New Content Marketing Stats to Know Before Planning for 2019

Stats – who doesn’t love ‘em?

From the backs of baseball cards to the projections of election polls to the tangible outcomes of campaigns, statistics are naturally compelling. These digestible representations of data can also be very powerful and persuasive.

In some cases, a single stat can drastically change our worldview. For example, I learned a couple years ago that 8% of people pronounce Wi-Fi as “wiffy” and I’ve been in a bad mood ever since.

If you’re in marketing, chances are you can recall a jarring stat regarding a tactic or platform or user behavior that caused you to rethink or alter your strategy.

The hunger for marketing stats is eternally high, and plenty of content creators have tried to satiate it; a Google search for the term returns 325 million results.

But in our experience, too many of these articles are regurgitations of the same old (often horribly outdated and sometimes strikingly inaccurate) numbers that don’t really bear much relevance in today’s fast-changing marketing environment. This is especially true for us content folks.

With 2019 fast approaching, we thought we’d take a deep dive and try to surface some meaningful new content marketing stats, with added analysis so they can actually help you shape plans for the year ahead.

8 New Content Marketing Stats to Get You Ready for 2019

1. Only 55% of B2C content marketers report that their organization has realistic expectations about what content marketing can achieve. (B2C Content Marketing 2018 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends)

That’s down from 69% a year ago. Look, there’s a reason that — according to the same report — 86% of B2C organizations use content marketing: it works. But clearly there are some widespread disconnects about how it works. It’s not necessarily easy, cheap or quick — not if you want to get it right anyway. We recommend pulling different departments, and company leaders, into your strategy meetings to get everyone on the same page.

2. B2B companies that regularly blog generate 67% more sales leads than non-blogging companies. (Riverbed Marketing)

Not surprising considering that, according to a Demand Gen Content Preferences Survey, nearly half of all buyers (42%) report viewing three to five pieces of content before speaking to a sales rep. Blog posts are among the most easily discovered content during the purchase journey. So, if you work in B2B and need to make the case to your boss for committing more resources to blogging… there ya go.

3. 70% of marketers are using psychographic attributes of audiences to inform their content planning, compared to 55% using demographics and 41% using geography. (2018 Content Planning Report)

Increasingly, marketers are letting the interests and attitudes of their audiences guide planning more so than general demographics and region. This makes plenty of sense: content is far more likely to drive action if it connects on that deeper level, rather than aligning simply with age, gender or location. And the good news is that new tools and technologies are making it easier to understand our audiences in this way.

4. For content marketing purposes, Facebook is viewed as easily the most effective platform for B2C (88%), and LinkedIn is for B2B (78%). (B2C/B2B Content Marketing 2018 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends)

Facebook’s superiority on the B2C side is staggering — Twitter came in next at 37%. And while the gap wasn’t quite as big for B2B, LinkedIn edges Twitter there by 30 points. Interestingly, respondents don’t seem to see LinkedIn being all that effective for B2C content marketing, nor Facebook for B2B. At DivvyHQ, we preach a more focused and simplified approach, so with this data in hand, you might consider refining your social media strategy and really zeroing in on the most effective channel for your brand or client.

5. Including video on a landing page can increase your conversion rate by 80%. (Unbounce)

Video marketing is potent, and practitioners are seeing the benefit. In our 2018 Content Planning Report, however, video ranked fourth among prioritized content marketing tactics behind blogs, social media, and email. Why not incorporate it into all of the above? Video also increases email opens and post clicks. The barrier of entry for this medium can feel off-putting, but in reality, you can create quality video content without huge investments.

6. Interactive content drives 5x more views than static content. (Shutterstock)

Another signal of shifting user preferences in the age of content saturation. Interactive assets can be a great way to stand out and really immerse the viewer with a higher level of engagement. Much like video, interactive content is a formerly intimidating frontier that is growing easier to break into.

7. People spend 1.7 seconds on average with any given piece of content on mobile. (Facebook)

That’s the bad news. Not a lot of time to catch someone’s attention. But the good news is that, according to the same Facebook data, almost half of all U.S. adults check their phones 30 times per day, so marketers at least have plenty of opportunities to reach them. As mobile devices continue to eat a larger share of total internet usage, it’s more vital than ever to lead every piece of content with that irresistible quick hook.

8. 76% of content marketers measure planning success by consumption metrics, compared to only 52% by conversion metrics. (2018 Content Planning Report)

We talked earlier about organizational disconnects around content marketing, and this might be one of the factors driving it. Content marketers need to start moving away from consumption (aka vanity) metrics like pageviews and clicks, in favor of deeper metrics that show real business impact. It’s not that the former category has no value, but we’re not doing ourselves any favors by acting like impressions alone demonstrate a job well done.

Plan Ahead or Fall Behind

The new year will be here before you know it, so it’s a good idea to start setting your content marketing plans. Hopefully the stats above provide helpful context as you hammer out a strategy. And if you’re looking for ways to improve collaboration, coordination and overall success in 2019, we’d love to show you what DivvyHQ’s content planning platform can do.