As the B2B marketing world continues to evolve, it’s important to stay up to date with the latest from the content marketing industry. With some marketers doubting that a content marketing strategy is still important, the latest content marketing stats can provide great insight, so you know that the time spent on your content marketing strategy is not only important, but also worth it, to achieve growth.
But with so much research out there, it can be time-consuming to hunt down the most relevant and important stats by yourself. This is why we’ve pulled together the top 7 content marketing stats every marketer needs to know, to show why a content marketing strategy is still so important and how an effective strategy can bring great success for your company.
Content Marketing costs Up to 41% Less Per Lead Than Paid Search
Your current marketing mix might include several campaigns across a variety of platforms, including paid ads, social media marketing and email marketing. So why should your content marketing strategy be a priority over those activities?
Well, according to research by Oracle, content marketing costs up to 41% less than paid search for larger businesses, and 31% for mid-sized companies.
Prospects Want Content – Especially White Papers
White papers and e-books are arguably some of your most valuable resources for attracting leads, and according to Curata, white papers are among the top 10 tactics used by B2B content marketers, with 78% of prospects in the last year, reading white papers to contribute to a B2B purchasing decision.
Custom Content Creates a Relationship Between the Company and a Customer
Demand Metric revealed that 78% of customers perceive a relationship between themselves and a company when receiving custom content, with 90% of customers finding custom content useful.
As a simple yet extremely effective tactic, custom content allows you to tailor content with the company’s branding, and provide them with high-quality, relevant and valuable information; and with 82% of customers feeling more positive about a company after reading custom content, it is clear to see this is a tactic that is working.
Content Marketing Generates Three Times as Many Leads as Traditional Marketing
In comparison to traditional marketing tactics, content marketing can generate three times as many leads, while also reducing cost by 62%.
It’s important to understand the different benefits content and traditional marketing can create for your company; but a good content marketer will know that if done right, content marketing will not only help you attract leads, but also nurture them through the funnel at the same time.
59% of B2B Marketers Consider Blogs as the Most Valuable Channel
Blogs should be a vital, if not the main, part of your content marketing strategy. Blogs are an easy yet effective way to inform, and interact with your audience, and are easy to share on different social media platforms.
With 59% of B2B marketers considering blogs as the most valuable channel, and databox revealing that the average conversion rate for a blog is 19% (the survey revealed 1-5% of visitors to blogs turn into a newsletter subscriber), it’s hard to argue that the writing and distribution of blogs shouldn’t be a top priority for content marketers.
48% Of Marketers are Making Youtube Video a Priority
Visual content marketing should also be an essential part of your strategy. From images, infographics and videos, this is another great way to get in front of your audience.
With the HubSpot state of inbound report revealing that 48% of marketers are making YouTube video a priority, and Cisco reporting that by 2021, video will represent 82% of all internet traffic; it’s clear to see video isn’t going anywhere, and content marketers should seriously evaluate adding videos to their content marketing strategy.
Content Compliments Traditional Sales Techniques Perfectly
Still not convinced that content marketing is important? According to WordStream, approximately 49% of marketers are producing content to align closely with various stages of the sales cycle.
If used effectively, your content marketing strategy can target customers at each stage of the sales funnel, providing them with content which answers their pain points at the right time, ensuring you are also nurturing current leads, and retaining the users you already have.
Get in Touch
At Napier, we use our four-step approach to design and continually optimise campaigns that convert awareness to opportunity more quickly, increasing your prospects’ momentum through the funnel. If you want to find out how we could help you with your content marketing strategy (or another issue you may be facing), then get in touch in today!