Fragmented Content Hinders Revenue, Says MarcomCentral, Demand Metric Study

Published: March 20, 2017

Almost two-thirds of firms lose business when the sales team doesn’t have the needed content available, according to new research published jointly by MarcomCentral, a cloud-based marketing asset management company, and Demand Metric, a research and advisory firm.

The State And Impact Of Content Consistency” also revealed that content fragmentation—a lack of consistency in expressing branding and key messages—occurs when sales and marketing content is branded poorly, lacks key messages or expresses those messages incompletely.

Content fragmentation is a reality for almost one-fourth of respondents, the study found. When content is fragmented, only 15% of respondents said it meets buyer needs well during the customer journey. In addition, more than 25% of the sales team often or always create content without waiting for marketing to do it, according to the findings, which further contributes to content fragmentation.

Other findings from the study include:

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  • While less than 10% report that their brand representation is very consistent, almost 90% agree that it is important to present their brands consistently in all places people might encounter them.
  • The section of the sales/marketing funnel that suffers the most from a lack of quality content is the middle section, where consideration occurs (40%).
  • On average, study participants personalize between 21% and 31% of their sales and marketing content. Those that do personalize content reported that it does a much better job of supporting customers on their buying journeys.

“For content to have the greatest impact, it must consistently convey the brand and its core messages reliably,” said Jerry Rackley, Chief Analyst for Demand Metric, in a statement. “This study shows the real cost of allowing inconsistent content to creep into the portfolio. The data shows that the business case for investing in the time, resources and systems to ensure that content is consistent is very compelling.”

The study surveyed 328 participants online from Jan. 18 through Feb. 21.

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