Research carried out by a U.S. content organisation has revealed the number of businesses focusing their budgets on content marketing has increased over the last 12 months.

The figures, which were compiled by the Custom Content Council, found that the average budget set aside by businesses for content marketing has grown by nearly 10%. When 2012’s figures were recorded, the average U.S. budget was $40.2bn; this number now stands at $43.9bn.

While these figures are from the U.S., they reinforce similar UK-based research which recently revealed that 97% of UK firms intend to increase or at least maintain their content budgets over 2013.

The survey, which the Custom Content Council carried out with ContentWise, explored how SEO and social content were used. It found that 81% of respondents only used social media for their content marketing.

The growth pattern is expected to continue, with around 40% of respondents planning to further increase the amount of content they produce in the next 12 months.

Keeping a site current is a key part of retaining consumer attention. Once a user sees that a page hasn’t been updated for a few weeks, they’re unlikely to stick around. The study suggested that marketers were aware of this, with most publishing new content at least three times a week.

The research also pointed out how video content in particular is becoming more popular among marketers and site owners. Advances in technology and sites such as YouTube have made video content more accessible; the Google-owned hosting site, for instance, recently broke the one-billion barrier in terms of users. The number of marketers using such content in their strategies has increased by 10% over the last year.

While an increasing emphasis on content is a good thing for internet users, it will make it tough for businesses to stand out from the crowd without expert assistance.

Graeme Parton

Graeme has experience creating content for online sources and for the radio, and at university he studied Multimedia Journalism.