1. 25 CONTENT MARKETING STATS
THAT EVERY MARKETER NEEDS TO KNOW

2. 2
In the immortal words of Mark Twain: “There are
three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies and statistics."
To be fair, that actually might not be true. Those
probably aren’t Twain’s words, he said he got that
quote from British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli…
but, there’s no record of that guy saying it either so
let’s just pretend Twain said it.
Regardless of whose words they originally were, the
point we’re trying to make is that stats can be
deceiving and unreliable. So, to avoid any lies (or
damn lies) we dug deep and used only the most
trusted sources in the industry to find 25 of the most
important (and reliable) Content Marketing statistics.
Enjoy!
1Bureau of Made Up Statistics 2It really doesn’t matter 3Mindstream Media, 2018
of all quoted stats are made
up on the spot197.3%
of stats are made up2
73.6%
of stats on this slide are
most likely not accurate366.7%

3. Content Marketing helps
brands connect with huge
audiences of dedicated
internet users.

4. 4
249,454,441
U.S. adults
91,050,870,965 minutes a day spent online
1. U.S. adults spend almost 100 billion minutes online every day.
365 minutes
per day on average
U.S. Census Bureau eMarketer, 2017

5. 5
2. The internet is host to a mind-boggling amount of content.
3.3 million
Facebook posts
448,800
Tweets
1,440
WordPress blogs
500 hours
of YouTube videos
Every minute on the
internet, users upload…
Smart Insights, 2017

6. Consumers look to the
internet to find the
information they need to
make purchase decisions.

7. 7
Over the past two years, the watch time of
“shop with me” videos – where viewers
follow creators as they shop – has
increased 1,000 percent on YouTube.
3. Internet users turn to online videos to research buying decisions.
In the past year, 40 percent of YouTube
users turned to the platform to learn
more about a product before they
bought it.
Think with Google, 2018

8. 8
When home and garden mobile
shoppers are looking for ideas
about what to buy:
4. Consumers turn to internet resources for specific purchases.
79% turn to Google
64% turn to YouTube
45% turn to blogs
Think with Google, 2017

9. With all the online clutter,
consumers expect to find
information that’s specific to
their wants and needs.

10. 10
There’s been an 80 percent
growth in mobile searches for "__
should I __" and a 60 percent
growth in mobile searches for "__
for me" in the past two years.
4. Online searches are becoming much more personalized.
Think with Google, 2017

11. 11
5. Personal searches aren’t limited to high-consideration products.
Best umbrellas
140 percent
Best deodorants
60 percent
Examples of growing searches for low-consideration purchases
Best travel accessories
110 percent
Think with Google, 2017

12. Brands need to create
customized content for the
right audiences and deliver it
at the right times.

13. 13
6. Brands are still adapting to the concept of customizing content.
How often B2C content marketers consider various concepts
72% 68% 68%
47%
23% 28% 26%
36%
5% 4% 6%
17%
Delivering the right content
at the right time
Creating content for the
audience vs. the brand
Differentiating content
from competitors
Crafting content for specific
points in the buying
journey
Always/frequently Sometimes Never
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

14. 14
7. Content customization efforts vary by targets/segments.
Which of the following segments do you create content for?
70%
63%
44%
38%
30% 30%
67%
73%
52%
42%
32% 31%
By product By buyer persona By stage in buying
cycle
By vertical By geography By customer
All companies Leading companies
Curata, 2016

15. A lot of brands already use
Content Marketing but many
are still fine-tuning their
efforts.

16. 86%
14%
16
8. The majority of brands have implemented Content Marketing.
Percentage of respondents who use Content Marketing
B2C brands
91%
9%
B2B brands
Yes
No
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

17. 17
9. Brand’s Content Marketing efforts vary in sophistication.
How B2C marketers assess their organization’s Content
Marketing maturity level
10% 26% 28% 29% 7%
First steps Young Adolescent Mature Sophisticated
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

18. 65%
21%
14%
Increased Stayed the same Decreased
18
10. Content Marketing efforts are expected to continue increasing.
Change in the amount of content
created in the past 5 years according to
creative pros
37%
46%
14%
4%
Increase Remain the same
Unsure Decrease
Projected B2C Content Marketing
spending over the next year
eMarketer, 2017 Content Marketing Institute, 2018

19. Brands that fully commit to
Content Marketing are seeing
solid returns throughout the
funnel.

20. 20
11. Content can impact consumer behavior at various stages.
Areas that brands have reported improved results from
Content Marketing
Building
awareness
Engaging
consumers
Website traffic
& SEO
Lead quality
& quantity
84% 80% 77% 74%
Curata, 2016

21. 21
12. Content Marketing efforts get more successful with time.
How B2C marketers rate their organization’s Content
Marketing success compared to a year ago
23%
43%
25%
5% 0% 5%
Much more
successful
Somewhat more
successful
About the same Somewhat less
successful
Much less
successful
N/A
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

22. 22
13. A lot of brands need help formalizing their content strategy.
92 percent of content marketers
surveyed say their organization views
content as a business asset.
However, fewer than half have a
documented strategy for managing
content as a business asset.
Business asset: an asset or process where there is direct investment
and a goal of increasing value over time.
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

23. Improving process, strategy
and procedure can provide a
huge boost to Content
Marketing efforts.

24. 24
14. The right strategy is critical for Content Marketing success.
Factors contributing to B2C marketers increased
Content Marketing success over the last year
75%
72%
53%
47%
39%
Strategy (development/adjustment)
High-quality content creation
Better content distribution
Increased time commitment
Management/staffing
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

25. 25
15. Too many brands are missing critical content structures.
The Content Marketing structures brands have in place
70%
60%
53% 51% 50%
33%
Style & brand
guidelines
Content teams Formal content
processes
Buyer personas Content
performance
analytics
Buying journey
maps
Content Marketing Institute, 2017

26. Brands face significant
challenges when managing
their Content Marketing
campaigns internally.

27. 27
16. Lack of structure impedes a brand’s content capabilities.
Frequency in which content processes meet various conditions
44%
39%
35%
24%
33%
37%
31%
35%
23%
24%
34%
41%
Always/frequently Sometimes Rarely/never
Can set standard processes around managing
creation and promotion
Anyone across organization can access, use or
reuse content
Can scale content to multiple channels without
having to handcraft each piece
Can repurpose content without a great deal of
human intervention
Content Marketing Institute, 2017

28. 28
17. The two biggest challenges for brands involve content creation.
Top three Content Marketing challenges according to U.S.
creative/marketing professionals
43%
33%
13%
Bandwidth to create content
Creating content that's valuable
Measuring content ROI
eMarketer, 2017

29. 29
18. Most B2C brands struggle to measure Content Marketing ROI.
Percentage of B2C marketers who
measure Content Marketing ROI
43%
34%
23%
Yes No Unsure
Percentage of B2B marketers who
measure Content Marketing ROI
35%
47%
18%
Yes No Unsure
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

30. 30
19. Brands need more efficient ways to measure ROI from content.
Why B2C marketers don’t measure
Content Marketing ROI
Why B2B marketers don’t measure
Content Marketing ROI
45%
34%
26%
25%
21%
4%
Need an easier way to do this
No formal justification required
Don't know how
Too time-consuming
Other
Unsure
38%
38%
27%
21%
23%
3%
Need an easier way to do this
No formal justification required
Don't know how
Too time-consuming
Other
Unsure
Content Marketing Institute, 2018

31. Creating lots of high-quality
content drives incremental
Content Marketing success.

32. 32
20. Brands that blog more get more leads.
Companies that publish more than
16 blog posts a month get about
4.5X more leads than companies
that publish four or less posts per
month.
HubSpot, 2017

33. 33
21. People typically need a few pieces of content before buying.
Average customer online interaction per conversion
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
All Fashion Apparel Gifts Hobby,
leisure
Home,
furniture
Health &
beauty
Food B2B
NetElixir via Marketing Sherpa, 2015

34. 34
22. Longer content tends to rank better in search results.
1,700
1,800
1,900
2,000
2,000
2,100
2,200
2,300
2,400
2,500
Wordcount
Rank
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10
SerpIQ (top chart ) Can I Rank (bottom chart)

35. 35
23. Longer content ranks better even after controlling for authority.
900
1,000
1,100
1,200
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10
MozRank 3 MozRank4 MozRank5
Content rank by word count (controlled for the pages’ link authority)
Can I Rank, 2017

36. 207 207
255
296
313
66 58
83
112 110
30 32
46 55 57
304 297
384
462
480
0-399 400-699 700-999 1,000-1,499 1,500
36
24. Longer content gets shared more on social media.
Tweets
Facebook shares
LinkedIn shares
# Total shares
Quick Sprout, 2014

37. 37
25. The average blog post is still catching up with these trends.
Length of typical blog post
808
887
1,054
1,142
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
2014 2015 2016 2017
Orbit Media, 2017

38. Not ready yet? No problem. Check out our Content Marketing 101 series to learn
how Content Marketing can help your brand reach potential customers.
Yes, let’s get started!
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