Content continues to sit atop the list of priorities in most marketing strategies, and there is plenty of evidence to support the reasoning.
Simply put, content marketing is crucial to any digital marketing strategy, whether running a small local business or a large multinational corporation.
After all, content in its many and evolving forms is indisputably the very lifeblood upon which the web and social media are based.
Modern SEO has effectively become optimized content marketing for all intents and purposes.
This is when Google demands and rewards businesses that create content demonstrating experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) for their customers – content that answers all of the questions consumers may have about their services, products, or business in general.
Content marketing involves creating and sharing helpful, relevant, entertaining, and consistent content in various text, image, video, and audio-based formats to the plethora of traditional and online channels available to modern marketers.
The primary focus should be on attracting and retaining a clearly defined audience, with the ultimate goal of driving profitable customer action.
Different types of content can and should be created for each stage of a customer’s journey.
Some content, like blogs or how-to videos, are informative or educational. Meanwhile, other content, like promotional campaign landing pages, gets to the point of enticing prospective customers to buy.
But with so much content being produced and shared every day, it’s important to stay updated on the latest trends and best practices in content marketing to keep pace and understand what strategies may be most effective.
Never has this been more true than in 2024, when we’re in the midst of a content revolution led by generative AI, which some feel represents both an opportunity and a threat to marketers.
To help you keep up, here are 35 content marketing statistics I think you should know:
Content Marketing Usage
How many businesses are leveraging content marketing, and how are they planning to find success?
- According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 73% of B2B marketers, and 70% of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy.
- 97% of marketers surveyed by Semrush achieved success with their content marketing in 2023.
- A B2B Content Marketing Study conducted by CMI found that 40% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy; 33% have a strategy, but it’s not documented, and 27% have no strategy.
- Half of the surveyed marketers by CMI said they outsource at least one content marketing activity.
Content Marketing Strategy
What strategies are content marketers using or finding to be most effective?
- 83% of marketers believe it’s more effective to create higher quality content less often. (Source: Hubspot)
- In a 2022 Statista Research Study of marketers worldwide, 62% of respondents emphasized the importance of being “always on” for their customers, while 23% viewed content-led communications as the most effective method for personalized targeting efforts.
- With the increased focus on AI-generated search engine results, 31% of B2B marketers say they are sharpening their focus on user intent/answering questions, 27% are creating more thought leadership content, and 22% are creating more conversational content. (Source: CMI)
Types Of Content
Content marketing was synonymous with posting blogs, but the web and content have evolved into audio, video, interactive, and meta formats.
Here are a few stats on how the various types of content are trending and performing.
- Short-form video content, like TikTok and Instagram Reel, is the No. 1 content marketing format, offering the highest return on investment (ROI).
- 43% of marketers reported that original graphics (like infographics and illustrations) were the most effective type of visual content. (Source: Venngage)
- 72% of B2C marketers expected their organization to invest in video marketing in 2022. (Source: Content Marketing Institute – CMI)
- The State of Content Marketing: 2023 Global Report by Semrush reveals that articles containing at least one video tend to attract 70% more organic traffic than those without.
- Interactive content generates 52.6% more engagement compared to static content. On average, buyers spend 8.5 minutes viewing static content items and 13 minutes on interactive content items. (Source: Mediafly)
Content Creation
Creating helpful, unique, engaging content can be one of a marketer’s greatest challenges. However, innovative marketers are looking at generative AI as a tool to help ideate, create, edit, and analyze content quicker and more cost-effectively.
Here are some stats around content creation and just how quickly AI is changing the game.
- Generative AI reached over 100 million users just two months after ChatGPT’s launch. (Source: Search Engine Journal)
- A recent Ahrefs poll found that almost 80% of respondents had already adopted AI tools in their content marketing strategies.
- Marketers who are using AI said it helps most with brainstorming new topics (51%), researching headlines and keywords (45%), and writing drafts (45%). (Source: CMI)
- Further, marketers polled by Hubspot said they save 2.5 hours per day using AI for content.
Content Distribution
It is not simply enough to create and publish content.
For a content strategy to be successful, it must include distributing content via the channels frequented by a business’s target audience.
- Facebook is still the dominant social channel for content distribution, but video-centric channels like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are growing the fastest. (Source: Hubspot)
- B2B marketers reported to CMI that LinkedIn was the most common and top-performing organic social media distribution channel at 84% by a healthy margin. All other channels came in under 30%.
- 80% of B2B marketers who use paid distribution use paid social media advertising. (Source: CMI)
Content Consumption
Once content reaches an audience, it’s important to understand how an audience consumes the content or takes action as a result.
- A 2023 Content Preferences Study by Demand Gen reveals that 62% of B2B buyers prefer practical content like case studies to inform their purchasing decisions, citing “a need for valid sources.”
- The same study also found that buyers tend to rely heavily on content when researching potential business solutions, with 46% reporting that they increased the amount of content they consumed during this time.
- In a recent post, blogger Ryan Robinson reports the average reader spends 37 seconds reading a blog.
- DemandGen’s survey participants also said they rely most on demos (62%) and user reviews (55%) to gain valuable insights into how a solution will meet their needs.
Content Marketing Performance
One of the primary reasons content marketing has taken off is its ability to be measured, optimized, and tied to a return on investment.
- B2C marketers reported to CMI that the top three goals content marketing helps them to achieve are creating brand awareness, building trust, and educating their target audience.
- 87% of B2B marketers surveyed use content marketing successfully to generate leads.
- 56% of marketers who leverage blogging say it’s an effective tactic, and 10% say it generates the greatest return on investment (ROI).
- 94% of marketers said personalization boosts sales.
Content Marketing Budgets
Budget changes and the willingness to invest in specific marketing strategies are good indicators of how popular and effective these strategies are at a macro level.
The following stats certainly seem to indicate marketers have bought into the value of content.
- 61% of B2C marketers said their 2022 content marketing budget would exceed their 2021 budget.
- 22% of B2B marketers said they spent 50% or more of their total marketing budget on content marketing. Furthermore, 43% saw their content marketing budgets grow from 2020 to 2021, and 66% expected them to grow again in 2022.
Content Challenges
All forms of marketing come with challenges related to time, resources, expertise, and competition.
Recognizing and addressing these challenges head-on with well-thought-out strategies is the best way to overcome them and realize success.
- Top 3 content challenges included “attracting quality leads with content” (45%), “creating more content faster” (38%), and “generating content ideas” (35%). (Source: Semrush’s The State of Content Marketing: 2023 Global Report)
- 44% of marketers polled for CMI’s 2022 B2B report highlighted the challenge of creating the right content for multi-level roles as their top concern. This replaced internal communication as the top challenge from the previous year.
- Changes to SEO/search algorithms (64%), changes to social media algorithms (53%), and data management/analytics (48%) are also among the top concerns for B2C marketers.
- 47% of people are seeking downtime from internet-enabled devices due to digital fatigue.
- While generative AI has noted benefits, it also presents challenges for some marketers who fear it may replace them. In Hubspot’s study, 23% said they felt we should avoid using generative AI.
- Another challenge with AI is how quickly it has come onto the scene without giving organizations time to provide training or to create policies and procedures for its appropriate and legal use. According to CMI, when asked if their organizations have guidelines for using generative AI tools, 31% of marketers said yes, 61% said no, and 8% were unsure.
Time To Get Started
As you can clearly see and perhaps have already realized, content marketing can be a highly effective and cost-efficient way to generate leads, build brand awareness, and drive sales. Content, in its many formats, powers virtually all online interactions.
Generative AI is effectively helping to solve some of the time and resource challenges by acting as a turbo-powered marketing assistant, while also raising a few procedural concerns.
However, the demand for content remains strong.
Those willing to put in the work of building a documented content strategy and executing it – by producing, optimizing, distributing, and monitoring high-value, relevant, customer-centric content, with the help of AI or not – can reap significant business rewards.
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Featured Image: Deemak Daksina/Shutterstock
