The Future of Content Marketing – 33 Stats to Make You Take Notice

The question of whether you should be getting involved with content marketing is rather passé – if you’re not involved, you’re missing out.

Content marketing is an essential element for all businesses, which is why it’s important you understand how you must get involved and the type of content you need to be generating.

It’s never been more important to listen to your audience. Just pushing stuff at them won’t get you anywhere; they’re far too canny to fall for that. Today’s audiences demand more, a fact reflected in these incredible stats compiled by Michael Brenner (b2bmarketinginsider.com).

1. 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each day.  ~ AOL / Nielsen
2. 60% of the buyer journey is complete before prospects reach out to vendors.  ~ The Corporate Executive Board (CEB)
3. Emotional marketing messages are twice as effective as promotional ones. ~ CEB
4. 60-70% of B2B marketing content goes unused. ~ Sirius Decisions
5. 10% of website’s content drives 90% of the traffic. ~ InboundWriter
6. 0.5% of a website’s content drives more than 50% of its traffic. ~ InboundWriter
7. 78% of CMOs think content is the future of marketing. ~ Demand Metric
8. The average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds.  ~ Statistic Brain
9. The average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds.  ~ Statistic Brain
10. The average office worker checks their email 30 times and hour. ~ Statistic Brain
11. The number of web searches on the term “Content Marketing” is up 400% since January 2011.   ~ Google Trends
12. 93% of B2B Marketers use content marketing. ~ CMI / MarketingProfs
13. Only 42% of content marketers believe they are effective with it. ~ CMI / MarketingProfs
14. 70% of marketers think branded content is more effective than advertising direct mail and PR. ~  Custom Content Council
15. Only 44% of B2B Marketers have a documented content strategy. ~ CMI / MarketingProfs
16. 73% of B2B Marketers have someone in charge of content marketing.  ~ CMI / MarketingProfs
17. B2B Marketers spend 30% of the marketing budget on content marketing. ~ CMI / MarketingProfs
18. B2B Marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics. ~ CMI / MarketingProfs
19. B2B Marketers use an average of 6 social networks.  ~ CMI / MarketingProfs
20. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. ~ Demand Metric
21. Conversion rates for brands using content marketing is 6 to 7x higher.  ~ Aberdeen
22. Interesting content is a top reason that people follow brands on social media. ~ Content+
23. 90% of the information that comes to the brain is visual.  ~  Zabisco
24. Articles with images get 94% more views than those without. ~ Content+
25. Posts with videos attract 3x more inbound links than plain text posts.   ~ SEOmoz
26. 57% of digital marketers define Content Marketing as their #1 priority.  ~ Altimeter
27. 87% of B2B buyers say content has an impact on vendor selection; more than a quarter (27%) say it has a “major impact.”   ~ Social Media Today
28. The three biggest challenges to creating content are lack of time (30%), inability to create enough content (11%), and inability to create engaging content (11%). ~ Robert Rose
29. Another study found the three biggest challenges for content marketing to be limited budgets (27%), limited staff (25%), and generating new content (21%).  ~ iMedia Connection
30. Only 1 out of 5 readers get beyond your headline. ~ Heidi Cohen
31. 36% of readers prefer headlines containing numbers (like this post). 21% of readers prefer headlines that literally talk to them by including the word “you.” And 17% prefer headlines that show them “how to” do something.   ~ Heidi Cohen
32. 57% of B2B marketers use content curation as part of their content marketing strategies. But only 42% say they are able to measure positive results from content curation efforts.  ~ iMedia Connection
33. The 3 biggest complaints B2B buyers have about vendor content are too many requirements for downloading; blatantly promotional, self-serving content; and non-substantive, uninformed content. ~ Social Media Today

They are some pretty impressive stats.

So what can you learn from them?

• Content marketing is a ‘must’ not a ‘nice to have’
• Concentrate on emotional triggers to get great results
• Keep your content short
• Make is interesting and socially shareable
• Make your message visual
• Video attracts more visitors than text

If you were in any doubt about whether or not to have a budget for content marketing, hopefully these stats have shown you the light.

Author: Sally Ormond