A recent study found that marketers are continuing to spend more on unique online content, with the majority of companies choosing to allocate around 40% of their marketing budgets to the creation of content.

Published by the Custom Content Council, around 42% of the survey’s respondents said they expected to increase spending on social content and web updates, as well as SEO. This falls in line with figures showing that spends on all varieties of marketing were up by around 9.2% from 2012 to 2013, with a particular emphasis laid on digital content.

According to the survey results, marketers are keeping their online presences up-to-date by bringing in diverse content strategies. Now, businesses’ websites are updated, on average, around three times every week. However, audiences aren’t just being drawn in with news and feature stories – existing written content is increasingly being complemented with video content and active participation with customers on social media sites.

The Custom Content Council’s executive director, Lori Rosen, said that marketing funds previously set aside for print advertising are now being shifted to pay for video and social content.

More often than not, marketers are choosing content tailored towards social networks. Robust social network presences – particularly on sites such as Twitter and Facebook – have been proven to help brands engage with customers, increase website traffic and, ultimately, provide information to boost sales leads. This is according to eMarketer, which also found that reviews of cars published by customers on social sites have a growing influence on the decisions of others.

The survey from the Custom Content Council also found that video content is growing to be a leading content marketing medium, with more than 60% of respondents using video content marketing. Recent data from ComScore found that, in the U.S., almost 40 billion videos were watched in March this year.

Richard Bell

Richard has a First in English Literature and Creative Writing, and has experience writing fiction and short stories (which he has published both online and in magazines).