2014 – The Year of the Story for Engineering Marketers

When Adrian and I visit with engineering marketers to talk about their plans for 2014, one recurring theme is content.  They are planning more blog posts, more webinars, more white papers and more video than ever before. 

The other thing we noticed is that there is a lot more willingness to allocate some budget to pay for distribution by sponsoring their content on editorial web sites.  Here’s a chart from Marketing Profs that shows the most effective forms of native advertising / sponsored content according to a survey of 1005 marketers. 

The study also said that 41% of brands have run sponsored posts, and of those who haven’t, another 20% plan to within the year.

At ENGINEERING.com we have certainly noticed an uptick in the number of webinars and hosted white papers that engineering marketers have provided to help with their lead generation campaigns.  In addition, a surprising number have asked us to write blog posts or create video to help tell their stories.

Why is this trend happening?  My opinion is that as print media declines and savvy buyers do more research online, brands are reliant on digital media companies like ENGINEERING.com to tell their stories.  And since it’s impossible to fund a digital media publication with Google ads, marketers are willing to pay the Internet media companies to ensure that their stories find the right audience.

ENGINEERING.com and many other publishers now offer services to write stories and/or amplify content from engineering marketers.  If you want to learn more about these services, shoot me or Adrian a note, or download the Written Post and Amplification Brochure to learn how to connect your content with the engineering audience you want to attract.