“Social” is the intent topic that is currently most buzz-worthy across B2B marketing, according to an analysis performed for MarketingCharts by Bombora. To arrive at its conclusions, Bombora looked into the content consumption behavior of employees at 2.8 million businesses around the world during Q1.
The analysis revealed that “social” was the leading topic of the 346 topics monitored related to marketing. In this case, “social” refers to a cluster of topics that includes “Social Media,” “Social Networking,” “Social Content & Apps,” “Social Media Monitoring” and “Social Engagement.” The data shows that employees at 451,000 companies were reading more content than usual in this cluster across business-oriented publications such as Forbes and analyst sites.
It’s not surprising that social would lead the pack in terms of marketing content consumption. Marketers are investing more than ever in social media, which turned out to be one of their most exciting marketing opportunities last year.
Beyond the “social” intent cluster, Bombora’s analysis also indicates that companies are consuming more content related to “live” engagement. This topic crosses both digital and in-person activity, and relates to “live streaming,” “trade shows/events,” and “public speaking.”
Although those can be admittedly quite far-reaching and diverse sub-topics, the focus on “live” engagement also makes sense in light of wider trends. Almost two-thirds of social media marketers, for example, plan to increase their use of live video in the coming year. And for B2B marketers in particular, trade shows and events continue to be high-performing lead-generation vehicles.
Bombora’s analysis demonstrates that interest in “live” topics began to surge in early February, coinciding with peak event season, even overtaking “social” in content consumption by the end of Q1. As such, the firm recommends that marketers consider posting content about “live” engagement just before that period, before it picks up too much traction.
Meanwhile, “video” is also an area of growing interest for companies reading marketing content. This topic cluster refers to “Video Blogs,” “Pre-roll Video,” “Video Billboard” and “Online Video Marketing.” Video has become a much more crucial marketing vehicle in recent years: one recent study found 9 in 10 marketers believing that video content is becoming more important.
Other topics that emerged as important in terms of companies’ content consumption, though not at the same rate as “social,” “live,” or “video,” included:
- “LeadGen” cluster: referring to “Online Lead Generation,” “Lead Generation,” “Lead Generation Consulting,” and “Lead Generation Services;”
- “Path” cluster: referring to “Buyer Journey,” “Customer Journey,” and “Customer Lifecycle;”
- “CRM” cluster: “CRM Best Practices,” “CRM Retargeting,” and “CRM Software;” and
- “Automation” cluster: “Internet Marketing Automation,” “Marketing Automation Tools,” “Sales and Marketing Automation,” and “Marketing Automation.”
About the Data: Bombora is the leading provider of Intent data for B2B marketers. Bombora’s data aligns marketing and sales teams, enabling them to base their actions on the knowledge of what companies are in market for which products.
Bombora has a view into the content consumption behavior of 2.8 million businesses globally, across 4,100+ B2B topics. The source of this data is the first co-operative of premium B2B media companies, that monitors 3,500 B2B sites and creating content consumption benchmarks.
