With the rise of the Internet, the term “content marketing” can make marketers and consumers alike shake their heads. It’s easy to be confused between content marketing, digital marketing, traditional marketing, and branded marketing. So what exactly is the difference, and why should you care?
Content marketing is the strategic approach of creating, publishing, and distributing content for a target audience online. However content marketing is a bit different than other marketing approaches, as it is permissive and does not interrupt consumers when they go about their day.
In traditional marketing, consumers are barraged with advertisements when they read a newspaper or magazine, drive past a billboard, and listen to the radio. Content marketing is different in that potential customers seek out your brand to gain insight and learn something new. The type of content you create within the realm of content marketing is less about promoting products and services and more about emphasizing the delivery of helpful information. Typically, those who consume content marketing have already identified their needs and are looking for a solution to their problem.
Examples of content marketing formats include blogs, social media posts, infographics, videos, email newsletters, white papers, and ebooks.
How Effective is Content Marketing?
Having a content marketing strategy can be extremely effective for any business. As a whole, 90% of all organizations use content in their marketing efforts. In addition, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing channels, and of these leads, they are 6 times as likely to convert. In fact, content marketing works so well that 73% of B2B marketers and 70% of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy. Content marketing is a very powerful tool that can help grow your business.
25 Impressive Content Marketing Statistics to Be Aware Of in 2024
1. Personalized Content Creates a 20% Increase in Sales Opportunities.
Personalizing your content can give any brand an edge over its competitors, as this provides a more sophisticated way of communicating and an enhanced user experience. Expectations around what consumers expect during their purchasing journey have changed. Customers are becoming savvier, as they know what problem they are looking to solve, and are really looking to see how a certain business can help.
2. Video Content is on the Rise.
The pandemic caused the majority of consumers to stay home and pass their time by watching video content, and this trend has continued to grow the test of time. According to HubSpot, 90% of marketers using short-form video will increase or maintain their investment this year. Furthermore, 50% of marketers are creating and sharing video content, with short-form video content being the most popular.
3. The Top 3 Goals of Content Marketers are to Create Brand Awareness, Build Trust and Educate Their Audience.
A CMI report found that 80% of respondents report that creating brand awareness is their number one goal, 72% of respondents want to build credibility and trust, and 68% say educating audiences with their content is their third priority.
4. Voice Search Accounts for at Least 20% of all Searches.
Voice search is when a user asks their phone or digital assistant a question and expects to get an answer without using a computer. With voice search accounting for at least 20% of all mobile searches on the web, this will mark a shift in how brands will produce content in 2024. Brands now will have to adapt all of their content to include natural language speech patterns.
5. Businesses Create Content for About 4 Different Audiences.
On average, B2B businesses create content for 4 different audience personas. Larger companies tend to create 5 different audience personas.
6. Marketers Are Actively Investing in SEO.
More marketing professionals are learning more about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and learning how it can benefit their digital strategies. In fact, 88% of marketers who already invest in SEO plan to maintain or increase their investment. When it comes to the trend marketers will invest the most money in, SEO ranks third behind short-form video and influencer marketing.
7. Influencer Marketing is Ramping Up in Popularity.
More and more brands are choosing influencer marketing as a portion of their content strategy simply because buyers trust an individual recommendation when deciding to make a purchase. In fact, 33% of Gen Zers have bought a product based on an influencer’s recommendation in the past three months. Additionally, 89% of marketers who already use influencer marketing plan to keep up or increase their investment.
8. The Podcast Market is Expected to Exceed $4 Billion by 2024.
Podcasting has become increasingly popular as a unique type of content marketing. In 2024, experts predict the number of weekly podcast listeners in the US to increase by 5.2%, hitting 109.1 million. As of September 2023, there are currently 3.02 million podcasts, and Podcast Index estimates the figure to be closer to 4.2 million. This popularity is inspiring brands to discover how podcasting can help grow their brand awareness and authority.
9. 73% of all Content Marketers Use Social Media Content.
So if your brand isn’t active on multiple different social media platforms, then you are missing out on a huge opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competitors!
10. Nearly all B2B Marketers Use LinkedIn for Organic Content Marketing.
A full 96% of marketers choose to use Linkedin for organic social marketing, with the runner-up being Facebook at 80%, and Twitter at 71%.
11. LinkedIn and Facebook Are the Most Popular Paid Social Media Platforms.
LinkedIn is still the most popular, with 80% of surveyed B2B brands using LinkedIn paid ads. 69% are using Facebook paid ads, and 30% are using Twitter.
12. The Global Webinar Industry Has Made a Revival.
Webinars made a strong comeback amidst the pandemic and are continuing to grow. So much so, the market stood at $1.57 billion in 2020, and the global webinars and virtual events market will nearly triple in size to reach $4.44 billion in 2025.
13. Image Searches Are Going Viral.
Image searching is becoming increasingly popular, as this allows for the consumer to search keywords about the image and no other text. Visual recognition strategies are continuing to grow, with an estimate of image searching becoming a $40 billion industry by 2025.
14. In 2023, 70% of Content Marketers Reported Having a Strong Content Strategy in Place.
This number has been growing steadily over the past four years and shows that having a documented strategy is a key indicator of content marketing success.
15. Email Marketing Is Still Considered a Popular Form of Content Marketing.
In 2024, B2B technology organizations reported using email marketing 44% of the time and email newsletters 39% of the time. It’s effective for brands to create curated newsletters and emails as a part of their marketing strategy.
16. Half of all Content Marketers Outsource at Least One Content Marketing Activity.
Quality content marketing doesn’t always have to be completed in-house. There are plenty of options available for those who do not have the time, budget, or in-house resources to put a content strategy in place. In situations like these, choosing to use licensed content from The New York Times Licensing Group can be a great way to boost your brand.
17. 74% of Content Marketers Craft Content Based on Specific Stages of the Customer Journey.
This shows that content marketing works best when a brand focuses its content on meeting its consumers right where they are in the marketing funnel and their individual purchasing journey.
18. Blog Posts Are the Most Popular Formats Used to Increase Brand Awareness.
79% of marketers say that blog posts are an effective channel to distribute content, reach customers, and build brand awareness. This is followed by 56% choosing in-person events and only 15% choosing online learning platforms. As you can see, it is increasingly important to have a strong B2B blog content strategy in place.
19. Email Marketing is Powerful When Nurturing Leads.
Almost one-third of all marketers report that email newsletters were the most helpful in nurturing leads through the sales funnel.
20. Social Media Platforms Are the Chosen Medium for Content Distribution.
90% of B2B marketers report that they use their brand’s social media platforms to distribute their content to their audience. Comparatively, 73% reported using email newsletters and 56% used webinars.
21. When Measured, Content Marketing Boasts a Powerful ROI.
59% of Marketers who measure content marketing rate their ability to demonstrate the ROI as excellent or very good.
22. Almost Half of B2B Marketers Believe There’s Room for Improvement in Their Conversions.
48% of B2B marketers think that their brand needs to improve both the quality and conversions of their audiences.
23. Content Marketing is Successful.
63% of content marketers report that content marketing has helped them to build loyalty with customers. 81% of respondents said that content marketing helped them to create brand awareness, and 63% of respondents reported success in building a growing loyalty with existing clients and customers.
24. Only 28% of Marketers Rate Their Organization’s Overall Level of Content Marketing as Extremely Successful.
This means there is a lot of room for content marketing opportunities and growth in 2024!
25. Most Companies Only Have Smaller Teams to Outsource Their Content.
It’s pretty rare to find internal teams of more than 5 full-time employees that are dedicated solely to content marketing. This is where licensing content and outsourcing content can come to be helpful, as NYTLicensing can do the heavy lifting for you.
Final Thoughts
These statistics show that content marketing is a truly powerful force for building brand awareness, generating leads, and converting new customers. However not having the resources to create the robust content strategy you need should not get in the way of reaping the benefits of content marketing. NYTLicensing has plenty of content offerings to inspire your audience on an extensive range of subjects. Book a demo to learn more about how we can help.
