Today, 90% of B2B marketers “agree” or “strongly agree” that unbiased third-party content assets are generally perceived to be more credible than company-branded content assets, which decision makers often view as little more than thinly-veiled marketing collateral. Moreover, 83% of marketers “agree” or “strongly agree” that unbiased third-party content assets generally produce higher-quality leads than company-branded content assets.
These research findings help explain the popularity of custom eBooks and research reports co-branded with industry-respected IT market research firms like Starfleet Research. The content assets tend to perform exceptionally well in lead generation campaigns, which further explains why there seems to be so much demand for them (some of our clients commissioned more than a half dozen new eBook titles in the past year). Producing high-quality content — content that can be repurposed into blog posts and leveraged in multiple other ways — is important. So, too, is doing the homework that is necessary to ensure that the content focus of each eBook will resonate with the target audience. Also important, as already suggested, is steeping the content in fact-based research, not only for added credibility but also to incorporate more actionable insights for the benefit of readers.
Third-party eBooks and other content assets can have global reach. In fact, a number of the custom eBooks that Starfleet Research recently produced have recently been translated into multiple languages, including French, German and Spanish. These eBooks are now being utilized by marketing and sales teams in Europe, Latin America and around the world.
Speaking of new content assets, we’re pleased to announce the release of the first title in a new category of content assets: benchmark reports. Click here to access The 2016 Benchmark Report on Omnichannel Marketing. Upcoming titles include The 2016 Benchmark Report on Business Intelligence and The 2016 Benchmark Report on Business Intelligence and The 2016 Benchmark Report on Social Listening. These benchmark reports will be available for licensing to a limited number of leading technology solution providers for use in their own content marketing and lead generation activities.