automation due to limited data pipelining, inefficient change leadership and ongoing concerns about risk. One thing is certain: As content production continues to evolve in the AI era, the end goal will remain unchanged. At its core, content marketing is about telling compelling stories and moving audiences through the complex and highly fragmented buying journey. According to Canalys, the average buyer now experiences an average of 28 presale moments across a range of channels, including magazines, blogs, social media and other sources, and trusts upward of seven different partners during their purchasing journey. Considering this, marketers should be looking deeper into the customer experience for opportunities to connect, educate and engage using content. Instead of merely automating content for the sake of speeding up production and increasing output, marketing teams must begin to leverage emerging AI tools and insights to understand customer needs and create personalized content. To achieve personalization, Adobe recommends building a “content supply chain” – a relatively new digital marketing strategy for planning, creating, delivering and analyzing materials. “Great content is at the heart of personalization,” explained Adobe vice president of digital strategy and solutions Ken Reisman. “A content supply chain presents an emergent opportunity around really creating true one-to-one personalization – the ability to create assets that truly reflect the brand’s identity and communicate in a very personal way with each consumer.” Barriers to Success While companies continue to invest in content, they often fail to execute and wind up with empty blogs and stagnant news sections. Spend some time poking around various industry websites, and this becomes painfully evident. This can be especially damaging for a brand. To a sales or marketing team, a failed blog or news section may be an afterthought. But to a customer or partner, it could signal larger issues – including a lack of internal or external communication and coordination, budget issues, or worse, either apathy or marketing incompetence. According to CMI, some of the most common challenges include aligning content with the buyer’s journey and aligning content efforts across sales and marketing. In a separate study from 360 Insights, 35 percent of respondents cited a lack of compelling content as a top partner challenge that exists throughout the customer journey. What’s more, marketers across the board are finding it increasingly difficult to understand what customers and partners want from their content. Most marketers (57 percent) said that creating the right content for their audience is a challenge. Some additional issues that marketers face with content production include: • A lack of resources: Many teams are dealing with staffing shortages and budget constraints which make it difficult to produce and differentiate content. In CMI’s report, B2B marketers mentioned a lack of resources as a top situational challenge. 45 JULY - AUGUST 2024 | CHANNELVISION nt Paths, Destination B2B Marketers Use Gen AI for Various Content Tasks Brainstorm new topics 51% Research headlines, keywords, etc. 45% Write drafts 45% Outline assignments 23% Proofread 20% Generate graphics/images 11% Create/enhance audio 5% Produce videos 5% Don’t use AI tools 28% Source: Content Marketing Institute B2B Marketers’ Content Creation Challenges Creating the right content for our audience 57% Creating content consistently 54% Differentiating our content 54% Optimizing SEO 45% Creating quality content 44% Creating enough content to keep up with internal demand 34% Creating content that requires technical skills 30% Creating enough content to keep up with external demand 30% Source: Content Marketing Institute
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