This research, titled Content Marketing and Data Intelligence, was conducted across the CMA membership of 40 companies, including Time Inc, ITN Productions and iProspect.
The study found that data is considered vital to the CMA members, with 83% of participants planning to use data more within their content marketing strategy in the next year. Further to this, over 90% of participants have already used customer data as part of a content marketing strategy, and around 97% feel data is important to this strategy.
However, says the CMA, content marketers believe that brands are not open enough with their data, with only 14% of participants believing that brands were open enough. Further to this, only one third of those surveyed said 61% or more of their clients give them access to data.
Clare Hill, Managing Director, the Content Marketing Association, said: “This study, which is the first of its kind, clearly demonstrates the importance that content marketers place on data. We can see from these findings that data is regarded as an essential part of effective content marketing, with the vast majority of those surveyed already using customer data, but also that they see it as a growing focus for future content marketing strategies.”
The content marketing industry is divided over whether regulation around data protection should be stricter, with a roughly even split of participants answering either yes or no to this question and over 40% answering maybe. There was also a split of opinions on whether regulation changes would affect content marketing strategies, with 42% believing that it would have a negative effect. Furthermore, there is a clear difference in opinion regarding who ‘owns data’ with 56% suggesting it is the client, and 40% considering the owner to be the consumer.
The CMA’s study also found that content marketing is becoming increasingly sophisticated with its use of data, with over 85% believing that real-time data is important within an effective content strategy.
