Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates roughly 3 times as many leads
Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that do not blog.
47% of buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.
73% of B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy, but only 40% have it documented.
The average B2B organization spends 26% of their total marketing budget on content marketing.
50% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget in 2024.
Only 43% of B2B marketers say they measure content marketing ROI.
27% of B2B marketers say they are extremely or very successful at tracking content marketing ROI.
75% of B2B marketers use technology to assist with content marketing insight and analytics.
Video marketing has 92% ROI according to marketers who use it.
B2B marketers say that case studies are the most effective content format for the middle and bottom of the funnel.
Interactive content generates 2x more conversions than passive content.
Email marketing returns $36 for every $1 spent, the highest ROI of any channel.
Organic search creates 53% of all site traffic on average for B2B, driving long-term ROI.
LinkedIn is the top organic social media platform for B2B content marketers, used by 96%.
Content Formats & Assets
- 1Video marketing has 92% ROI according to marketers who use it.
- 2B2B marketers say that case studies are the most effective content format for the middle and bottom of the funnel.
- 3Interactive content generates 2x more conversions than passive content.
- 473% of B2B marketers say videos have become more important to their business in the last year.
- 5Short-form video has the highest ROI of any social media content strategy.
- 653% of B2B marketers say webinars produce the best results for their content marketing.
- 7Long-form content (3000+ words) gets 3x more traffic and 4x more shares than average length articles.
- 887% of video marketers say video has increased dwell time on their website.
- 9Infographics are the fourth most used type of content marketing.
- 1048% of B2B decision-makers spend time reading thought leadership content weekly.
- 11Podcasts are used by 29% of B2B marketers, with 41% reporting positive ROI.
- 12eBooks are the primary lead magnet for 27% of B2B marketers.
- 1364% of B2B marketers find "How-to" guides to be the most effective content type.
- 14Video content is 50 times more likely to drive organic search results than plain text.
- 1549% of marketers say that visual content is very important to their marketing strategy.
- 16Using the word "video" in an email subject line boosts open rates by 19%.
- 1789% of B2B marketers use case studies, making it the second most popular format.
- 1843% of B2B buyers say that interactive calculators are a helpful content format during the buying process.
- 19Blogs with images get 94% more total views than those without.
- 2061% of B2B marketers have created a virtual event/webinar/online course in the last 12 months.
Interpretation
Taken together, these stats deliver one blunt truth: B2B content that prioritizes video and visual storytelling, whether short form social clips that drive the highest ROI or long form pieces and case studies that close deals in the middle and bottom of the funnel, paired with interactive tools, how-to guides and webinars to boost conversions and dwell time and packaged as image rich blogs, eBooks or podcasts for lead capture and shareability, will consistently outperform plain text.
Distribution & Channels
- 1Email marketing returns $36 for every $1 spent, the highest ROI of any channel.
- 2Organic search creates 53% of all site traffic on average for B2B, driving long-term ROI.
- 3LinkedIn is the top organic social media platform for B2B content marketers, used by 96%.
- 4Search engine leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads have a 1.7% close rate.
- 580% of B2B marketers use paid social media distribution to amplify content.
- 677% of B2B marketers use email marketing newsletters to distribute content.
- 7Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 106%.
- 845% of B2B marketers say AI tools help them improve content distribution efficiency.
- 9LinkedIn is rated as the most effective social media platform for B2B content distribution by 79% of marketers.
- 10Content distribution through influencers delivers an 11x higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing.
- 1170% of marketers use automation technologies to distribute content.
- 12Twitter is used by 82% of B2B content marketers for distribution.
- 1350% of the most successful B2B marketers use paid content distribution compared to 16% of the least successful.
- 1468% of online experiences begin with a search engine, making SEO critical for content ROI.
- 15Repurposing content for social media increases the reach of the original asset by 50% or more.
- 1671% of B2B marketers use paid methods to distribute content to new audiences.
- 17Companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in 6-9 months.
- 18Guest posting is used by 54% of B2B marketers to distribute content and build backlinks.
- 1931% of B2B marketers use paid search (SEM) specifically to promote their content assets.
- 20Segmented email campaigns (distributing targeted content) see 760% increase in revenue.
Interpretation
If you're still treating content like confetti, these stats make clear that smart investment is mandatory: email pays back $36 for every dollar and segmented campaigns can boost revenue 760%, organic search drives roughly 53 percent of traffic and 68 percent of experiences start with search while search leads close at 14.6 percent versus 1.7 percent for outbound, LinkedIn is near-universal and deemed most effective, most marketers rely on paid social, paid distribution and automation with top performers twice as likely to pay to amplify content, updating and repurposing can double traffic or increase reach by more than half, influencers and guest posting deliver outsized ROI, and AI, SEM, Twitter and lead automation round out a toolkit that turns content into predictable revenue.
Lead Generation & Revenue Impact
- 1Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates roughly 3 times as many leads
- 2Companies with blogs produce an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that do not blog.
- 347% of buyers view three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep.
- 4Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.
- 572% of companies say content marketing increases the number of leads.
- 6B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those that do not.
- 782% of marketers who blog see positive ROI from their inbound marketing.
- 8Content marketing rakes in conversion rates six times higher than other methods.
- 960% of people are inspired to seek out a product after reading content about it.
- 1074% of companies indicate that content marketing is increasing their marketing teams lead quality and quantity.
- 1195% of B2B buyers say content is a significant driver when evaluating a company and its offerings.
- 1261% of B2B marketers say generating high-quality leads is their biggest challenge and top priority for content ROI.
- 13Aligning content with different stages of the buyer’s journey can improve conversion rates by 72%.
- 1487% of B2B marketers say content marketing has helped them create brand awareness that drives revenue.
- 15Companies that nurture leads with content generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.
- 1665% of B2B buyers report that vendors’ content had a significant impact on their buying decision.
- 17B2B buyers read at least 13 content pieces before making a software purchase decision.
- 18Inbound marketing (driven by content) costs $14 less than traditional marketing for each new customer acquired.
- 1980% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.
- 20Brands that rely on content marketing save over $14,000 per year on average compared to those that rely on paid ads.
Interpretation
Treating content like an optional extra is the costly mistake of modern marketing, because content costs far less than traditional channels while generating more and higher-quality leads, boosting conversions and average deal size, nurturing buyers who consume multiple pieces before engaging, and delivering clear ROI and thousands in savings when companies invest in blogging and buyer-stage aligned content.
Measurement & Analytics
- 1Only 43% of B2B marketers say they measure content marketing ROI.
- 227% of B2B marketers say they are extremely or very successful at tracking content marketing ROI.
- 375% of B2B marketers use technology to assist with content marketing insight and analytics.
- 4Website traffic is the most heavily tracked metric for content success, used by 76% of marketers.
- 552% of B2B marketers say that “attributing value to content” is their biggest challenge.
- 686% of highly effective organizations have someone in charge of content strategy and measurement.
- 765% of B2B marketers have established KPIs to measure content initiatives.
- 8Only 35% of marketers say they are very successful at tracking the ROI of their content strategy.
- 947% of B2B marketers do not measure ROI because it is too complicated.
- 1088% of the most successful B2B marketers value content performance measurement over quantity.
- 11The top metric for B2B content marketing success is conversions (sales/leads), cited by 48% of marketers.
- 1261% of marketers say they struggle to integrate their content data to measure ROI effectively.
- 1339% of B2B marketers measure the success of content using email engagement metrics.
- 1460% of B2B marketers cite "measuring the ROI of our content marketing program" as a top challenge.
- 1581% of marketers use Google Analytics to measure the performance of their content.
- 16Only 8% of B2B marketers consider themselves sophisticated in their use of content analytics.
- 1744% of marketers say better measurement and reporting is what they need most to improve content ROI.
- 1883% of marketers say that checking data/analytics is part of their content workflow.
- 19Time on page is a key engagement metric for 48% of B2B marketers measuring content quality.
- 2056% of marketers use A/B testing to improve content performance and ROI.
Interpretation
B2B marketers have plenty of gauges and Google Analytics dashboards but few steering wheels, obsessively tracking traffic and running tests while lacking owners, integrated data, KPIs, and attribution skills, so only a small fraction can actually prove true content ROI while the most effective teams that assign responsibility and prioritize measurement consistently succeed.
Strategy & Investment
- 173% of B2B marketers have a content marketing strategy, but only 40% have it documented.
- 2The average B2B organization spends 26% of their total marketing budget on content marketing.
- 350% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing budget in 2024.
- 469% of the most successful B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy.
- 542% of B2B marketers say they’re planning to increase spending on content creation.
- 6Lack of budget is cited by 26% of B2B marketers as a reason for not using content marketing.
- 755% of the most successful B2B content marketers increased their content marketing spending over the last 12 months.
- 881% of marketers view content as a core business strategy.
- 950% of B2B marketing organizations outsource at least one content marketing activity to save costs.
- 10The most successful B2B marketers spend 40% of their total marketing budget on content marketing.
- 1137% of B2B organizations have a centralized content marketing group that functions as its own unit.
- 1270% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing.
- 1346% of businesses want to increase their content creation spending in the coming year.
- 1478% of B2B marketers employ between 1-3 content marketing specialists.
- 15Repurposing content is a strategy used by 42% of marketers to maximize investment.
- 1660% of the most successful B2B marketers have a documented content strategy compared to 21% of others.
- 1791% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers.
- 1862% of the most successful B2B marketers prioritize the audience’s informational needs over the sales/promotional message.
- 1951% of businesses that invest in content marketing publish content every day.
- 2083% of successful B2B marketers focus on building a subscriber base as a key investment strategy.
Interpretation
The statistics are blunt: companies that document their content strategy and treat content as a core business investment, allocating the kind of budget top performers do while prioritizing audience needs, publishing consistently, repurposing work and building subscribers, are the ones actually capturing the ROI everyone else is still chasing.
