Key Insights
Essential data points from our research
73% of B2B marketers and 70% of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy
40% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy
82% of marketers report actively using content marketing in 2024
91% of businesses use video as a marketing tool
89% of consumers say watching a video has convinced them to buy a product or service
Short-form video has the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy
62% of B2B buyers say a practical case study is the most valuable content format
77% of B2B marketers use educational content to nurture their audience
The average B2B buyer consumes 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson
The average blog post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write
Blog posts with 3,000+ words get 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than shorter articles
68% of online experiences begin with a search engine
There are over 4.76 billion social media users globally
User-Generated Content (UGC) is 35% more memorable than other media
90% of consumers follow at least one brand on social media
B2B and Lead Generation
- 162% of B2B buyers say a practical case study is the most valuable content format
- 277% of B2B marketers use educational content to nurture their audience
- 3The average B2B buyer consumes 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson
- 4LinkedIn is the most effective organic social media platform for B2B content marketers (96% usage)
- 571% of B2B buyers read blog content during their buying journey
- 6B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those that do not
- 744% of B2B marketers say webinars are their most effective tactic for lead generation
- 857% of B2B marketers cited "creating the right content for our audience" as a top challenge
- 993% of B2B marketers use email to distribute their content
- 10B2B buyers are 5x more likely to engage with a sales rep via warm introduction than cold outreach
- 1140% of B2B marketers say email newsletters are the most critical to their content marketing success
- 1260% of B2B marketers report that their content marketing strategy is extremely or very successful
- 1352% of B2B buyers say they represent a buying committee of three or more people
- 14B2B brands that use blogging see 13x positive ROI compared to those that don’t
- 1560% of top-performing B2B marketers have a documented persona strategy
- 1665% of B2B buyers prefer credible content from industry influencers over brand content
- 17The top three goals for B2B content marketers are creating brand awareness, building credibility/trust, and educating the audience
- 1884% of B2B marketers are outsourcing content creation
- 1931% of B2B marketers say that in-person events are the top channel for converting leads
- 2027% of B2B buyers spend more time researching purchases offline than online
Interpretation
If B2B marketers want to win over buying committees that typically consume three to five resources before contacting sales, they should stop shouting and start schooling by publishing practical case studies and educational blog and LinkedIn content, distributing it through email, newsletters and webinars, leaning on influencers and warm introductions, documenting personas and outsourcing smartly, and blending online with in-person touchpoints, because credible, helpful content consistently drives far more leads and ROI than scattershot promotion.
Blogging and SEO
- 1The average blog post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write
- 2Blog posts with 3,000+ words get 3x more traffic, 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than shorter articles
- 368% of online experiences begin with a search engine
- 475% of users never scroll past the first page of search results
- 5Updating and republishing old blog posts can increase traffic by as much as 106%
- 6Listicles generate 2x more shares than "how-to" articles and other formats
- 743% of people admit to skimming blog posts rather than reading them thoroughly
- 8Organic search drives 53% of all website traffic
- 9Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to see a positive ROI
- 10Content with at least one list per every 500 words gets 70% more traffic than content without lists
- 11The average #1 result in Google has 3.8x more backlinks than positions #2-#10
- 1253.3% of all web traffic comes from organic search
- 1366% of bloggers publish weekly, monthly, or at some other regular interval
- 14Headlines with 10-13 words attract 2x as much site traffic
- 1592.4% of keywords get ten monthly searches or fewer
- 1660% of marketers reuse blog content 2-5 times
- 17Only 5.7% of pages will rank in the top 10 search results within a year of publication
- 18The average top-ranking page on Google also ranks in the top 10 for nearly 1,000 other relevant keywords
- 19Including H2 and H3 tags in blog posts correlates with higher performance and readability
- 2046% of bloggers edit their own work while 54% have a formal editor
Interpretation
If blogging were a sport, you win by investing the roughly four hours it takes to craft long, list-filled posts with clear subheadings and punchy 10–13-word headlines, updating and repurposing older content, pursuing backlinks and consistent publishing, because organic search drives most traffic, top results hoard visibility, readers mostly skim, and most keywords and new pages won’t rank without that disciplined effort.
Social Media and Distribution
- 1There are over 4.76 billion social media users globally
- 2User-Generated Content (UGC) is 35% more memorable than other media
- 390% of consumers follow at least one brand on social media
- 454% of social browsers use social media to research products
- 571% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family
- 6Interactive content generates 2x more conversions than passive content
- 764% of marketers plan to invest in social media communities in 2024
- 8The average open rate for email newsletters across all industries is 21.33%
- 961% of consumers trust influencer recommendations, compared to 38% who trust brand-produced content
- 1098% of consumers plan to make at least one purchase through social shopping or influencer commerce this year
- 1138% of marketers engage in influencer marketing, yielding a 5.78x ROI for every $1 spent
- 12Podcasts reach over 100 million Americans every month
- 1377% of podcasters use social media to promote their content
- 14Email marketing returns $36 for every $1 spent
- 1580% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention
- 1650% of Instagram users have visited a website to make a purchase after seeing a product in Stories
- 17Facebook remains the most commonly used social media platform for marketers worldwide at 89%
- 18Content shared by employees receives 8x more engagement than content shared by brand channels
- 1944% of marketers post content on social media daily
- 2079% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions
Interpretation
With 4.76 billion social users, UGC that’s 35% more memorable and widely trusted, influencers and social shopping driving purchases, interactive content doubling conversions, email and podcasts delivering huge ROI, and employee-shared posts getting eight times the engagement, smart brands will prioritize authentic, community-driven, multi-channel content or risk leaving massive reach, trust and revenue on the table.
Strategy and Operations
- 173% of B2B marketers and 70% of B2C marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy
- 240% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy
- 382% of marketers report actively using content marketing in 2024
- 450% of marketers plan to increase their investment in content marketing in the coming year
- 558% of marketers said the leading challenge for their content strategy is content quality
- 672% of the most successful marketers measure the ROI of their content marketing
- 761% of marketers say generative AI has changed their content marketing strategy
- 848% of marketing teams are outsourcing content creation to freelancers or agencies
- 9Content marketing generates over 3x as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less
- 10The top three metrics marketers use to measure success are website traffic, sales/revenue, and content engagement
- 1181% of marketers view content as a core business strategy
- 12Organizations with high content marketing maturity are more than twice as likely to have a documented strategy
- 1342% of marketers say that proving the ROI of their content is a top challenge
- 14Successful content marketers are 4x more likely to use metrics to measure content performance
- 1576% of marketers use some form of automation for content marketing tasks
- 1626% of marketers utilize data to create highly personalized content experiences
- 1742% of companies have a dedicated content marketing strategist or executive
- 1869% of marketers say they align their content efforts with the buyer's journey
- 19Only 29% of B2B marketers consider their organization to be extremely or very successful with content marketing
- 20Content marketing is projected to be an industry worth $107 billion by 2026
Interpretation
Content marketing has become the closest thing marketers have to a default strategy, with roughly three quarters of B2B and B2C teams using it and 82% of marketers active in 2024, yet only 40% have a documented plan and just 29% of B2B marketers feel very successful, which helps explain why content quality and proving ROI remain top concerns even as automation, generative AI, and outsourcing scale up, top performers rigorously measure ROI and are four times more likely to use metrics, personalization still lags, and the channel nonetheless drives over three times the leads of outbound at 62% less cost while heading toward a $107 billion industry by 2026.
Video and Visual Media
- 191% of businesses use video as a marketing tool
- 289% of consumers say watching a video has convinced them to buy a product or service
- 3Short-form video has the highest ROI of any social media marketing strategy
- 4Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text
- 540% of marketers say creating visual content is their biggest challenge in terms of time and resources
- 6Articles with images get 94% more total views than articles without images
- 7Infographics act as a highly effective link-building tool and are shared 3x more than other content
- 896% of marketers see video as an important part of their marketing strategy
- 930% of marketers list creating video content as their top marketing challenge
- 10Videos under two minutes long get the most global engagement
- 1192% of video marketers report that video gives them a good return on investment
- 1250% of marketers use live video on social media networks
- 13Visual content is 40x more likely to be shared on social media than other types of content
- 1453% of marketers are optimizing photos or videos for visual search engines
- 1570% of businesses are creating more videos now than they did at the same time last year
- 16Using the word 'video' in an email subject line boosts the open rates by 19%
- 1775% of people watch short-form video content on their mobile devices
- 1888% of marketers say video has helped them increase user dwell time on their website
- 19People share infographics on social media 3x more than any other type of content
- 20Color visuals increase willingness to read by 80%
Interpretation
If content is king, video and visuals are the royal court, with short, mobile-first videos and bold imagery grabbing attention, supercharging retention, shares, links, email opens and conversions, and delivering top ROI and dwell time—even as many marketers admit they lack the time and resources to produce them.
