Originally published December 13, 2014 , updated on May 31, 2023

Online Content Creation is a growing market, globally. On average, annual digital marketing operating budgets represented 2.5% of a company’s revenue in 2012 (UK companies spend 2% of turnover). These expenses include personnel costs, contract labor, software as a service and external marketing services such as agency creative services, search, website design, content creation and management, social and mobile marketing. In fact, content creation and management account for the second-largest share of digital marketing budgets.

Reasons for Content Creation

Content creation and management account for the second largest share of digital marketing budgets. This is driven, in part, by the desire to populate the infinite appetites of inbound marketing channels. Social networks, customer forums, and the blogosphere are examples that drive inbound inquiries or actions. However, you need to create content that delivers the right message to the right person at the right time, regardless of how you start the dialogue. That means content is equally needed to meet the demands of outbound marketing as well. The enormous pressure to create, manage, and distribute content for multiple marketing activities through the right channels will increase. Customers use more digital channels for collaboration, researching, and acquisition of products and services.

Marketer and CMO’s Perspective

Marketers outsource 36% of content creation and believe it is the 4th most important activity for Marketing Success. Although, budgets per sector vary (source):

Budget’s on the Rise

According to the Custom Content Council, in 2012, 68% of CMO’s will be increasing their budget for content marketing. Smaller companies with less than 10 employees are spending about 34% of the company budget in content marketing, approximately $56,000 annually. Companies with over 1000 employees are spending about 26% of the company budget in content marketing, approximately $1M annually. Although budgets for SMEs are smaller, Small to Medium Businesses generally spends anything between 23-34% on content creation.  In the UK, on average, companies with a turnover of £1 million (the average TO of a UK SME) spend between £8,000 and £18,000 on content per year. Brands that turn over £2 million invest up to £36,000 per year and £5 million, £89,000 per annum. That equates to around 2% of turnover.

In the 2011 State of Content Marketing Survey from Techvalidate, the majority of respondents reported that they devoted 20% or more of their marketing budget to producing content. Of those surveyed, 15% devote at least half of their entire marketing budget to content production.

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