Content marketing is becoming more and more popular, especially with the rise of the internet and social media. It is especially important for businesses that market to other businesses, since content marketing can create a trust between a business and those they service.

However, a new report shows that even with the help that content marketing can provide, only 12% of B2B marketing programs say they have good, strategic content marketing that targets their demographic. Titled Lead flow that helps you grow, the report details a survey conducted with 200 marketers from numerous industries. The findings of the survey included a sizable disconnect between strategies for development and the results expected of campaigns.

From these respondents, only 2% had an effective strategy to generate demand for their product or service through marketing. About one-third of them say that their efforts are only successful some of the time. That means their content marketing is about as effective as outdoor ads — which only 37% of people look at as they pass them — even though it has the potential to bring in many more consumers.

There also seemed to be confusion among companies about what would actually generate leads. About 84% were making brochures, while 79% were using slide presentations. The most leads, however, were coming from whitepapers and videos. The biggest issue revealed by the report is the fact that it seems content marketers just don’t know how their marketing techniques are faring in practice.

The top six problems with lead generation the report found were: content not developed for target audiences, budget limitations, content that wasn’t relevant, content that didn’t reach the person making decisions, correct distribution channels not leveraged, and no content strategy tracking.

One of the respondents, CA Technologies, said that the new technology and channels for marketing provides a challenge as well, since in addition to the opportunities it gives, it also adds levels of complexity that weren’t there previously.

“We understand the content development must align with the buying cycle,” Mike Paradiso, Vice-president of content and messaging at CA Technologies, said. “We have a true content research and content cycle based around the buyer’s journey and we know where the content fits in that journey.”

The bottom line? More marketers need to be educated on the emerging routes of marketing. The rapid increase in technologies and services make it hard to keep up, but staying on top of every opportunity will result in better business.