In today’s world, content marketing plays a major role in the success of entrepreneurial ventures. Here we present some of the most important content marketing stats that you need to know in the year 2018. It clearly focuses on empowering the prospect customer with tools to make the best choice while making a buying decision; this, in turn, helps in solidifying the relationship between the customer and your brand.
Having said that it is distressing to find a lot of marketers still plan their marketing strategies based on gut feeling, rather than formulating their marketing budgets and techniques based on concrete evidence and latest content marketing stats.
A well-defined content strategy not only builds a relationship with existing customer s but also reduces the need to improvise.
Hence, it is extremely crucial for digital marketers to analyze everything as having just great content is not enough. It is equally important to measure which piece of content actually resonates with people.
Here are some interesting content marketing stats for you to watch out in 2019.
The below content marketing stats have been curated from the best industry experts opinion and analysis.
1. “61% of consumers are influenced by custom content.” – Dragon Search Marketing
Who doesn’t like things made specifically for their needs?
custom content is created by the brands to communicate with their existing customers. Furthermore, it converts complex topics in a logical sequence so that it is easy to understand.
Although custom content can be used to convert new prospects, the main intent is to build relations with existing customers.
Based on the given content marketing stats, it’s obvious that existing customers are more likely to buy from you than new prospects.
2. “Only 55% of bloggers update old posts. Those who do are 74% more likely to get strong results” – Orbit Media
Creating a blog and making it successful is just not enough. We need to ensure that the same piece of content stays viable for as long as possible.
Any successful blogger knows that s/he would need to keep updating their blog content on a regular basis so that it does not become irrelevant with the changing trends.
This practice leaves the users wanting for more and keeps them coming to your blog for more up-to-date information.
Google loves newer content, anytime. Considering this, it is advisable to keep updating your old posts which are yet relevant according to market trends. Remember, old content act like an old wine. Hence, at times, if you update an old post, it can be better than writing a completely new one.
3. “76% of B2B marketers blog, and 73% publish case studies.” – Content Marketing Institute
Well, isn’t this one of the most interesting content marketing stats!
Blogging is an irreplaceable aspect in every content marketing strategy and, for the best of reasons. It not only builds awareness and domain authority but also provides a platform for businesses to promote their services and educate prospects.
Case studies, on the other hand, allow businesses to use relatable stories to move prospects through the buyer journey. Case studies are greatly helpful in removing any doubts that might be having.
By establishing the relationship between product and buyer’s intent, case studies ease the buying process and help to remove doubts the customers might have.
It’s a lot easier to trust a company whose content has demonstrated how to get something done successfully.
4. “The average blog post is now 1,142 words (up 41% since 2014)” – Orbit Media
With the ever-changing search engine’s algorithm, the competition to get ranked on the first page of Google has increased drastically.
Gone are the days where blogs with 500 words were sufficient for keyword ranking.
Post-Panda and Penguin updates, now, Google analyzes each and every piece of content in terms of depth and quality as it’s one of many parameters for the ranking. Hence, the average blog content length has increased in recent years.
A study by SerpIQ found that top-ranking content is usually just over 2,400 words. This could be due to the fact that longer blog posts get more backlinks
5. “The average reader only spends 37 seconds reading an article post.” – News Cred Insights
Majority of the users prefer to go through the content on the go using messengers and other applications. Therefore, marketers are finding innovative ways to structure detailed content into snackable components which are easy to read and assimilate at a fast rate.
Some of the techniques involve relaying the content in the form of small videos, infographics and slide shares.
You can be as creative as you want with content formats as long as it gets things done; the sky is the limit.
6. “Paid content promotion is up 5x since 2014” – Orbit Media
Fact – “98% of the searchers make their decisions from page 1 of Google”
Therefore, it has become extremely crucial for businesses to secure theirs. One of the most prominent tools for paid promotion is Google AdWords, which reaches over a billion people. A report by Google shows that businesses typically see a 200% ROI from AdWords. Having said that please keep in mind that Even if you’re relying on Google AdWords ads or social media PPC campaigns, you have to be directly involved in content creation. Web marketing is primarily powered by content and always will be.
7. “Mobile will account for 72% of US digital ad spend by 2019.” – eMarketer
As previously mentioned, today’s generation prefers to go through their content on the go and mobile is just the right medium to do that. Increase in the usage of mobile phones has to clamour to advertise on the platform.
Mobile searches outpaced desktop back in 2014, so it makes sense that mobile-centric marketing efforts will keep increasing over the coming years.
8. “Only 8% of marketers consider themselves “very successful” or “extremely successful” at tracking content marketing ROI.” – LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community
The analysis is a critical activity that needs to be applied in every stage of the marketing funnel. However, the given content marketing stats implies that tracking of ROI of the content without the right tools does not give desired results.
Looking at most page views or most liked tweets is just not enough to track the entire aspects of a buyer’s journey from start to finish.
The entire analytical KPIs should be structured in such a way that it meets the goals of your respective business.
9. “63 % of marketers create content by buyer persona; 38% by vertical; 30% by geography; and 30% by account or customer.” – Curata
Buyer persona represents the ideal buyer’s personality based on the real-world market statistics which is highly specific to one’s business. This enables marketers to understand the wants and needs of their prospects and structure their marketing tactics accordingly. This technique results in higher conversion rates as people tend to take their business to one’s who address their pain points. Marketing Sherpa found using personas increases revenue by 171%.
Content marketing using geography and customers’ accounts are also effective but all of them are contributing factors while creating a buyer persona.
10. “57% of B2B buyers have already made their purchase decision before ever speaking to a sales person.” – CEB Global
Earlier buyer’s used to be solely dependent on the salesperson who used to be their first point of contact, for making their purchase decisions.
Consumers are fed up with in-your-face With the abundance of information available on the internet, buyers do not require a salesperson to make buying decisions. Hence it has become extremely crucial for brands to educate and build trust with the target audience, helping them move through marketing and sales funnel.
11. “B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics.”- TopRankBlog
Any smart marketer knows not to put all their eggs in one basket while formulating an effective and successful marketing strategy for their business.
Diversify while still retaining your focus on the main goal, testing which of the component work best for your business requirements.
Consistently creating and distributing blog posts, videos, infographics, whitepapers, webinars etc. over different channel will always generate targeted leads.
12. “The most common content marketing delivery mechanism is social media, used by 87% of marketers.” – CMI
Social media networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest have transformed the way we interact with the world. These social networks are so popular and easy to use. The only thing it costs to push content via social media is your time unless you decide to run a paid ad campaign.
This is where your creativity in content really shines. A lot of companies are sending the same benefits and sale information through their social media channels and that is a tactical flaw. To get the most out of your social media marketing, focus on the “social” aspect and build reputation and trust with your followers. Give them truly helpful content, then refer them to your landing pages and nurture the relationship from there through email marketing.
Let’s move on to the last but not the least content marketing stats.
“Gamification is the least common content marketing tactic, with only 10% of marketers using it.”- CMI
To put it simply, gamification is using interactive games and quizzes for the purpose of selling or promoting one’s products or services. However, this strategy has not been used much and only 10% of marketer apply gamification in the real world. This might be due to the fact that it requires a lot of resource investment.
If you have the resources, it may be worth your while investing in gamification content, helping you stand out from competitors who don’t embrace it. It all boils down to your core product or service and the stage of the buyer’s journey that your prospect customers are currently located.
Conclusion:
Believe it or not – not all the marketers are aware of all these content marketing stats.
Businesses need to transform their marketing tactics in accordance with the changing trends if they wish to thrive. In order to achieve this, they would need to embrace inbound content marketing strategy wholly and solely. Publishing the content adaptable to mobiles, using the trendiest themes to inspire users, aligning the marketing strategies as per the researched buyer’s persona and so on and so forth. Following these strategies will place you on top of the content marketing game.
It’s just not enough to approach prospects willy-nilly. Marketers need to create enough awareness and goodwill about their product so that the prospects should feel the need to buy all by their own volition.
Would you like to add anything here? Do drop in your thoughts in the comments box. We’d love to hear from you.