags: articles, blogging, content creation, content marketing, small business, social, survey