Content Marketing: The Numbers Speak for Themselves

Posted on by ASCENT: Administrator Support Community for ENT

According to research, 91% of businesses engage in content marketing, which revolves around basing marketing strategies around content in order to drive sales. This makes it one of the most popular marketing strategies, especially for small businesses…and statistics prove that it’s deserving of the attention.

It’s Easy to Justify Content Marketing

Content marketing obviously involves content—but it’s far more diverse than you might think. It can involve blog posts, whitepapers, e-books and articles, but it’s not limited to just written words; content can also include images, infographics, audio and video. There are many advantages to content marketing: it’s cost-effective, easy for companies of all sizes to master and flexible enough to be adapted to a variety of business strategies. Whether you’re trying to attract new customers, maintain existing ones or cross-sell to your audience, content marketing can—and does—work. The proof is in the statistics.

Business to Consumer (B2C) Stats

  • 80% of people prefer learning about a company through custom content.
  • 71% of B2C marketers believe their company needs a content marketing strategy.
  • 33% have a documented content marketing strategy and 20% plan to add one within 12 months.
  • 75% of B2C content marketers believe their company is successful with content marketing efforts.
  • 94% of content marketers choose social media marketing, while 80% focus on blogs and short articles.

The top strategic goals achieved by B2C marketers over the past 12 months through content marketing are:

  • Creating brand awareness (84%)
  • Educating their audience (75%)
  • Building credibility and trust (65%)
  • Generating demand and leads (61%)

Business to Business (B2B) Stats

  • 43% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy.
  • 36% of B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy, but it is undocumented.
  • 17% plan to develop a content marketing strategy in the next 12 months.

B2B strategic goals are:

  • Creating brand awareness (86%)
  • Educating their audience (79%)
  • Building credibility and trust, generating demand and leads and nurturing customers, audience and leads also rank high.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on investment (ROI) is a key metric in any digital marketing campaign. It’s clear that content marketing helps companies excel in this important area.

  • The cost of acquiring a new customer through content is around 15% less than through paid channels for subscription-based businesses.
  • Subscription-based businesses using content see 5-10% better retention rates.
  • 96% of marketers say content marketing is effective for their companies.

Clearly, content marketing can make a big difference in the success of your company! And with more people doing business online due to the coronavirus pandemic, content marketing promises to remain a viable strategy in the foreseeable future.