Everyone knows that developing a content strategy is essential for content marketing success. Well, just about everyone. According to our recent survey of people who subscribe to The Content Strategist, 98 percent of senior marketers believe strategy is important. So how are marketers turning that belief into action?

While it’s clear everyone believes in strategy, not everyone is taking the necessary steps to develop a strong foundation for their content. Eighty-three percent of marketers have a content strategy, and of that total, only about half have it officially documented (meaning it’s not just a nebulous concept that lives in their team’s heads). Having a documented strategy that is actionable and tied to key metrics is critical for marketing success, as our survey showed.

There’s a lot of room for improvement here. And that’s not even accounting for the fact that our email subscribers likely have a stronger grasp of content strategy than the average marketer. CMI’s 2016 study, for example, showed that only 37 percent of marketers have a documented content strategy. For more insight into the state of content strategy, check out the infographic below.