Content marketing encompasses and intersects with many other digital channels: social media, blogging and email marketing to name a few. The statistics contained in this post are generally focused around content marketing as an industry and practice, rather than on stats for specific digital marketing channels. While we love statistics, we implore our clients to make sure they use them as benchmarks and ensure that their tactics are perfectly aligned to their strategy.
B2B Content Marketing Stats
- 88% of B2B marketers currently use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy, yet only 32% have a documented content marketing strategy.
- 61% of the most effective B2B content marketers meet with their content team daily or weekly.
- The most effective B2B content marketers allocate a larger portion of their budget to content marketing: 42% of their total budget, compared to 28% for less-effective marketers.
- B2B marketers report sales lead quality as their #1 most important metric for measuring content marketing success; even more important than sales and conversions.
- Nearly half (48%) of the most effective B2B marketers have a documented editorial mission statement as part of their content strategy.
- 76% of B2B marketers say they will produce more content in 2016.
- The 5 most important marketing tactics for B2B businesses are (in order): in-person events, webinars/webcasts, case studies, white papers and videos.
- 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as part of their content strategy. Other popular platforms include Twitter (87%), Facebook (84%), YouTube (74%) and Google+ (62%).
- 66% of B2B marketers rank LinkedIn as the most effective social media platform for their business. Other effective platforms were Twitter (55%), YouTube (51%), SlideShare (41%) and Facebook (30%).
- 66% of B2B marketers report using search engine marketing (SEM), making it the most used paid marketing tactic among B2B companies.
- 55% of B2B marketers report that search engine marketing (SEM) is their most effective paid advertising method.
- 85% of B2B marketers say lead generation will be their most important content marketing goal in 2016. Sales will be their second priority.
- A majority (60%) of B2B marketers report that their top challenge in 2016 will be producing engaging content. 57% say measuring content effectiveness will be their greatest challenge, and 57% say producing content consistently will be their biggest struggle.
- 76% of B2C marketers report using content marketing, yet only 37% say their strategy is effective.
- 37% of B2C marketers say they have a documented content marketing strategy. This is up from just 27% last year.
- B2C marketers use infographics more than any other content strategy. 62% report using infographics, and 63% from this group said they were effective.
- Content marketing budgets have increased among B2C companies this year: On average, 32% of total marketing budgets are going towards content, compared to 25% last year.
- Compared to 2015, 77% of B2C marketers say they will produce more content in 2016. Only 2% will produce less.
- The most popular content marketing tactic reported by 90% of B2C businesses is social media; the next most used tactics are illustrations and photos (87%), eNewsletters (83%), videos (82%) and website articles (81%).
- The most effective content marketing strategy for B2C businesses is eNewsletters (61% of marketers say these are effective). Other effective strategies are in-person events (67%), illustrations/photos (66%) and social media content (66%).
- The most popular social media platform among B2C businesses is Facebook, with 94% reporting its usage. Other popular platforms are Twitter (82%), YouTube (77%) and LinkedIn (76%).
- 66% of B2C marketers say Facebook is their most effective social platform; this is followed by YouTube (53%), Twitter (50%) and Instagram (42%).
- The most popular paid advertising methods for B2C marketers are promoted posts and search engine marketing (SEM). 76% of businesses reported using these strategies.
- The most effective paid advertising method for B2C marketers is search engine marketing (SEM), with 64% reporting that it’s effective.
- The #1 content marketing goal for B2C businesses in 2016 is sales (83%), followed by customer retention and loyalty (81%) and engagement (81%).
- 30% of B2C marketers say sales is their most important content marketing metric.
- 50% of B2C companies say they plan to increase their content marketing budget in 2016.
General Content Marketing Statistics
- Self-employed individuals are more likely to use blogging than large businesses (those with 1,000+ employees).
- B2B businesses are more likely to use blogging than B2C businesses.
- 45% of marketers say blogging is their #1 most important content strategy.
- 69% of marketers say they plan to increase their use of blogging this year.
- The average word count of top-ranking content (in Google) is between 1,140-1,285 words.
- Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI on their efforts.
- Just over half (51%) of business owners report that content management is “very important” or “absolutely
- 71% of marketers report using visual assets as part of their content marketing strategy.
critical” to creating a cohesive customer journey.
Source: Newscred
