Melany Bartholow | @MktgMelany Ninety-one percent of business-to-business (B2B) marketers use content marketing. So what exactly is it? If everyone is doing it, then we might as well see what it’s all about. Maybe you are a marketing manager and wonder where to spend your budget dollars. It looks like 87 percent spend some on social media marketing. In fact, the efficient or successful marketers say they spend almost 40 percent of their budget on social media. What do they spend those dollars on? In order of spending is the following:

Social media Articles on website e-newsletters Blogs In-person events Case studies Videos Articles on other sites White papers Online presentations Webinars/webcasts Infographics Research reports Microsites Branded content tools Mobile content Print magazines e-books Books Mobile apps Digital magazines Podcasts Licensed content Virtual conferences Annual reports Print newsletters Games

What else do those successful types do right? In the 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America report, it seems these effective managers have a documented content creation strategy and have someone or some company overseeing that content marketing strategy. They use about 15 different tactics and are on about seven social media platforms.

So now you know how to spend your marketing dollars. What was the biggest increase this year, you might ask? The ever popular infographic. Last year 38 percent of B2B marketers used infographics compared with a whopping 51 percent this year. We are having a fun “Infographic Face-off” next week, a head-to-head timed competition amongst our fabulous graphic design staff. What will you do?

(2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America report, sponsored by Brightcove)