More than 90 percent of digital marketing professionals predict that content marketing will increase in importance over the next 12 months. But the majority of companies do not have a content strategy, dedicated budget or dedicated individual in place, according to a new survey from Outbrain, content discovery platform, and Econsultancy, a global independent community-based publisher.

The study of 1,300 digital marketing professionals found that two-thirds of in-house marketers (64 percent) agree that content marketing is becoming its own discipline but fewer than half of companies have dedicated budgets (34 percent) or dedicated individuals (46 percent) for content marketing, even though 55 percent of in-house and 58 percent of agency respondents are planning content marketing strategies in the future.

Less than half of all companies spend more than 20 percent of their marketing budget on content, despite the fact that only 12 percent disagree with the statement that "content marketing is more effective than advertising in driving sales."

Other findings:
• 83 percent of in-house marketers use social posts and updates for marketing, more than any other type of content
• Social network engagement is the most popular tactic used to drive traffic, with 78 percent of in-house respondents stating that their company used this
• Social posts and updates are the second most effective type of content for in-house marketers after email, with 46 percent stating that this is one of their three most effective types of content