Companies are increasingly embracing content marketing — the creation and sharing of articles, pictures, video and other publishing content in order to acquire customers — as one of the most effective forms of advertising.

A large share of companies are recalibrating their marketing strategies in 2013 to put greater emphasis on content marketing, a recent survey by content development company CopyPress found.

The percentage of companies that said content would be their primary marketing focus in 2013 nearly doubled from last year’s survey, rising from 18.9 percent to 34.8 percent, CopyPress said. The survey found that about half of marketers decided to change their marketing focus in 2013. 

“The focuses for 2013 are radically different,” CopyPress said in a report detailing the survey’s findings, “2013 State of Content Marketing.” 

The shift in focus appears to be manifesting itself in real estate. Online foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac recently created a network of brokerages that it says will help it generate market-specific reports that it can pitch to media outlets.

Meanwhile, listing service Trulia just debuted its “Real Estate Lab,” which it said will uncover hard-to-spot trends in the housing market.