In today’s inflationary economy, content marketing leadership must make the most of every dollar they spend. To extend your content budget’s reach, use these 9 content marketing stats to guide your spending strategy.
1. Content Marketing Is 62% More Budget-Friendly Than Traditional Marketing
If your company has any marketing funds to share, meet with your corporate leadership to see if they might consider funneling those funds into content production. Not only is content marketing more cost-effective than those catchy ads your pricey agency produces, but it’s also more effective in generating business. Research shows that content marketing produces 3 times the leads as do traditional marketing strategies.
See full infographic: DemandMetric
2. 73% of Prospective Buyers Prefer Watching a Short Video to Learn About Your Products
It’s no wonder that most people prefer watching videos to reading about your products and services. Video engages two senses — seeing and hearing. Additionally, if you work how-to videos into the mix, you can even engage their kinesthetic (touch) sense as they follow along with your instructions.
And, so long as you keep your videos short and sweet, you’ll maintain your audience’s attention to the end. After all, research shows that most people’s attention span has shrunk considerably over the years. Shorter videos packed with problem-solving value address that attention deficit while delivering the information your audience needs.
Image via HubSpot
3. Investment in SEO Optimization Rose 5% in 2021
A 2021 HubSpot, Litmus, and Wistia study revealed that corporations’ investment in search optimization continues to rise. As search algorithms continue to grow in sophistication to better satisfy users, it will become even more critical to invest in SEO in 2022 and the following years.
The same study found that 71% of content marketers planned to use keyword optimization to rank higher than their competitors, followed by localization (50% of marketers) and mobile optimization (46%). We’d recommend using all three strategies to optimize your content, as well as leading-edge technical SEO to up the ante on your competitors’ content.
4. Podcasts Are Projected to Rise in Familiarity to 79% of Americans in 2022
Love them or hate them, podcasts are rising in popularity among the American public. That trend looks to continue through 2022, as an Edison Research study revealed.
Image via Edison Research
Ignore that evidence at your own risk. Podcast audiences for two coveted demographics — people aged 34-54 and those aged 12-34 — “grew significantly” in 2021. At least for the 34-54 demographic, that trend looks to continue through 2022. Since people in that group are usually at the peak of their earning power, they’re well worth pursuing. Podcasts are a great way to reach them while they’re on their way to work or returning home — or even while working from home.
5. Audiences Are 30x More Likely to Read Through Content in Infographics Than Text
Since about 65% of the world’s population prefers to learn through visuals, this stat isn’t exactly a shocker. However, the degree of infographics’ effectiveness makes them well worth your design team’s time to include them in your content. As a Digital Information World article points out, other factors also make infographics so intriguing to audiences:
- They make “an immediate impact.”
- They’re shareable.
- They communicate more clearly than text-only messages.
- They make audiences more aware of your brand.
- They increase audience engagement.
- They’re more compelling since they combine numerical, visual, and textual information.
- They’re exciting to read.
- They increase traffic to your site and boost your SEO.
6. 78% of Companies That Document Their Content Strategy Experience Success
Research shows that documenting your content strategy is an almost-sure bet for content marketing success. Defining your brand vision, brand guidelines, focus keywords, target customers, customer journey map, content workflow, and business goals makes it easier for your teams to create content to help your company reach those goals.
7. Research Shows eBooks’ B2B Popularity Is 4.8x That of White Papers
A recent NetLine survey of B2B buyers revealed a surprising statistic. Decision-makers were nearly 5 times more likely to request eBooks than formal white papers. eBooks’ informality and accessibility are likely part of the reasons behind that number. For years, content marketers labored under the assumption that business buyers preferred hard facts over brand stories with some emotion mixed in.
However, the numbers don’t lie. As Forbes’ Daniel Newman points out, 71% of B2B decision-makers who “see a personal value” in purchasing a product actually buy the product. So, don’t be afraid to turn your B2B content into a hero’s journey. When your prospects can visualize themselves as the story’s hero, you’ll reach their heartstrings as well as their heads.
Image via Forbes
8. Increasing Content Spend from 10% to 70% of Brands’ Marketing Budget Yields Success
Semrush’s State of Content Marketing 2022 Global Report showed that 73% of brands that boosted their content spending from 10% to 70% of their entire marketing budget reported the move to produce “very successful” results.
Catchy ads and blatant sales pitches don’t budge today’s skeptical consumers and B2B buyers. They want to do business with brands that provide them with the expertise to help them solve problems and satisfy their curiosity. Content marketing does both — all while entertaining your audience with compelling brand stories.
9. By 2025, Ecommerce Revenue Looks to Top $1.3 Trillion
A January 2022 Statista study showed that ecommerce revenue will rise to $875.2 billion during 2022. If that trend continues, the study showed, ecommerce revenue will represent more than $1.3 trillion of the United States’ total retail sales.
Image via Statista
To get the lion’s share of that income, brands doing business online need to pump up their content production. If your brand sells goods or services online, look at your social media and content analytics to see what types of content and distribution channels are producing the most fruitful results. Then, target your content to reach your prospects when and where they are online.
To take full advantage of these statistics to sharpen your content strategy, you need a content marketing platform that’s up to the task. Whether it’s repurposing several blog posts into an eBook or collaborating with your design team on an original infographic, you need a central hub where all the stakeholders on a project can communicate on, create, and publish the kinds of content that will bring you success in 2022 and beyond.
With DivvyHQ’s out-of-the-box content metadata management system, your teams will be able to find content assets in a heartbeat, refreshing them to meet your company’s current goals. And, with its content calendar that allows you to plan content across the enterprise, you can manage it all in a single place.
Best of all, you can try DivvyHQ free for 14 days with no obligation. Don’t take our word for it, though. Try it for yourself today!