According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) report, 86% of companies are investing in content, regardless of size or industry.

The data comes from B2C Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America, which is the first annual survey from the CMI about content marketing in the B2C space. 

B2C organizations use an average of 12 tactics, the study shows. Most popular among these are social media excluding blogs (84%), articles on a company's website (84%), eNewsletters (78%), and blogs (77%). 

The results are not too dissimilar to those of B2B marketers. In a previous report from the CMI, 87% of B2B marketers are using social media to distribute content, as compared to the rate of 74% that was reported last year.

However, in the B2C sphere, marketers are using mobile content, mobile apps, print magazines, and print newsletters a lot more.

"It's exciting to be able to benchmark B2C and B2B content marketing efforts and quantify differences by marketing type," says Joe Pulizzi, founder of the CMI.

"One interesting difference is how each group uses social media. For B2C marketers, Facebook is the most popular platform by far, with 90% of respondents indicating they use this for content distribution. This differs from B2B, in which LinkedIn is the most popular platform, with 83% of respondents using this (compared to 51% of B2C marketers)."

B2B marketers are spending a third of their marketing budgets on content marketing, up from a quarter in 2011. Similarly, B2C marketers are investing heavily in content marketing this year, allocating 28% of their marketing budgets on content marketing. Additionally, 55% of B2C marketers are planning to increase their content marketing spend over the next 12 months.

"Another similarity between B2C and B2C marketers is that both groups lack confidence that they are executing content marketing effectively," says Ann Handley, chief content officer of MarketingProfs. "But B2C marketers cite lack of budget as their biggest challenge (23%), whereas B2B marketers are most challenged with producing enough content (29%)."

Content marketing is increasingly being seen as crucial to digital success, whether it's being measured in Facebook likes or dollars.

Here's a six-stage plan to maximise your content marketing strategy, courtesy of PR Newswire, a press release distribution service.

Monitor and Listen

"Before creating a single piece of content, listen. Learn what interests your audiences, how your brand currently resonates with them, what your competitors are saying and what conversations are happening in your industry," say the authors of the report.

Listen well and you may be able to come up with content that achieves your business objectives and is useful for your audience without being too salesy. If you're listening to your customers and responding to what they want, and your content follows suit, they will like your content.

A survey of business executives, The Content Preferences Survey from DemandGen Reports, found that 75% of respondents want content writers and creators to "curb the sales messaging".

Create and Optimise

Think about your audience's preferred content type and format. It is possible to align these with your marketing objectives in one of three ways:

Thought leadership: infographics, articles, blog posts and short white papers offered directly to interested audiences. Basically anything that goes to show the depth and breadth of an organisation.

Acquisition: white papers, video demos,eBooks or webinars. These ought to be gated so that you can collect leads.

Nurture/cross-sell: this is content used to bring a lead from marketing through sales. Content types include original articles, infographics, blog posts, guide books, comparison grids, demos and more. Calls to action – to request more information or view a demo – are essential in these content types.

One straightforward option is through news feeds. "Staying on top of the latest news also provides opportunities for you to actively participate in the breaking news cycle by adding your own relevant commentary to the resulting discussion – even incorporating the keywords noted in the news coverage within your messages and landing pages," says PR Newswire.

News feeds are one of the oldest and most tried-and-tested forms of content marketing. Regularly updating your site with topical features and analysis, and the right keywords, will always drive traffic.

Identify and Target

"There are big influencers and small influencers, and you need the right mix of both to generate a viral effect around your content," says the study. It's all about creating conversations, shares and social media buzz. Think about who you want to reach first with your content – targeted content at core influencers – bloggers for instance – can get the ball rolling a lot faster than taking a scattergun approach.

Engage and Interact

"Content can only make an impact in the social sphere if it is easily found, triggered for audience interaction and readily shareable," according to the report. Remember that once you get content out there, you will need to respond and react. Social media posts will attract comments – how do you plan to respond if they are anything but positive, for example.

Distribute and Reach

Think about how you plan to get your content in front of as many people as possible. If your website is generating thousands of page views every day, people will pick up on it regardless. If you're a smaller player in the market, think about how your content will be read.

Measure and Report

Metrics, as we've said before, are crucial to content marketing success. Decide before how you plan to measure activity – page views, sales or social media followers, for example.

Volkswagen is clearly doing something right with its content marketing strategy.

Viral online content is the goal of all marketers, but few truly achieve it. Volkswagen, however, seems to be doing something very right with its online content marketing strategy as new data shows the brand accounts for 25% of all car ads shared via the web.

The study by Unruly shows VW accounted for a quarter of all automotive video shares from June 2011 to June 2012, followed by Kia (21.6%) and Chevrolet (15.3%).

It also reveals that VW's Super Bowl ad The Force is the most shared ad ever, with more than 5.5 million shares and 62.5 million views.

Not bad at all is it? Of course video content is different to blogs, news, features and all the other text-based content. But the principles of the thing are the same – produce interesting, engaging content that people want enjoy if you want to get noticed.

The online paid content market is set to expand by a huge 65% to be worth £8 billion by 2017, new research shows.

Tablets and smartphones will spur the growth , with consumer spending on digital news set to increase by 77% to almost £250 million, the study from Forrester reveals.

News content spend will grow by 77% from €158m this year to €279m in 2017, according to the data seen by the Guardian.

"While consumer research for years reported that consumers claimed they wouldn't pay for content, the forecast revenues indicate otherwise," Forrester analyst Darika Ahrens told the newspaper.

The study also found the number of people choosing to buy news content online will jump 68% from 4.8 million to 8.1 million. By 2017, 20% of tablet users will pay for online content.

What does this all mean for marketers and business owners? Ahrens explains on the Forrester blog:"You will have fewer chances to reach consumers with traditional advertising."

She explains: "The very services driving growth in digital content consumption are limiting pure advertising opportunity for brands, by adopting payment models that don't require brand advertising for revenue and even driving consumer appetite for more ad-free content."

It also means brands must develop content capabilities to avoid losing ground, explains Ahrens. "It's not all doom and gloom. The growth in Western Europeans buying content shows us that audiences want, and value, content. Marketers can ensure their brand gains presence by developing content capabilities," she adds.