This article originally appeared in the blog published by the Content Marketing Institute.

We always thought that having a documented content strategy would improve content marketing effectiveness, but we now know what a difference it makes. Business-to-business (B2B) marketers who have a documented strategy are more effective and less challenged with every aspect of content marketing.

This is just one of the many findings revealed in the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs’ fourth annual B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America report, sponsored by Brightcove.

Click to tweet: B2B marketers with documented strategy are more effective and less challenged with every aspect of #contentmarketing
This year’s B2B content report compares findings with years past, looking at differences between marketers who rate themselves as most and least effective. Here are some of the key findings:

B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends – North America by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs from Content Marketing Institute

Confidence is growing

Not only is the adoption of content marketing on the rise (93 percent of marketers use content marketing this year compared to 91 percent last year), but 42 percent of B2B marketers consider themselves effective at content marketing, up from 36 percent last year.

Click to tweet: 42% of #B2B marketers consider themselves effective at content marketing, up from 36% last year

B2B content marketers use an average of 13 tactics

Compared to last year, the average number of tactics used has risen from 12 to 13. The use of all tactics has remained fairly consistent, with one standout: Infographics have seen a considerable increase, from 38 percent last year to 51 percent this year. B2B content marketers continue to rate in-person events as the most effective tactic.

The use of social media has increased across-the-board

B2B marketers are using all social media platforms to distribute content more frequently than they did last year. In addition, they now use an average of six platforms, versus five last year.

The social media platforms that have experienced the biggest surges in use, year over year, are SlideShare (40 percent vs. 23 percent), Google+ (55 percent vs. 39 percent), and Instagram (22 percent vs. 7 percent).

Click to tweet: SlideShare and Google+ are channels with biggest growth for B2B #contentmarketing

Uncertainty about effectiveness remains, especially for social media

Each year we ask marketers to rate the effectiveness of traditional tactics, but this year we also asked them to rate the effectiveness of social media platforms. Similar to what we’ve seen with traditional tactics, there is uncertainty in terms of effectiveness. LinkedIn is the only platform that the majority of B2B marketers consider to be effective.

Click to tweet: #LinkedIn is the only platform the majority of B2B marketers consider to be effective

B2B content marketers are increasing their budgets and creating more content