Content remains at the top of the priority list in most marketing strategies, and there’s plenty of evidence to back up the reasoning.
Simply put, content marketing is crucial to any digital marketing strategy, whether you’re running a small local business or a large multinational corporation.
After all, content in its multiple and evolving forms is indisputably the lifeblood upon which the web and social networks are based.
Modern SEO has effectively become all-purpose optimized content marketing.
This is when Google requires and rewards companies that create content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (EEAT) for their customers, content that answers all the questions consumers may have about their services, products or businesses Generally.
Content marketing involves creating and sharing useful, relevant, entertaining and consistent content in a variety of text, image, video and audio-based formats across the multitude of traditional and online channels available to modern marketers.
The primary goal should be to attract and retain 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, such as blogs or explainer videos, is informative or educational. Meanwhile, other content, such as landing pages for promotional campaigns, comes to the point of attracting potential customers to purchase.
But with so much content being produced and shared every day, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and best practices in content marketing to keep up and understand which strategies can be most effective.
This has never been truer than in 2024, when we find ourselves in the midst of a content revolution led by generative artificial intelligence, which some see as both an opportunity and a threat for marketers.
To help you keep up, here are 35 content marketing statistics I think you should know:
Use of content marketing
How many businesses are leveraging content marketing and how do they plan to succeed?
According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 73% of B2B sellers, i 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 is not documented, and 27% have no strategy.
Half of marketers surveyed by CMI said they outsource at least one content marketing activity.
Content marketing strategy
What strategies do content marketers use or which are most effective?
83% of marketers believe it is more effective to create better quality content less frequently. (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% found content-based communications to be the most effective method for personalized targeting efforts. With greater emphasis on AI-generated search engine results, 31% of B2B marketers who say they are focusing on user intent/answering questions, 27% are creating more thought leadership content and 22% are creating more conversational content. (Source: CMI)
Content type
Content marketing used to be synonymous with publishing blogs, but the web and content have evolved into audio, video, interactive and meta formats.
Here are some statistics on how different types of content are trending and performing.
Short-form video content, such as TikTok and Instagram Reel, is the No. 1 content marketing format, which offers the highest return on investment (ROI).
43% of marketers reported that original graphics (such as 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 by 2022. (Source: Content Marketing Institute – CMI) Semrush’s State of Content Marketing: 2023 Global Report reveals that articles that contain at least one video tend to attract 70% more organic traffic than those that don’t. Interactive content is generated 52.6% more engagement compared to static content. On average, shoppers spend 8.5 minutes viewing static content items and 13 minutes on interactive content items. (Source: Mediafly)
Content creation
Creating useful, unique and engaging content can be one of the biggest challenges for a marketer. However, innovative marketers are looking to generative AI as a tool to help brainstorm, create, edit and analyze content more quickly and cost-effectively.
Here are some statistics on content creation and how fast AI is changing the game.
Generative AI reached over 100 million users just two months after ChatGPT launched. (Source: Search Engine Journal) A recent survey by Ahrefs found that almost 80% of respondents had already adopted AI tools in their content marketing strategies. Marketers using AI said it helps more with brainstorming new topics (51%), researching headlines and keywords (45%) and writing drafts (45%). (Source: CMI) Additionally, sellers surveyed by Hubspot said they save 2.5 hours a day using AI for content.
Content distribution
It is not enough to create and publish content.
For a content strategy to be successful, it must include the distribution of content through the channels frequented by the company’s target audience.
Facebook remains the dominant social channel for content distribution, but video-centric channels such as YouTube, TikTok and Instagram are growing faster. (Source: Hubspot) B2B marketers reported to CMI that LinkedIn was the most common and best-performing organic social media distribution channel in 84% with a healthy margin. All other channels came in below 30%.
80% of B2B marketers using 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 preference study by Demand Gen reveals this 62% of B2B buyers prefer practical content like case studies to inform their buying decisions, citing “the 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 that time. In a recent post, blogger Ryan Robinson reports that the average reader spends 37 seconds reading a blog DemandGen survey participants also said they trust demos more (62%) and user reviews (55%) to gain valuable insight into how a solution meets their needs.
Content marketing performance
One of the main reasons why content marketing has taken off is its ability to be measured, optimized and linked to a return on investment.
B2C marketers reported to CMI that the the first three goals Content marketing helps them achieve: build brand awareness, build trust and educate their target audience.
87% of B2B marketers surveyed use content marketing successfully to generate leads.
56% of marketers who take advantage of blogging say it’s an effective tactic and 10% say it generates the highest return on investment (ROI).
94% of marketers said that personalization increases sales.
Content marketing budgets
Budgetary changes and willingness to invest in specific marketing strategies are good indicators of the popularity and effectiveness of these strategies at the macro level.
The statistics below certainly seem to indicate that 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. Additionally, 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 include challenges related to time, resources, experience, and competition.
Recognizing and tackling these challenges head-on with well-thought-out strategies is the best way to overcome them and achieve success.
The top 3 content challenges include “attracting quality leads with content” (45%), “create more content faster” (38%) and “generate content ideas” (35%). (Source: The State of Content Marketing: 2023 Global Report by Semrush)
44% of marketers surveyed for the CMI 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 main challenge of the previous year. Changes to Search/SEO Algorithms (64%), changes to social media algorithms (53%) and data management/analysis (48%) are also among B2C marketers’ top concerns.
47% of people are seeking downtime from internet-enabled devices due to digital fatigue. While generative AI has seen benefits, it also presents challenges for some marketers who fear it will replace them. In the Hubspot study, 23% they said they believed we should avoid using generative AI. Another challenge with AI is how quickly it has appeared on 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 sellers said yes, 61% said no and 8% were not sure.
time to start
As you can clearly see and may have already realized, content marketing can be a very effective and cost-effective way to generate leads, build brand awareness and drive sales. Content, in its many forms, drives virtually every online interaction.
Generative AI is effectively helping to solve some of the time and resource challenges by acting as a turbocharged marketing assistant, while also raising some procedural concerns.
However, demand for content remains strong.
Those who are willing to work to build a documented content strategy and execute it, by producing, optimizing, distributing and tracking high-value, relevant and customer-focused content, with the help of AI or not, they can reap significant business rewards. .
More resources:
Featured Image: Deemak Daksina/Shutterstock
[ad_2]
Source link
