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Content Marketing Stats to Know When Planning for 2023

Thinking of adding content marketing to help your business get recognized and grow in 2023? If you’d like to launch a content marketing strategy in 2023, it’s time to start research and planning. Still not entirely sure? Here are some content marketing statistics to help you make an informed decision.

What is Content Marketing?

If you’re thinking about adding content marketing, you probably already have a pretty good idea what we’re talking about. If that’s the case, go ahead and skip this section. Otherwise, here’s a little context to get you started.

Content marketing is creating relevant and engaging content that helps business owners engage with and educate their audience. It’s about creating and sharing content that serves your audience’s information needs, therefore enabling you to connect with them. 

Types of content marketing include:

  • Website product or service pages
  • Blog posts
  • Lead magnets
  • Email newsletters or campaigns
  • Social media

Regardless of format, content marketing is critical for your business because it helps you attract potential customers to your website and generates sales.

Content Marketing Statistics to Know

If you’re not yet convinced that content marketing is the key to growing your business, some of these stats might crystalize what you’re debating — it’s time to add content marketing in 2023. 

90% of Businesses Plan to Continue Using Content Marketing

It may be impossible to know how many businesses use content marketing. There’s no master research to pull this type of information from. But the most popularly-cited statistic is that about 80% of businesses use content as part of their promotional strategies

Businesses report using content marketing to:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Attract more traffic to their website
  • Engage with customers
  • Increase customer loyalty
  • Generate leads to increase sales and, therefore, revenue

Of those who use content marketing, 90% said they plan to continue investing in it, and 46% increased their content marketing budgets in 2022. 

Key insight: Businesses that use content marketing see its value in many facets of their business and plan to continue using it even more.

More Than 65% of People Do Online Research Before They Make a Purchase

You can’t even consider purchasing a product or service you’re unaware of. That’s probably why brand awareness is the No. 1 goal of content marketing. 

Businesses used to use traditional advertising to drive brand awareness, but consumers actively avoid advertising these days. Word-of-mouth still is considered the best form of advertising, but today’s word-of-mouth is primarily on social media.

The goal of search engine optimization is to help people find your products or services when they’re searching in your brand category. And they are searching for brands. More than 65% of people do online research before they make a purchase. Content marketing helps them find your brand when they’re looking to buy.

People also look to social media to decide what products to use and buy. They see what their friends are talking about, and it makes them want to use those products too. More than 4.5 billion people use social media. In one survey, 75% of people in one survey said they use social media to research brands. The number of people searching for information about products or services on social media has the potential to be huge.

Key insight: Whether through search engines or social media, content marketing helps make people aware of your brand, making it an option to consider when they’re ready to buy.

54% of a Website’s Traffic on Average is Organic

More than 90% of online experiences start with a search engine. People use Google (the most popular search engine) to find what they want and need — to answer their questions and solve their problems. 

On average, more than half (54%) of a website’s traffic is organic. That means it comes from search engines, not people going directly to your website. SEO content marketing helps Google recognize your website’s content as valuable and recommend it to people searching online.

Key insight: People use search engines when seeking products or services. SEO content marketing helps them find your business.

44% of Consumers Read 3-5 Pieces of Content Before Engaging With a Brand

Today’s customers expect more from the companies they choose to do business with. They want to spend their hard-earned money with companies with values they agree with that support causes they also support. Today’s consumers put their money where their beliefs are and want to establish relationships with the companies they patronize. 

This values-based purchasing means that today’s customers are more likely to research and learn about your brand before engaging. In fact, 44% of consumers surveyed said they read three to five pieces of content before they engage with a brand. 

Content marketing means you’ll have that content readily available for them to see. A content marketing strategy also means you’ll have a method of engagement, like a contact form or chatbot like Podium, ready and waiting when an audience member takes the step to engage.

Key insight: People want to spend their money with brands they have relationships with. Content helps them learn about your brand, and tools like chats help them engage.

60% of Content Marketers Say Content Marketing Helps Build Loyalty

Brand loyalty equals future sales. Loyal customers repeatedly buy from your brand and recommend it to their friends. 

Loyal customers also give you a chance to respond to competitive threats. Convincing them to try a new product or service will take time. In the meantime, they’ll continue purchasing from you while you determine how to respond to the new challenge in the market. 

For these reasons, every business owner wants loyal customers — the more, the better. And 60% of content marketers say that content marketing helps build loyalty with existing customers by maintaining their connection to your brand. 

Key insight: Content marketing helps build brand loyalty, resulting in word-of-mouth recommendations and sales.

60% of Content Marketers Say Content Marketing Generates Leads

The goal of content marketing isn’t just to get more people to visit your website, open your emails, and read your content. While those are all benefits of content marketing, the goal is to create strong leads that you can convert into customers. That’s why it’s noteworthy that 60% of marketers say content marketing generates leads — three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.

Key insight: Content marketing costs less and generates more leads than traditional marketing, so you’ll spend less with a more significant ROI.

Let Content Journey Guide Your Content Marketing

Are you convinced yet? The data show that content marketing helps your business be recognized and grow. Another thing certain in all of the research — you need a content marketing strategy. Of the companies that feel their content marketing is successful, 78% said it’s because they follow a documented content strategy. Ready to enact a content marketing strategy in 2023? Book a call today, and let’s get started.


Citations:

40+ content marketing statistics to power your 2022 strategy. Semrush Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/content-marketing-statistics/ 

71 online shopping statistics to help determine your business’s next steps. Semrush Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/online-shopping-stats/ 

136+ seo statistics 2022 (#1 Ranking Factor & Case Study). demandsage. Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://www.demandsage.com/seo-statistics/#:~:text=SEO%20Statistics%20Highlights&text=Organic%20traffic%20is%20responsible%20for,the%20first%20page%20of%20google. 

2021 B2B content marketing: What now? [new research]. Content Marketing Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/b2b-industry-benchmarks-budgets-trends-research/ 

2021 content preferences survey: Buying committees look for visual, research/influencer-backed content experiences that tell a valuable story. Demand Gen Report. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://www.demandgenreport.com/resources/research/2021-content-preferences-survey-buying-committees-look-for-visual-research-influencer-backed-content-experiences-that-tell-a-valuable-story/ 

B2B content marketing [new research for 2022]. Content Marketing Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/b2b-power-content-marketing-research/ 

Content marketing infographic. Content Marketing Infographic | Demand Metric. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://www.demandmetric.com/content/content-marketing-infographic 

Daniel, K. (2022, April 12). The state of content marketing in 2022 [stats & trends to watch]. HubSpot Blog. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-content-marketing-infographic#:~:text=Content%20Marketing%20Stats%20to%20Know,more%20than%20their%202021%20budget. Kemp, S. (2022, July 21). The global state of digital in July 2022 – DataReportal – global digital insights. DataReportal. Retrieved October 24, 2022, from https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2022-july-global-statshot

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