It’s competitive out there right now. Not only are content marketers vying for an increasingly crowded slice of the pie, AI-generated content is flooding the online space, for better or worse, depending on your perspective.
While the drive towards quantity can feel overpowering, quality can’t be overlooked, especially now search engine giant Google is redoubling its efforts to reward relevant, expert content that pleases its users.
Keeping an eye on key industry statistics is one way to stay ahead of the game. After all, if you know what’s working right now and can quickly identify new trends, it’s easier to create an effective content marketing strategy that gets results.
Below, we’ve pulled together various stats based on a wide pool of surveys and studies that reflect what’s currently happening in this fast-evolving space. Let’s take a look.
Who uses content marketing – and why?
- 97% of marketers got results from content marketing last year (Semrush).
- Almost three-quarters of B2B and B2C marketers use content to grow their business, while half outsource some content production (Content Marketing Institute – CMI).
- Content marketing is mainly used to build brand awareness and trust and educate audiences (CMI).
What are the top content marketing strategies?
- 83% of marketers think focusing on less frequent, better-quality content will bring the best results (Hubspot).
- Almost a quarter of marketers feel content marketing is the best way to target specific audiences (2022 Statista Research Study).
- To boost search engine results, CMI found that 31% of B2B marketers are gearing towards user intent/answering questions, while 27% are focusing on thought leadership content, and 22% generate conversational content.
Which types of content should you focus on?
- Short-form video comes out on top of the pile for the best ROI.
- Overall, video is proving popular, with articles featuring video pulling 70% more organic traffic (Semrush).
- Interactive content generates 52.6% more engagement than static content (Mediafly).
- 43% of respondents to a Venngage survey believe that graphics and illustrations remain a highly effective form of visual content.
Which distribution channels are best?
- While Facebook is still the biggest content distributor, video-based platforms offer better growth potential (Hubspot).
- LinkedIn is 84% more effective than other social channels for B2B marketers, with 80% using paid social media advertising (CMI).
The effect of AI
- Over 100 million people jumped on the AI content generation bandwagon only two months after ChatGPT took the world by storm (Search Engine Journal).
- 80% of marketers have already included AI in their strategy (Ahrefs).
- Using AI saves marketers around 2.5 hours each day (Hubspot), with most using it to brainstorm ideas (51%), play with headlines and keywords (45%), and draft (45%).
Hopefully, the facts and figures we listed above will guide you during your content marketing efforts through 2024 and beyond. Overall, the statistics show that high-quality content is still crucial for drawing audiences and achieving sales, but video is particularly powerful right now, so keep that in mind when planning your next campaign.
