Content marketing has become one of the most effective strategies in regard to engaging audiences, generating leads, and increasing sales. It has become one of the leading strategic marketing approaches so companies can create and distribute relevant and consistent content, helping attract and acquire a clearly defined audience.
Many people are aware of content’s effectiveness, but not many can explain why. And as a content marketer, it’s important to stay on top of trends in industries, especially those such as the edtech, healthcare and financial industries. They also need to have awareness of what competitors in your space are doing in regard to their own content strategy. What has been effective? Where do the challenges lie? What has been the ROI?
Here we’ve rounded up the top content marketing statistics every successful marketer needs to know this year.
The Popularity & Effectiveness of Content Marketing
Content marketing has become increasingly popular and it’s hard to find a company these days that isn’t utilizing some form of content marketing within its overall strategy. And it’s because people know its value.
1. 84% of companies have a content marketing strategy.
2. 46% of survey respondents would describe the maturity of their content marketing strategy as “promising”.
3. Nearly 40% of marketers say content marketing is a very important part of their overall marketing strategy.
How Content Marketing is Shifting Due to the Pandemic
COVID-19 has brought about a number of unexpected changes to the way we live and work, and businesses have found themselves having to adjust their strategy as well in order to keep up with ever-changing audience preferences and how they wish to consume their content.
4. According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 94% of content marketers changed their strategy in 2020 as a direct result of the pandemic, both in their messaging approach and having to adjust their editorial calendars.
5. 4 out of 5 people surveyed content marketers say the pivots and changes they made due to the pandemic were effective.
6. As far as changes made, over half changed targeting/messaging strategy (70%), adjusted their editorial calendars (64%), and/or changed their content distribution and promotion strategy (53%).
Generating Leads Continues to Be a Priority
Generating leads has and will continue to be a top priority in 2022. Companies rightly believe content marketing is one way to do it. As a content marketer, there is always one sole focus – meeting your goals by targeting your audience’s needs. In order to generate leads, this is crucial. Here are some of the statistics related to generating leads with content marketing:
7. According to Showpad, Content marketing creates three times as many leads as traditional marketing and costs 64% less.
8. Marketers who blog regularly experience ROI 13 times greater than marketers who don’t blog.
On the Content Marketing Tactics That Work
There are a number of content marketing tactics one can implement and it will depend on your specific audience and their preferences. However, successful companies will play around with how they distribute content to see what’s most effective.
9. In 2020, 75% of respondents said search engine optimization was the most efficient content marketing tactic they implemented
10. 61% of respondents said updating and repurposing content was an effective tactic they implemented in 2020.
11. Wyzowl found that 87% of marketers who’ve hosted or participated in a webinar found them effective and 49% plan to host or take part in a webinar in 2021.
12. Video has become the most commonly used format in content marketing, overtaking blogs and infographics.
Content Marketing Is Increasingly Becoming a Priority
If marketers aren’t already utilizing content marketing then they are actively thinking about how to start. And if a marketer is already using and seeing the value, they’re ready to continue putting more of their budget towards content marketing in the coming years.
13. According to Hubspot’s recent State of Marketing Report, blog content creation is a top priority for 53% of marketers.
14. 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing.
15. 24% of marketers plan on increasing their investment in content marketing in 2020.
Measuring Success to Improve Content ROI
Content marketing strategies don’t matter if they’re not bringing in measurable results. There are a number of metrics companies are using to measure and improve content marketing success and ROI.
16. The key metrics to measuring content marketing success are organic traffic (83%), leads (66%), and sessions/pageviews (70%).
17. 43% say their company measures content marketing ROI.
18. Web traffic is among the top two most-common measurements of success for content marketing strategies.
19. The most common measurement of success for content marketing programs is total sales.
The Challenges of Content Marketing
Content marketing provides the opportunity for brands to build their business and engage their audience. Unfortunately, a lot of companies are not efficient in their content-building. They typically waste time and money since they do not know how to engage with and influence their target audiences through their content. Let’s take a look at some statistics surrounding the challenges of content marketing:
20. According to Hubspot, design and visual content is the biggest challenge for 23.7% of content marketers.
21. 65% of marketers find it challenging to create engaging content that also ranks well in search results.
22. According to ZiFlow, revisions also account for delays — 52% of marketing teams said an asset is revised between three and five times before it is considered final. 20% of teams reported five to 10 revisions for assets.
Final Thoughts
Content marketing has proven time and again to be an effective way to generate leads, engage audiences, and show your company’s expertise in a number of subject matters. Whether you already have a content marketing strategy in place that’s working for you or want to find new ways to use content without taking up more time and resources, licensing content is one way to do so. It doesn’t require any more bandwidth from your team and allows you to leverage some of the biggest names in the industry in order to build credibility and thought leadership to your rapport.
