I had planned on writing a somewhat sappy post this week about why I am thankful to be a freelance content marketing writer. I was going to start with how thankful I am to have gotten to meet so many wonderful writers through my blog and ASJA this year. My post was going to talk about how I love getting to write about interesting people, companies and ideas that make me think me think about things from different perspectives. And most importantly, I was going to write about how freelance content marketing writing gives me the ability to help support my family while also providing the flexibility to be there when my kids need me.

But I decided to take a different approach. The fact that brands are continuing to focus their efforts and their dollars on content marketing is what will ultimately allow me (and you) to continue doing the work that I love for so many reasons. And I came up with over 40 billion reasons to be thankful. One reason for every dollar that was spent on content marketing in 2012, with much more spent in 2013 (the final numbers are not in) and all signs are showing that companies will spend even more in 2013. I started to use higher math to figure out the exact prediction for 2014, but I am not a math person so I decided to spare myself the embarrassment of getting it wrong and just leave it at over 40 billion reasons.

But according to the recently released B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America, it’s not just the dollars being spent that are good news for freelancers. I highly recommend that all content marketing writers read through the report because there is a lot of interesting information that will help you market yourself and understand content marketing. The report was published by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute, and sponsored by Brightcove. It shows that the market for freelancers is very promising.

Here are four statistics from the study that made me even more thankful:

• Almost all B2B brands (92%) are using content marketing. That is huge news for freelance writers. That means that in the B2B market that we have a very large number of potential clients who need content and are already familiar with the benefits of content marketing strategy. And that when you approach a potential client, the odds are in your favor that they already understand the need for content marketing.
• Over half (58%) of B2B brands said that they were going to increase or significantly increase their content marketing spending in 2014. Only one percent of respondents said that their company was decreasing their content marketing budget. This response made me the happiest of the entire report. I found that work was plentiful in 2013 and this number predicts that there will be even more work next year.
• Having enough time to create effective content is the biggest challenge for 69% of B2B brands. And the second most often mentioned challenge was producing enough content (55%). Since freelance content marketing writers save brands time while producing amazing content, this is very encouraging news that brands will need freelancers even more.
• Writing is the function of content marketing that 64% of B2B brands are most likely to outsource. This illustrates that many brands are open to turning to freelance content marketing writers when they need additional help.

All of these numbers make me thankful and very optimistic about the opportunities available for content marketing writers in 2014. And I am positive that every content marketing writer who carves out niches and focuses on marketing themselves will find some of the billions of dollars companies are looking to spend in their own bank account.

Why are you thankful to be a content marketing write? What are your thoughts on what the released B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America means for Content Marketing writers? Any other points from the study that you found interesting?