66 Content Marketing Statistics That You Need to Know
Marquis Matson
September 15, 2020
If the work you do relies heavily on the Google algorithm, odds are that you noticed the drastic and frequent changes that occurred in 2019. Because of these changes, more sites shifted towards prioritizing mobile-first best practices in order to boost both client and consumer relations and signal expertise.
Social media continued to present new opportunities for marketers to expand on their outreach through the quick success of apps like TikTok, third in line for the most downloaded app behind WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Smart devices also became a permanent home feature as more people utilized AI assistants like Alexa and Google Home in their daily lives.
With so many technological and algorithmic changes happening quickly, it’s important for your content marketing strategy to reflect these changes. Marketers that are able to keep up in a quick-paced evolving landscape will find that their businesses positively align and benefit from all of the latest trends.
Staying aware of the most effective ways to spend your content budget will ensure that you yield the most lucrative results. To keep you in the know, here are 15 quick must-know content marketing statistics for 2020.
Content Marketing Trends
As a content marketer, it's important to keep your finger on the pulse of content marketing trends. It can help inform your content strategy, open up a new marketing channel for your business, and get more bang for your buck out of your marketing budget. Unlike traditional marketing, content marketing success depends on your ability to pivot quickly and follow your target audience wherever they go online.
When your content marketing efforts are aligned with the trends, or even ahead of them, then your brand will always have a solid lead generation strategy for years to come. Here are a few key stats that every content marketer should know.
56% of businesses reported that they want to increase their content creation spending (Content Marketing Institute).
76% of content marketers use organic traffic as a key metric when measuring content success. Only 22% use backlinks (SEMrush).
List posts get twice as many shares than any other type of posts (SEMrush, 2019).
Articles over 3,000 words get more traffic, social shares, and backlinks than articles with fewer words (SEMrush, 2019).
Updating old content is the most efficient content marketing strategy for 51% of companies (SEMrush, 2019).
If you're a B2C marketer, then your content strategy should prioritize mobile digital marketing. No matter what your content marketing budget is, your mobile marketing efforts will have the highest content marketing ROI compared to traditional marketing or desktop marketing.
Mobile traffic has a 125% growth rate – versus the 12% rate for desktop traffic (Issuu).
59% of shoppers say that the ability to shop on mobile is an important factor in whether or not they will purchase a product (Think with Google, 2019).
In 2019, mobile devices accounted for half of all global web traffic (Statista, 2020).
Video marketing, messaging, and maps are the most common mobile activities in 2019 (Statitsa, 2019).
People are 35 times more likely to open messages on their mobile devices than they are to open emails (Sinch, 2020).
Google Chrome is the most used mobile browser in 2020 (Statista, 2020).
The retail industry spends the most on digital and mobile videos compared to other industries (Statista, 2019)
66% of opened emails on mobile devices are read for more than 8 seconds (Litmus, 2019).
Nearly 50% of marketing emails were opened on mobile devices in 2018 (Statista, 2018).
YouTube on mobile reaches more people in the 18 to 34 age range than any TV network (YouTube, 2020).
B2B content marketers know that lead generation mostly comes from engaging directly with their target audience, which is made up of other business owners. Social media marketing for B2B organizations involves a lot more than just posting blog content or outdated infographics. Instead, it involves authentic relationships and social listening. By being involved with the target audience in a natural and friendly way, B2B organizations not only build brand awareness but they also open up a whole new channel for lead generation.
64% of content marketers prioritize building relationships with influencers, like brand advocates and journalists (Content Marketing Institute).
Facebook and LinkedIn are the two most popular social platforms for B2B marketers (Statista, 2019).
Like B2B content marketers, B2C content marketers can also benefit from understanding where the brand's target audience spends the most time online and how they spend their money. Inbound marketing via written content, such as blog content, is one of the most effective ways to build brand awareness outside of social media marketing.
40% of B2C content marketers only look at competitors once per year or not at all (Conductor).
In 2021, it is expected that global sales for B2C businesses will top $4.5 trillion (Shopify Plus, 2019).
Only 30% of B2C businesses use Pinterest in their marketing strategy (Statista, 2019).
Social media posts are the most effective documented content strategy for B2C businesses (PointVisible, 2018).
Promotional emails may have worked at the start of digital marketing, but internet users have since grown weary of this type of marketing effort, forcing many businesses to get creative about their email marketing strategy. Email marketing is used by 64.1% of small businesses, and considering that most internet users are predominately smartphone users, email marketing has had to become a lot more personal and accessible in recent years.
Personalized subject lines in email outreach increase the unique open rates by 27% and lead to an 11% higher click-to-open rate (Experian Marketing Services).
For every $1 marketers spend on email marketing, they receive an average ROI of $42 (Litmus).
79.6% is the average deliverability rate for email service providers (EmailToolTester, 2019).
Only 6.9% of email subject lines include an emoji (AWeber, 2019).
An email sequence that sends 3 emails has higher conversion rates than sequences that send a single email (Omnisend, 2018).
Email segmentation accounts for a 74.53% higher click rates than non-segmented emails (Mailchimp, 2017).
For years, the marketing industry has been saying that video would be the preferred content format for consumers. It seems that in 2020, we are seeing the impact that this type of visual content is having on both businesses and marketers alike.
97% of consumers and online marketers report that video helps customers understand their product (Wyzowl).
B2B marketers have increased their audio and visual content by 64% in 2019 in comparison to the previous year (Content Marketing Institute).
Video marketing has increased sales for 80% of businesses (Wyzowl, 2020).
Facebook is the chosen video marketing channel for 79% of video marketers (Wyzowl, 2019).
38% of video marketers plan to use Twitter as a part of their overall video marketing strategy in 2020 (Wyzowl, 2019).
Despite TikTok’s massive success, only 15% of video marketers plan to use the video-sharing platform in their marketing strategy in 2020 (Wyzowl, 2019).
Video marketing helps generate leads for 83% of video marketers (Wyzowl, 2020).
84% of consumers are convinced to buy a product simply by watching the product video (Wyzowl, 2020).
Facebook users are 1.5 times more likely to watch daily videos on their smartphone devices than on desktop computers (Facebook, 2020).
43% of video marketers say that their brand videos have reduced customer support calls (Wyzowl, 2020).
Watch time for videos comparing products or services has doubled between 2017 and 2018 alone (Think with Google, 2018).
Millennials are the biggest group of video watchers (HubSpot, 2017).
Videos are one of the most popular content formats today, above blogging and infographics (HubSpot, 2020).
Of all content creation, blog posts and written content have been the most popular and most effective content format for digital marketing. If your team isn't ready to start creating video content, then focusing on a solid content strategy for the blog will still have a massive impact for your brand.
43% of readers admittedly “skim” blog posts (Hubspot).
The average blog post published in 2019 took 3 hours and 57 minutes to write (Orbit Media).
WordPress users publish 70 million blog posts each month (WordPress, 2020).
Marketing blog acquire 83% of their traffic via desktop (SEMrush, 2019).
78% of online companies have between 1 and 3 content specialists working on their content marketing (SEMrush, 2019).
Search is the biggest traffic source for all websites globally (SEMrush, 2019).
86% of brands produce blog content more than any other kind of content (SEMrush, 2019).
Podcasts are increasingly popular each year and provide an effective outlet for building brand awareness and engaging with their target audience. This is especially true for brands that have guest interviews with established podcasts. Podcasts are easy to share across any social platform, can be listened to by smartphone users and desktop internet users alike, and require relatively little of your marketing budget to participate in. It is a solid marketing channel that will only continue to increase in popularity.
An estimated 73 million people listen to podcasts each month (Edison Research).
An estimated 180 million people were familiar with the term “podcasting” in 2018 (Edison Research).
17% of marketers plan to incorporate podcasts into their content marketing strategy (State of Inbound).
Comedy (36%) and news (23%) were the most popular podcast genres during the third quarter of 2019 (Edison Research).
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Statistics
Search engine optimization (SEO) helps brands rank higher on Google. It is the single most effective lead generation tool and provides a higher ROI than any Facebook ad or video ads can offer. SEO involves a lot more than content creation, including site optimization for improved user experience. These are some of the most noteworthy digital marketing statistics for SEO.
Conversion rates drop by 4.42% for every second it takes for a website to load (Portent, 2019).
70% of marketers say that SEO is more effective at gaining leads and driving sales compared to PPC (Databox, 2019).
Opt-ins in the form of pop-ups have a low conversion rate of just 3% (Omnisend, 2018).
51% of shoppers say they use Google to research their potential purchases (Think with Google, 2019).
33% of ecommerce traffic is generated by organic searches (Statista, 2019).
Marquis Matson is an SEO analyst, content marketer, and writer. She specializes in search engine optimization for ecommerce sites in the yoga and wellness niche. She lives as a digital nomad, spending time in Ecuador, California, Thailand, India, Australia, and more. You can find her on LinkedIn, Twitter, or at marquismatson.com.
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