Whether you’re a wannabe or a wizard when it comes to content creation, it always helps to know your peers’ challenges and successes. A recent survey by demand generation company Ascend2 of 290 marketing, sales and business professionals around the world offers some insights. One of the survey takeaways: Articles and case studies might constitute the one content type that every content creator should have in his or her arsenal.

Of the professionals surveyed, articles and case studies rated as the top-performing type of content (54 percent). This category was followed by:

• Video — 46 percent.
• Infographics — 43 percent.
• Research and white papers — 36 percent.
• Webinars and online events — 30 percent.
• E-newsletters — 28 percent.
• Photos and illustrations — 24 percent.
• News releases — 10 percent.

Among the various content categories, professionals ranked video as the most difficult to tackle (59 percent). It was followed by:

• Webinars and online events — 50 percent.
• Research and white papers — 50 percent.
• Infographics — 34 percent.
• Articles and case studies — 31 percent.
• E-newsletters — 13 percent.
• Photos and illustrations — 8 percent.
• News releases — 6 percent.

Given all those statistics, it looks as if — comparatively speaking — articles and white papers deliver the most amount of gain with the least amount of pain.

What’s standing in the way of creating powerful content? Lack of resources is the No. 1 answer among those surveyed (53 percent). Next in line are:

• Lack of an effective strategy — 42 percent.
• Budget constraints — 40 percent.
• Inability to measure effectiveness — 33 percent.
• Lack of cross-channel integration — 27 percent.
• Lack of employee skills — 25 percent.
• Lack of content variety — 24 percent.
• Lack of management support — 15 percent.

“Lack of content creation resources is a reality for a majority of marketing departments,” Ascend2 says. “However, lack of an effective strategy is also a top obstacle to success. Planning an effective content marketing strategy requires a balance of what is most effective with what is realistic to create.”

Once that content is planned and created, how do marketers measure its success? Here are the metrics ranked as most successful in the survey:

• Conversion rate — 50 percent.
• Quality of leads — 45 percent.
• Website traffic — 42 percent.
• Number of leads — 37 percent.
• Sales revenue — 30 percent.
• Growth of subscriber list — 27 percent.
• Social media shares — 27 percent.
• Search engine rankings — 17 percent.

To learn more about this topic, attend "8 Steps to Creating Content Your Market Will Find & Love" at LeadsCon New York. 

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