For marketers, attracting eyeballs is a perennial challenge. You can create the best content in the world but if no one sees it, it’s like the proverbial tree falling in the forest. So much content is produced every day that it’s getting increasingly difficult to reach your target audience, much less generate leads. Word of mouth is the communication channel most trusted by B2B audiences, but for that to work you need to inspire people to share your content. How can you do that?

According to a recent Salesforce report, the three most pressing business challenges facing B2B marketers are:

1. New business development
2. Quality of leads
3. Demand and lead generation

So how will these B2B marketers overcome their biggest challenges? One indication is where they plan to invest their budget in the coming year. And according to the same Salesforce report, 68 percent plan to increase their spend on content marketing—more than any other single budget item.

Earlier this spring I covered the annual conference and trade show for one of our large tech clients. And when I say “cover,” I mean good, old-fashioned news reporting. I served as the writer for our client’s blog, which supported the event. I spent hours each day running up and down the trade show halls, interviewing employees, crisscrossing the show floor, and sitting in on keynote speeches. It made me a bit nostalgic for my old newspaper days.