30 Essential Content Marketing Statistics for 2022

30 Essential Content Marketing Statistics for 2022
Masooma Memon

Written by:
Masooma Memon

Aug 25, 2020
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Whether you’re looking to convince your team about investing in content marketing or working to show off some awesome results of your hard work, there’s nothing that a good roundup of content marketing statistics can’t do.

Feel free to bookmark and revisit this page whenever you’re looking to pull out a relevant stat to impress your audience.

What Results Do Content Marketers Expect?

70% of the B2B content marketers say their brand’s content marketing efforts have been somewhat/much more successful than last year. 

content marketing statistics - 70% of content marketers say their efforts have been more successful this year
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Interestingly, 96% of the most successful content marketers say that content marketing has helped them build credibility and trust with their audience.

content marketing statistics - 96% of content marketers say content marketing helps build credibility and trust
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But how? 90% or nearly all of the most successful top players get these results by prioritizing their audience’s informational needs over sales-y messages. 

content marketing statistics - 90% of content marketers prioritize informational messaging
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So, you know what to do moving forward, right? 

 

Buyers Trust Content As Well

A whopping 95% of the B2B service and product buyers admit that they view content as a trustworthy marker when evaluating a business. 

content marketing statistics - 95% of B2B consumers say content helps them trust a business more
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On top of that, 71% in the B2B industry also admitted to reviewing an organization’s blog during their buyer’s journey.

content marketing statistics - 71% of B2B consumers reviewed a business's blog before buying
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But the viewing and reading is not all. 61% of consumers have also bought something that’s recommended by blogs that they read (Woo-hoo!).

content marketing statistics - 61% of consumers have bought something recommended in a blog post
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Content Marketing ROI – What Does It Cost?

The latest reports say content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing programs. On top of this, it generates 3x the leads. With that in mind, how can you resist taking advantage of such a powerful marketing strategy?

content marketing statistics - content marketing costs less and generates more leads
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So How Many People Are On a Typical Content Marketing Team?

To reap these results, 78% of organizations have a team of 1-3 content specialists according to SEMrush. This number changes as per company size. However, even large companies are likely to have teams of 2-5 members

content marketing statistics - 78% of companies have 1-3 people on their content marketing team
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Half of these B2B marketers outsource at least one activity related to content marketing. Of these activities, 84% of marketers are most likely to outsource content creation. 

content marketing statistics - outsourcing content marketing
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Bloggers in the industry also work with editors with 30% of them following along with a formal editing process. 

content marketing statistics - 30% of bloggers have a formal editing process
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That’s a lot considering five years ago, only 1 in 10 bloggers had a formal editing process. Does all that proper editing help though? Absolutely. 

Bloggers who have a process for editing are 50% more likely to see strong results. 

content marketing statistics - Bloggers with a formal editing process are 50% more likely to see better results
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What Have The Top Performers Been Doing for Success?

Here’s a walkthrough through the processes of most successful content marketers:

  • 65% of them have been using a documented content marketing strategy 
  • 72% have been measuring their content marketing ROI 
  • 56% have been using tech to understand their audience’s behavior and preferences 
content marketing statistics - processes from successful content marketers
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What Can Content Marketing Help You With?

Nurturing leads/subscribers, building loyal relationships with customers/clients and building credibility among other goals. Here are the numbers

  • Brand awareness: 86% of marketers say they use content marketing for this goal
  • Educating audiences: 79% of them share educating audience as their top priority 
  • Building trust/credibility: 75% of the content marketers use content to build trust
content marketing statistics - reasons to use content marketing
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On top of these, B2B marketers also note that content marketing has helped them succeed in building loyal relationships with existing clients (63%), generating revenue/sales (53%) and building subscribed audiences (45%)

 

Who Do Content Marketers Create Content for?

B2B marketers share that nearly half the content they create is for early-stage audiences. The aim? Generating interest/awareness. 

content marketing statistics - content in the buyer's journey
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On top of this, marketers create 29% of their content for conversion purposes directed towards their mid-funnel audiences. Similarly, 21% of their content for late-stage buyers with the purchase intent. 

 

Tech Used by Content Marketers

B2B content marketers have been relying on the following top three software for amplifying their results: 

  1. 84% use social media publishing and analytics tools
  2. 81% use email marketing software 
  3. 77% use analytics tools 
content marketing statistics - tech used by content marketers
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Other tech in a marketer’s toolkit include marketing automation, project management and content creation tools

 

What Makes Content Marketing Successful?

Storytelling and interactivity. 

Hard to believe? Here’s proof: More than half of the most successful marketers – 69% to be specific – tell stories via their content. On top of that, 55% of them add interactive elements to their content. 

content marketing statistics - 69% of marketers use content to tell stories
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Over half – 55% – of the respondents in Content Marketing Institute’s survey indicate they use interactive content. And why? Because it helps them engage with their audience. 

content marketing statistics - 55% of marketers use interactive content
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This begs the question though: which type of interactive content do marketers most use? As of 2017, interactive infographics are used the most (52%).

Contests, calculators and quizzes are also used a lot (mentioned in order of their use). Not to forget, 40% create interactive eBooks.

content marketing statistics - types of interactive content used by marketers
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Interested in creating interactive content for yourself? Here are your in-depth guides for creating interactive infographics and eBooks

If you want to step up your game using interactivity, consider using Visme to design interactive maps, slideshows, as well as charts. 👏

Looking to watch and learn? Here’s a video walkthrough the process of creating charts with Visme:

 

Commonly Used Content Formats

Audio, visual, video, written. There's a lot to experiment with. But what content formats work for the pros?  

Here are the most commonly used types of content.

content marketing statistics - types of content
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Video Content

64% of marketers have increased their use of this format that includes webinars, live streaming, videos and more. (Psst! Want to create awesome webinars? Visme can help.)

Written Content

This includes content like blogs, eBooks and articles. 61% of marketers are paying more attention to writing these.

Of the written content formats, the top 3 content types are: social media content, blog posts and email newsletters at 95%, 89% and 81%, respectively.

Visual Content

Visual content includes things like infographics, photos, charts and more. 56% of marketers are designing more image-based content. 

You can follow suit without having to shell out lots of money. Wondering how? Use Visme to design everything from on-brand GIFs to tons of infographics and animated charts

P.S. You can also build links with images and infographics.

Audio Content

38% of marketers are investing more in creating this content format including podcasts and audiobooks. 

Which Content Format is Suitable as Per Your Goal?

In the same vein, B2B content marketers vote for the following content format for each stage in the buyer’s journey: 

  • To grow brand awareness: blog posts, social media content and in-person events. 
  • To secure leads: in-person events, webinars/online events and eBooks/guides. 
  • To nurture leads: Email newsletters, blog posts, case studies and in-person events 
  • To convert leads: In-person events, case studies and webinars/online events. 

 

Blogging Statistics

Blogging and content writing has reigned the content world for long. So it makes sense to discuss it in this roundup of content marketing statistics. 

To begin with, how long do you think an average blog post’s length is? Bloggers target 1236 words on average

As for ranking on Google: the average word count of a post ranking on the top of the search engine results page (SERPs) is 1447 words. 

content marketing statistics - The average word count of a blog post on page one of Google is 1,447 words
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Another research on the ideal blog post length suggests 1600 words as the average length. Or, about 7 minutes reading time.

However, word count isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to ranking – your domain and its authority will also play a part. So don’t take this finding as if it's set in stone. Instead, pay attention to the content quality and the depth with which you address your topic. 

But how long does it take to write such comprehensive posts? 3 hours and 57 minutes according to Orbit Media’s survey.

content marketing statistics - It takes an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes to write a blog post
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As for publishing frequency, bloggers publish around 2-4 posts monthly as per the same survey. 

HubSpot has some data to share on how often you should blog. According to them, the publishing frequency depends on your goal and team size.

  • For organic traffic: small blogs should post new 3-4 pieces weekly and large blogs should aim for 4-5 pieces every week including new and updated posts. 
  • For brand awareness: small blogs should publish 1-2 new posts. As for large publications, they should post 3-4 times weekly including both updated and new posts. 
content marketing statistics - how often should you blog
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Video Content Marketing Statistics

Video is another content format that’s been doing pretty well. Statistically speaking, viewers consume 6 hours and 48 minutes of online videos each week.

content marketing statistics - Viewers consume 6 hours and 48 minutes of online video content each week
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On top of that, 86% of folks expect to see more videos from brands in the future. 

content marketing statistics - 86% of consumers expect to see more video content from brands
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No wonder, 92% of the marketers who use video consider it an essential part of their strategy. 

content marketing statistics - 92% of marketers who create video content consider it to be an essential part of their strategy
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As for the video ROI (return on investment) — that has been phenomenal: 

  • 81% of marketers say video has increased the average time visitors spend on page.
  • 87% also note that video has improved traffic to their site. 
  • 83% video marketers admit that video has helped with lead generation too. 
  • 80% say video has directly assisted in improving sales (Woot-woot!)
content marketing statistics - video roi
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And, it only gets better from here. 95% report that video has helped them increase user understanding of their service/product (raises her hand as someone who has understood several services using video tutorials).

Besides pre-recorded videos, live streaming is also huge! Credit: the C-19 pandemic. Figures state that the live streaming industry has grown by up to 99%. The sector grew by 45% between March-April 2020 alone. 

content marketing statistics - Due to COVID-19, the live streaming industry has grown by up to 99%
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HubSpot also found that — drum roll, please — video has taken over as the most commonly used content format, overtaking infographics and blogs. 

So what sort of videos are marketers creating? Videos that share brand stories and the promotional ones are the most commonly created video types. 

That said, videos show another advantage – they tend to be evergreen as infographics are. Just take a look at the average evergreen scores below. 

content marketing statistics - best b2b content by category
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If you already haven’t started using video, kick things off with these 8 beginner tips for creating professional-looking videos

 

Content Marketing Statistics from the Distribution Lens

Million dollar tip: Don’t let the content you’ve created die when you hit publish. Instead, promote your content. Distribute it widely. 

And, what are prominent content promotion channels that marketers use? In the B2B sphere, marketers use the following paid channels:

  • 72% use promoted posts/social media advertising 
  • 61% use search engine marketing/pay per click
  • 46% employ banner ads
  • 32% leverage partner emails promoting content 
content marketing statistics - paid promotion channels
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As for organic content distribution, almost all (95%) of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for sharing their content. It’s also the top choice among paid social media channels for content promotion

Closely following LinkedIn for content distribution is Twitter (86%), followed by Facebook (83%), YouTube (53%), and Instagram (46%). Improve your return from social media, paid or organic, by creating visually attractive branded social media graphics with Visme.

content marketing statistics - organic distribution channels
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Looking for creative ways to share your content on social? Dig into these 13 types of content to share on social media.   

 

Dive Into Content Marketing Today

The results are known. Content marketing statistics are out. And the result-driving methods are no longer under wraps. So what are you waiting for? 

Get all the important content creation tools starting with Visme to design visually stunning on-brand content that aligns with marketing trends and goes with all your other content formats. 

Create Stunning Content!

Design visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a seasoned designer or a total novice.

Try Visme for free

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    About the Author

    Masooma Memon is a pizza-loving freelance writer by day and a novel nerd by night. She crafts research-backed, actionable blog posts for SaaS and marketing brands who aim to employ quality content to educate and engage with their audience.