What Distinguishes Social Media Marketing from So-so Media Marketing?

Nearly 90 percent of B-to-B marketers use content marketing to generate leads and sales, according to a new study by Junta42 and MarketingProfs.

But what separates great B-to-B social media marketers from the mediocre majority?

Three factors, according to the study's findings:

• The most effective marketers spend more.  The most effective marketers devote 30 percent of their budgets to content marketing.  The least effective marketers devote only 18 percent.
• The most effective marketers segment by buying cycle.  The most effective marketers tend to segment their campaigns based on customers' buying cycles.  Thirty-seven percent of the most effective marketers segment this way.  Only 23 percent of the least effective marketers do.
• The most effective marketers have the CEO's buy-in.  Twenty-three percent of the least effective marketers are challenged by the big cheese.  Only seven percent of the most effective marketers are.

Ask yourself these questions.  How much do you invest in content marketing?  How do you segment your outreach effort?  And who's "bought into" social media marketing—or not?

Is it your time to take a giant step forward?