Do you know how the content marketing industry moves and why? If not, you’re not likely to know the best ways to adjust your content marketing strategy to see real growth.
There have been many advancements in marketing technology, which means your content marketing efforts can go longer and do better. Ultimately, content marketing increases engagement with your customers and leads, and it’s a great way to raise brand awareness.
While your content marketing efforts are sure to do well, it’s crucial to understand the content marketing statistics out there. Only then can you find concrete evidence to support your spending money for quality content.
Today, you’re sure to learn the latest content marketing statistics. That way, you’re armed with knowledge.
A typical content marketing team needs to have various strategies to do things properly. Pair that with appropriate content marketing statistics, and you’re sure to have the knowledge you need to do well.
1. Roughly 42 Percent of B2B Marketers Claim They’re Effective with Content Marketing.
When done properly, content marketing produces dramatic results for any business. However, it takes focus and time to become efficient. About 42 percent of B2B marketers say that they’re effective with their content marketing efforts.
Unlike certain lead generation strategies, content marketing gives something to prospects instead of just asking for something (an email address or purchase).
With content marketing, you provide valuable information to others before you ask them to do something. This can generate leads. Even as you start selling products through content marketing, the target audience is glad that you did. They feel understood and valued.
User understanding is crucial to content marketers. They have to know what your product does and how it benefits them. For B2B marketers, content marketing often takes time to show results. However, this long-term approach improves visibility for your brand. With it, you also nurture relationships and build stronger ones with the clients.
You can see quick returns on your native and traditional advertisements, but content marketing helps your business thrive now and in the future. Today’s customers continue to depend on you to get great information.
Ultimately, content marketing works well because you’re using an appropriate marketing tool to send the best message to them. It says you know what they need and can solve their problems. Instead of just bringing people to your website and leaving them to decide, you’re taking initiative.
The prospect thinks that you understand them. With that, you see more sales because you’ve taken the right approach. As you consistently distribute/create content that’s interesting, helpful, useful, engaging, funny, or persuasive, prospects respond. Therefore, it should be a top priority.
2. 60 Percent of All Marketers Create One Piece (or More) of Content Every Day.
To become excellent content marketers, people must understand that consistency is crucial. Sometimes, you must use the entire team. Understanding these content marketing statistics ensures that you can reap the rewards of your efforts. However, content creation is crucial, so you should spend a lot of your time here.
Marketers and companies often put this on the back burner, so they see few leads. Those with large marketing budgets may fare a bit better, but if you have no money, a new blog, and no connections, you’re likely to fail.
Regardless, if you create content and promote it, you’re sure to see conversions and more traffic. Some companies believe that they can rely on PPC and Google AdWords ads. Even if you do, you’ve got to be involved with content creation. Ultimately, web marketing focuses on content.
About 60 percent of marketers create one piece of content each day, and some use more. These people often find that it’s not as challenging to find leads. While you might use other tactics such as guest blogs to help you reach a large audience, writing for your blog should be at the core of your strategy.
The content you create could be a post, long-form article, video, podcast, or infographic.
3. Year-over-year Growth for Unique Site Traffic Is 7.8 Times Higher for Content Marketing Leaders than Followers.
The top content marketers are pace-setters. They constantly work to improve their techniques and writing.
Why are there more followers in the digital marketing world than leaders? For one, leaders show everyone else how to do it. However, most of the leaders for social media, blogging, and search engine optimization aren’t motivating others or being excited and passionate about their goals.
They’re more occupied with other tasks instead of focusing on what originally brought them revenue, sales, leads, and tractions.
Few marketing influencers do spend more time creating content to drive more leads and traffic than they think they can handle. They’re developing content for their blogs. You don’t have to imagine yourself writing one million blogs a month. It’s possible to set your goals a bit lower and still see a huge achievement. To do that, you should:
- Reduce how much time you spend reading and write your own.
- Use each post strategically.
- Consider other blog post formats.
- Recognize what the leaders do; they act once they’ve learned.
- Leaders are there to set the standard in their fields. Challenge yourself to create engaging and useful long-form content that the audience can’t find elsewhere.
- Become affiliative leaders and establish relationships with others. Offer tips and ideas in the content, and back them up with statistics and data when possible.
4. 57 Percent of Marketers Reported That Custom Content Was a Top Priority for Their Content Marketing Efforts.
Did you know that 78 percent of consumers trust brands that create customized content? This goes in with the other content marketing statistics shown, even though you might not understand what “custom” means.
Ultimately, it’s crucial for pull and inbound marketing. The definition varies, but it means that the content is designed to build with the existing audience. It reinforces your brand, communicates the product’s value, and creates more opportunities.
The issue many have is that custom content is at the end of the marketing funnel because it nurtures your existing customers. Content marketing means that you produce content to attract the right people to the business.
While you could use custom content to convert your prospects, it’s focused more on developing content that ensures you maintain a relationship with existing customers because they’re more likely to purchase something than a lead.
If you own a membership website, the custom content helps you retain and nurture your customers. The custom content is focused on how to get the most from the products and use them. On top of that, custom content can clarify challenging topics, presenting them more logically for people to understand.
You can do this for your blog readers, too. Create content that’s tailored to your specific audience. Then, you should monitor comments and run surveys. That way, the audience tells you what information they need or want!
5. Content Marketing Costs about 62 Percent Less than More Traditional Marketing to Generate Roughly Three times the Leads.
Investing time and money could reduce your content marketing costs, and it generates about three times the leads you might have gotten with traditional advertising. You should be weighing your options and choose the best way to balance traditional and content marketing advertising. While traditional marketing helps with lead generation, it doesn’t nurture the customers.
Good content marketers know that content marketing helps their companies achieve the right goals. That way, you’re generating quality leads while nurturing them at the same time.
This is one of the reasons that people spend so much on their content marketing endeavors. You want quality leads and can see up to 83 percent more with this option.
When you pair that with marketing automation, you make it easier to do most of the tasks and can focus on other things. Marketers shouldn’t put everything they have into one tactic. Instead, diversify your efforts to see the best results. You shouldn’t abandon traditional marketing for quick sales. However, you must focus more on creating the best content possible.
6. 93 Percent of All B2B Marketers Utilize Content Marketing
Many content marketing statistics focus on other aspects, but this one is still crucial. Almost all B2B marketers use content marketing. The vast majority of them embrace it.
That’s often because it’s easier to communicate with new audiences when you create something and give it away instead of asking them to purchase something. However, content quality matters. Great content can build trust over time and helps you keep the prospects closer to you. Trust must come before a sale is made!
Without trust, customers aren’t likely to buy from you. For example, Amazon is credible because it delivers the items quickly, and you get what you want. This gives consumers more peace of mind.
It’s often hard to trust brands that only produce television commercials. Typically, it’s easier when the company shows you content to help you understand what to do. This idea should shape your strategies.
7. 78 Percent of CMOs Feel That Custom Content Is the Future for Marketing.
The internet is constantly evolving, so the audience must adapt. There’s so much noise on social media networks, but this is where most people turn. They know they get tons of information, and companies need to utilize this.
However, to do that, you must learn about your audience. You should also focus on the email marketing statistics out there that tell you how well this type of marketing works. Remember, your content comes in many forms. It’s not just about writing a blog or article. Your content also extends to newsletters and other email communications.
Customized content is the wave of the future, but it’s also important now. Therefore, you should look at what other blogs talk about, what your prospects worry about, and all the rest. That way, you can create content that meets those needs.
8. Conversion Rates Are about Six Times Higher for Those Who Adopt Content Marketing Strategies than Those Who Don’t.
Content marketing adopters are those who have taken on content marketing and focus more on it. If this is your primary goal, you could increase website conversion rates by five times or more. However, those who don’t create appropriate content saw meager conversion rates.
Just a one percent increase in landing page conversions could transform your sales and revenue.
9. 39 Percent of the Marketing Budget Is Spent for Content Marketing by Efficient B2B Marketers.
The Truckers Report is a forum for truck drivers. It used excellent content to boost landing page conversions by almost 80 percent. That led to 4.5 million page views and over one million visits each month.
Ask yourself how much you’re spending on your marketing budget. If your goal is to generate more leads, you must have some of that going toward content creation, metrics, and content promotion strategies.
10. 48 Percent of Smaller Organizations Use a Documented Content Marketing Strategy Compared to 41 Percent of Large Companies.
Content marketing statistics like this one indicate that large companies aren’t focused as much on their content strategies. Going back to the Trucker’s Report example earlier, you should be aware that the team had six testing rounds before it found an appropriate landing page.
It’s crucial to have a documented strategy. Most people throw the term around to sound smart, but what’s it mean?
A documented strategy is the set of actionable and proven steps you can take to produce a predictable result. It’s all in writing, so there’s no need to improvise or “wing it.”
Smart marketers aren’t reinventing the wheel each day. Instead, they continue doing what they’ve done in the past that delivered appropriate results. They know what’s likely to work because the strategy was measured and documented as it occurred.
11. 58 Percent of Marketers Claim Original Written Content Is Crucial and Outdoes Videos and Visuals.
Most video content marketing statistics show that visual content does extremely well and can help with conversions. The thought here is that most people don’t want to read. With video content, they don’t have to do that. In fact, more than half of the marketers surveyed prefer to create original written content instead of visuals.
With such content marketing statistics in hand, you can feel confident about not creating visuals and still reaching your audience. If you don’t have the tools or money to create visual content immediately, focus more on written content. You can still see amazing results.
Some marketers claim that they’ve never shared infographics or original videos with their customers. They only offer written content and can still see 100,000 visitors each month.
Ultimately, visuals require a higher cash investment than your written content. Those who don’t want to branch out or can’t financially don’t have to feel left in the dust. However, you should be aware of any competition that uses visuals, especially if your conversion rates and ROI start slipping.
12. 60 Percent of B2C Marketers Use a Documented Content Strategy.
Many content marketing statistics focus on documented strategies. You learned earlier that a documented strategy can help a small business replicate those proven strategies and win big. This is true for B2C marketers, as well.
When you have a documented content strategy, it’s easier to produce various engaging content options for your customers. This is a crucial tactic that you should understand and act on.
Most content marketing teams struggle to create such content because they don’t have a documented strategy. Sometimes, they’re not executing it or have flaws in the assumptions they utilized to build the strategy. If yours isn’t working and you’ve documented it, consider revising it.
13. B2B Marketers Average about 13 Content Marketing Strategies.
Successful content marketers have to use more than one content marketing tactic to maximize their potential. Many content marketing statistics focus solely on one or two strategies, but there are countless ones to consider. Many marketers use 13 different ones simultaneously to see results.
This can include visuals and social media. Again, you shouldn’t put everything into one basket. Instead, diversify your efforts while maintaining the same focus. Create videos, blogs, whitepapers, infographics, webinars, and everything else. Distribute them consistently on various channels, and you can find targeted leads.
14. 74 Percent of People Have Glossophobia (Fear of Speaking in Public).
It’s true that most content marketing statistics focus on written content, but there are many times where you can promote your brand with your voice. However, some content marketers don’t do public speaking because of anxiety about it.
It’s possible to overcome those challenges. In fact, public speaking could be the most overlooked tactic out there. Speech is also content and can boost your digital marketing efforts.
Once you’ve overcome those fears, you can engage your target audience who are willing and able to purchase your product!
15. B2B Markets With Documented Strategies Are Likely to Think of Themselves as Effective.
You should stop reinventing the wheel every time you do your content marketing strategies. The key reason people try to reinvent something is that they’re not aware of what’s been done yet. Ignorance leads to wasted effort, regardless of how it comes.
Develop a strategy that works and stick to it. There might be a need for adjustments periodically, but your documented strategy is crucial and can’t be over-emphasized. Put your strategy in writing to point you in the right direction for the next steps. It can also help you create a marketing budget. That is likely to drive continuous improvement in your results while creating a record of how you achieved your goals.
16. 73 Percent of All Organizations Have Someone to Oversee the Content Marketing Strategy.
Time is ultimately a nonrenewable resource and is very precious as a result. Most people struggle to find time to do what they must for their customers. Therefore, the solution is to hire someone to do your content marketing for you. That way, you can focus on the tasks that generate revenue.
You shouldn’t hand the content strategy over to just anyone. Marketing specialists are quite rare to find. With that, the person must fit your needs to the strategy, and this is complicated. Many company owners still write their blogs and manage the overall direction of their strategies. You must decide what’s most important to you and where the revenue is at.
17. 86 Percent of Effective Organizations Put Someone in Charge of the Content Marketing Strategy.
Most content marketing statistics focus on what effective organizations do. Usually, they excel in certain fields but might not be writers or creators. They know what they want to say, but now how to say it. With that, content distribution is a challenge.
That’s why 86 percent of organizations have someone else do the content marketing for them so that they’re more effective. It’s easy to value your time over money, so it’s crucial to outsource everything to someone who’s proficient.
18. About 60 Percent of Marketers Choose to Reuse Content Between Two and Five Times.
Content repurposing is often crucial to your success. It’s the easiest way to generate content. You might not have the marketing budget or time to produce engaging content consistently for your clients. Most organizations realize this. When you use repurposing as your overall marketing strategy, you can generate a buzz for larger pieces when you have time or money.
If you created a post that thousands found to be beneficial, you can turn it into podcasts, videos, eBooks, infographics, and more.
With that, about 89 percent of content marketers used a blog post for their own content marketing strategy in 2020, according to the Content Marketing Institute. It’s easy to see why blogs are the go-to for content!
19. 64 Percent of B2B Marketers Tend to Outsource Their Writing.
If you are a B2B marketer, you should think about outsourcing your content writing needs. This can help you reach new levels for productivity and lead generation. There are plenty of content marketing teams out there, or you could use freelance writers.
Just make sure that the writer you choose has the right tone and style. They should portray the information in a positive light and help you reach your audience and connect with them.
You don’t have to do it all yourself, and you shouldn’t!
20. 72 Percent of Marketers Produce More Content Now than Before.
Consumers aren’t just looking for more and more content. They want the best. With so many articles and blogs out there, you have to stand apart from the crowd.
There are more than two million blog posts that get published each day. Therefore, your content can easily get buried. That’s something you truly want to avoid!
About 72 percent of marketers end up producing more content now than they did in the past. This is good news, but it only works if the content is high-quality and helpful.
You need long-form content that’s visually appealing and in-depth. That way, you boost your search rankings and get your information shared more. Marketing agencies often use this tactic, and it works wonderfully.
21. 82 Percent of Marketers with Blogs See ROI from the Inbound Marketing.
You should be focused on your content marketing ROI. Blogging is crucial for growing online businesses. The more time you spend on blogging, the higher the content marketing ROI is likely to be. That means you can make a bigger impression on your customers. In a sense, these content marketing programs do their job thoroughly because you’re promoting useful content that answers their questions within each blog post!
22. Social Media Is the Most Common Delivery Option for Content Marketing (87 Percent of Marketers Use It).
Social media platforms like LinkedIn or Facebook are highly popular and are changing the way you communicate with your consumers.
In fact, the primary content distribution channel is Facebook, but all social media usage has jumped in volume. These sites are easy to use and free to join. You don’t have to pay anything to push your content unless you offer paid search ad campaigns.
The issue here is that you need a management program to help you. Most global industry professionals claim that increased exposure is one of the most important reasons to use social media marketing.
With that, social media can also boost your email marketing efforts. Think about the social aspect so that you can build trust and momentum with fans. Offer helpful content and send them to your landing pages. That way, you can grab those email addresses and send email communications to the leads you get.
23. 76 Percent of B2B Marketers Have a Blog, and 73 Percent Offer Case Studies.
Blogging is a great way to boost sales, but the content’s substance is what counts. Each blog post has to provide value. Yes, you should have a blog. However, case studies can drive traffic to your website, convert subscribers, and engage the audience.
Case studies detail the process you used and the challenges you faced. From there, you explain how you overcame the obstacles and what results you received. You’re never likely to run out of leads with appropriate case studies.
24. Roughly 49 Percent of Marketers Focus on Driving Content to Align with Their Buyer’s Journey.
Each buyer you have is on a journey. There are different aspects of the marketing funnel or buying cycle. Customers must go through them before they choose to buy from you. Sometimes, the prospect moves quickly, but it can take more time. You must produce the content and align it to fit each stage.
The buying cycle looks like this:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Trial
- Buy
- Loyalty
25. 81 Percent of All Marketers Plan to Increase the Use of Original Written Content.
Google is known for penalizing duplicate content, but why? The biggest reason is that users don’t enjoy it. They want useful, engaging, and original content that creates memorable experiences for them. Therefore, more and more marketers spend money for content marketing services to produce original content, and you should, too!
26. 91 Percent of All B2B Marketers Utilize LinkedIn to Distribute Their Content.
If you don’t use LinkedIn for content distribution, you are missing an opportunity. LinkedIn is a top choice to find professionally relevant content. Therefore, you can quickly reach an audience that understands what you do and responds well to your content.
The good news is it doesn’t focus on visual content, so if you don’t have the means or education to do that, you can still create things that people want to read. With it, you can build a big network and generate more targeted leads.
27. 73 Percent of All B2B Marketers Utilize YouTube to Distribute Their Content.
Most video marketing statistics show that the written content does better. However, some industries just do well with video content marketing. Therefore, it’s up to you to know what is right for your needs. Roughly more than half of internet users are on YouTube right now. With over six billion hours of visual content, it’s no wonder that this is an effective video marketing channel.
If you do create video content and aren’t using YouTube to boost engagement with the brand and channel motivated and qualified visitors to your websites and landing pages, you should be!
Distributing great content through your YouTube videos can boost your leads more than other types of content. However, this still depends on the value provided by the content instead of just cranking out videos all the time. You don’t require feature film quality to get results.
It’s possible to fail at YouTube videos. To avoid the most common mistakes, consider these steps:
- Identify what the audience needs/wants.
- Create a step-by-step video.
- Make it valuable and as short as possible.
- Upload it to YouTube.
- Promote it using social media.
28. LinkedIn Usage Raised 20 Percent for B2C Marketers.
LinkedIn has exploded on the scene in usage, and that is set to increase. Many B2B and B2C marketers focus on essentialism. This means that you figure out what matters in your business. Then, you develop the discipline and passion to go for it.
In a sense, it’s about not being as active on every social network. Instead, you figure out which ones are best for your time and energy to get the most out of the ones you’re active on.
29. 28 Percent of All Marketers Wish to Learn about Podcasting.
Most successful content marketers embrace podcasting and claim that it’s addictive for the listeners. Sometimes, they infuse the speaker’s personality, but they could also be funny or focus on a particularly exciting theme.
You’re not alone if you want to incorporate podcasting and learn about it. About 28 percent of other marketers focus on the best information about this.
30. Content Reading with Mobile Devices Jumped More than 10 Percent in 2014 Alone.
People who search for products online are often mobile users. They use a device (smartphone or tablet) to research what they want to buy. Such usage has revolutionized how others consume content. Now, most people are using devices other than laptops and desktops.
Typically, internet users like to look for information while they’re on the go. They could be in a long line at the supermarket and research tasty recipes or decide if they want a new television.
Therefore, Google quickly added mobile-friendliness as a rule to rank high. If your website isn’t mobile responsive, you’re hurting yourself more than you know. This means that your web pages have to be optimized for every device. While this does cut into your mobile advertising spending, it’s crucial to ensure that people can find you (and use any device to do it).
31. Content Production Is a Challenge for about 44 Percent of Marketers.
It’s easy to spend tons of time researching your topics or brainstorming about the information you want to include in your post than you do writing it. What to write about is a huge challenge. If you don’t get the subject right, you might find it difficult to promote your content.
Niche marketers often understand that they can’t choose the wrong niche. If they do, they struggle to grow their website. It doesn’t matter if you put in tons of money and time on your marketing.
Almost half of the marketers have said that content production is the top challenge for them. To help combat this problem, have a notepad and jot down your ideas as they come. You can also use digital notepads. Others might want to create a content editorial calendar. That way, they know what to write about and when to post it.
32. Gamification Isn’t a Top Content Marketing Tactic (10 Percent of Marketers Use It).
Rarely, content marketing statistics focus on gamification. In the past, it was seen as a poor tactic and almost felt like cheating. Some companies have embraced it, especially on website popups, because it generates a sense of missing out and an opportunity to “win” something.
Interactive content is crucial because it brings everyone a lot of value. There are plenty of polls, calculators, surveys, quizzes, and puzzles out there. They offer more engagement and keep people on the web page longer.
However, studies show that gamification isn’t used a lot. About 10 percent of marketers use it. Maybe it doesn’t perform well. Most people feel that it requires too much of an investment to get started.
Now, though, some companies are focused more on gamification as a way to reach customers. You can find various tools to help you create game-like popups and campaigns to bring in more business. Since many people don’t use it, you could start the trend in your industry and beat the competition.
Conclusion
The content marketing industry isn’t slowing down. In fact, it’s even more competitive than ever before. This is why you need quality content and must raise your content marketing efforts to ensure that you stay on top.
While visuals, interactivity, and customization are king, you must also think about how people consume and receive your content. Brand awareness is a big thing. However, once people know you, they want to learn why they should buy from you. Great content marketers understand this and stay on their toes.
If your goal is to get more customers and leads, the question isn’t where to find them. In a sense, they’re everywhere. Instead, you have to figure out how to create appropriate content that inspires them to click the link, visit the website, and subscribe to your email list.
These content marketing statistics can help you put the focus where it needs to be. You learned about developing a strategy and documenting it so that you can continue using it.
Any time you create a piece of content, you need to think about these content marketing statistics. The stats can guide you on how to generate more sales or website traffic.
