You know content marketing works, but do you know the real numbers? Here are some top content marketing facts to drive your SEO strategy.
The marketing landscape is constantly evolving and business owners and marketers need to stay ahead of the curve to keep engaging customers.
A great tool in today's marketing arsenal is content marketing. It builds your brand, improves your SEO and brings in leads. That's if you know what you're doing.
That's why today we're giving you a helping hand by outlining our top marketing facts. Learn how people are engaging with content and what you should be doing to get those clicks and shares.
What Marketing Facts Does Every Content Marketer Need?
You might not think of yourself as a content marketer but if you create any type of written, video or audio content for your brand then you are. So let's see how you can create content that really makes an impact in 2019 and beyond.
1. Year-On-Year Growth in Unique Site Traffic Is 7.8x Higher for Content Marketing Leaders Compared to Followers
The figures speak for themselves as 19.7% vs 2.5% growth even took us by surprise. Your content strategy is vital to the growth of your business. What we mean by leaders is the content marketers that are staying on top of content trends and behavior.
They adapt their strategy to a shifting market and are ahead of the pack, not following it. If you want to be a leader just make sure that you are regularly evaluating your content skils and embarking on your own learning to keep up.
2. Content Marketing Will Get You Approximately 3x as Many Leads as Traditional Marketing but Cost You 61% Less.
You definitely have to invest time and resource into your content marketing but good content will cost less and achieve more. It's often something that falls by the wayside in businesses that doesn't see an instant ROI but your content is building your brand. The more content you create the more times you have to reach a customer.
Over time if you have the right strategy in place you're going to reap the benefits of a strong content campaign.
3. 63% of Businesses Don't Have a Documented Content Strategy
That means only 37% of businesses are planning their content strategically. It's not enough to just be creating content. You need a clear strategy to follow to achieve your business goals.
You can read plenty of free resources of content strategy online or even invest in a course or a consultant to help you. Either way, it's crucial to really learn how to strategically plan your content for maximum impact.
4. Email Remains the Most Effective Channel for Content Distribution
You might look at your overflowing inbox and be unconvinced but bear with us. Around 79% B2B marketers and 74% of B2C marketers reported email as the most successful distribution channel.
You need to be careful not to spam your database. If someone has given you their email address they have opted in and you don't want to give them a reason to unsubscribe.
Provide value every step of the way and have your followers looking forward to what they can learn from your emails.
5. Only 24% of B2B Marketers Are Actually Partnering with Others to Expand Their Audience Reach
That leaves a huge majority not reaching the audiences they could be. Select key partners that overlap with your target audience to provide collaborative content to boost your traffic.
Again the key is to add value and also be clever about your choices. Be ambitious with your partners but be reasonable. Don't waste your time going after huge big fish that are unlikely to partner when you could be collaborating with smaller but highly engaged partners.
6. Only 5% of People Get past the First Page of Search Results
We're lazy and we also tend to find what we're looking for on page one. So 95% of us won't see your content if it doesn't rank high enough. By building up your content strategy and your rankings you can start to build a domain with authority. This is turn will help you rank higher.
7. The Most Shared Blog Posts Are Over 3000 Words
The average blog post is 1142 words long. That might seem a lot but it seems like we love the content that goes in-depth. With sharing highest with the 3000-word blogs then it's time to get righting. Focus on a niche and do it well. You will be rewarded with good traffic and engagement.
8. Podcasts Are Big News for Content Marketers
Over 45% of all internet users are also podcats listeners. We're listening on our commute, while we run or do the shopping and you should be making use of this channel. Do you have a niche that could attract a strong following on a podcast? It also helps if you happen to have charismatic people able to host the podcast.
9. Content With Images Gets More Shares
We're visual creatures and although your content matters, it's more likely to be share if it includes a well-chosen image. Twitter content with an image has a 74% chance of being shared. If it doesn't have an image that drops to 38%.
Choose professional quality stock images or create your own graphics - either way, find a way to incorporate visuals into your content. You could even create your own infographics to support the content you have. Finding different ways to re-use content is an effective time-saver.
Check out these content writing tips for help on creating content that gets a reaction.
Start Improving Your SEO Strategy Today
Did these marketing facts surprise you? Hopefully, they've helped you identify any gaps in your content strategy that you can start to work on today.
By nailing your content strategy and aligning with your audience's needs you'll start to see the results. Be consistent, provide value and be strategic with your content and you'll be on the right track.
You might have to move the goalposts every so often as the marketing world changes but you can be sure that it will never be a boring job.
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