If you have a content marketing strategy for your business, congratulations – you’re one of the 84% that do (according to a SEMRush survey of over 1,500 people).
But where is content marketing headed, and how could you be doing it smarter? After all, the competition is only getting tougher.
That’s where content marketing statistics come in. They don’t need to be boring stats – instead, these trends can help you figure out how best to market your content in the future. Pulled together from a wide range of expert sources, we examine some of the content marketing statistics you need to be aware of.
What is the value of content marketing?
There are various stats around this topic, but two of the most interesting come from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI):
- Content marketing gets 3+ times as many leads as outbound marketing. It also costs less – around 62%, to be precise.
- Content marketing generates 3 times as many leads per dollar spent on paid search campaigns.
If these two statistics don’t sufficiently underline the value of content marketing investment, perhaps this will:
- DemandMetric reports that 78% of surveyed CMOs consider content marketing the future of marketing.
They can’t all be wrong, can they?
What types of content marketing are there?
The options are abundant, potentially even more so than the content marketing statistics we offer. Nonetheless, here are a couple of noteworthy trends to concentrate on.
- According to ImpactPlus, 77% of internet users read blogs. And the CMI follows that up by saying small businesses with blogs generate 126% more lead growth than those who don’t blog.
- SEMRush also found that most of their survey respondents produced blog posts (92%), with the next most popular content types being email (66%), case studies (47%), infographics (45%), and ebooks or white papers (37%).
- Although visual content like infographics is important, and we all know everyone loves a video, Social Media Examiner found that 58% of marketers find “original written content” to be the most important part of their strategy.
- And in case you’re wondering where that written content comes from, 70% of businesses do NOT outsource their content creation (according to SEMRush). However, among the ones that do, 81% of that outsourced work is writing.
What about B2B content marketing statistics?
Rest assured, we haven’t overlooked this. Staying informed about trends is crucial for B2B marketers, and here are a couple specifically for your consideration.
- 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing, according to the CMI.
- And in fact, TopRankBlog says that the most successful of these B2B marketers are spending roughly 39% of their marketing budget on content marketing.
- The same website says that B2B marketers use around 13 different content marketing tactics.
- And though not wholly based on B2B respondents, SEMRush rates the most important content marketing tactics as:
- SEO
- Updating/repurposing existing content
- Educational content/how-to guides
- Optimising customer journeys
- Creating more visual content
Recommended: B2B SEO Services
Visuals are perfect for social media. This leads us to our final statistic:
According to SEMRush, both Facebook and LinkedIn are the most effective social media platforms for content distribution. With a rating of 36% each, they’re way ahead of Instagram (9%), Twitter (8%), and YouTube (5%), according to the content marketers interviewed.
Before revising your content marketing strategy, take a moment to digest these pertinent content marketing statistics. In an ever-changing landscape, staying updated with current trends can greatly enhance your competitive edge.
* According to a SEMRush survey of over 1,500 participants.
