The hottest buzzword in marketing right now? It may well be content, judging by a new survey done by Junta42.

Of 250 marketers surveyed, 59% plan to increase their spending on custom content, up from 56% last year. And they apparently plan to spend the bulk of it online, according to Junta42, a producer of online content programs.

What’s custom content? It’s value-added information with a soft peddle on selling, everything from recopies to technical articles, even a little humor.

It is also known as custom publishing, brand marketing and information marketing.

On average, companies are spending 33% of their marketing budgets on producing and distributing custom material, compared with 29% in 2008. Smaller companies devote a larger percentage—40%.

And of the firms surveyed, 19% are increasing their budgets significantly and 40% at least slightly. Spending will remain flat for another 35%.

The biggest growth is online. Of the firms surveyed, 72% are sending content through social media, 63% via email newsletters and 63% via blogs. Following distantly are white papers (48%) and article marketing (46%), both of which are mostly distributed online these days.

Lower down the list are online video (42%), microsites (31%), virtual events like Webinars (26%), eBooks (19%) and podcasts (17%).

Print almost doesn’t exist. Only 16% produce print newsletters, and 10% publish custom magazines.

But there’s an apparent paradox. Except for mobile marketing, marketers are less eager to learn about new channels.

Asked to list vehicles they deem “important to know about” for their marketing strategies, 57% cited social media. But that number is down from 60% last year.

Similarly, only 43% want to know more about blogs. Last year, 55% did.

And 40% want to learn about online video, compared with 50% the last time.

In addition, 38% are seeking knowledge about email, compared with 61% in 2009. At the same time, 38% want more on mobile content. That’s up from 24%.

The survey did not break out B2B responses, but the participants included Adobe, Citrix, KPA, Alcatel-Lucent and Knowlagent.

Meanwhile, here’s another definition—from the Custom Publishing Council: “Custom publishing marries the marketing ambitions of a company with the information needs of its target audience. This occurs through the delivery of editorial content—via print, Internet, and other media—so intrinsically valuable that it moves the recipient’s behavior in a desired direction.”

Want to read the full report? Click here.