One of our Content at Scale users recently asked, “What is the value of content marketing?”
I LOVE answering this question. Here’s why:
First, content marketing will be worth $600 billion in 2024. 🎉
Incredible, right?!
Out of all digital marketing strategies, content marketing has THE highest ROI (return on investment).
When I started what was to be my content marketing journey in 2011, I had NO idea what kind of explosive growth was in store.
But the content marketing ROI statistics prove that this industry’s growth is NOT slowing down any time soon. In our digital age, both B2B and B2C business owners and marketers are seeing massive benefits when they use strategic content creation (like lead generation, for one!).
That means, for most brands, the mass transition to digital marketing from traditional advertising is inevitable.
If your mind is blown about how fast content marketing is growing, don’t fear. The content marketing ROI statistics in this post show exactly WHY this is happening.
Ready to rock?
Let’s take a look at these astounding stats, and (most importantly) break down what the ROI of content marketing means for you with key takeaways.
You might even get some ideas to improve your own content marketing ROI. 💡 Let’s get to it.
Watch Me Explain the Amazing ROI of Content Marketing
Content Marketing ROI Statistics: Table of Contents
Want to jump to a specific set of statistics on content marketing ROI? Here’s what’s inside this post:
- 45 Incredible Content Marketing ROI Stats
- Mind-Blowing B2B Content Marketing ROI Statistics
- B2C Content Marketing ROI Statistics
- Email Content Marketing ROI Statistics
- Visual Content Marketing ROI Statistics
- Pandemic-Related Content Marketing ROI Statistics
45 Incredible Content Marketing ROI Stats
Several years back, HubSpot published a report that finally answered a burning question: “How much should you blog?” 🔥
After surveying 13,000+ bloggers, their groundbreaking findings pinpointed how much content is needed to create a powerful content strategy. I’ve listed the most notable results from that study below, plus other amazing statistics.
You might have to rub your eyes after you see some of these incredible content marketing ROI stats. 👀
1. Websites with 400+ blog posts receive more than 2x the traffic of blogs with 301-400 posts.
Content at Scale makes content generation EASY. Learn more here.
This is from a Hubspot study in 2015 of over 13,000 blogs. It was found that companies with over 400 published blogs get 2x more traffic on average.
Monthly blogs equal more traffic. If anyone tells you “It’s quality over quantity”, that’s not true; it’s actually both. Remember, more blogs equal more opportunities.
2. Publishing 2-4 blog posts per week offers the highest conversion rate and traffic.
3. Publishing 16+ posts per month offers 4.5x more leads and 3.5x more traffic.
4. 78% of brands that were the most successful with content in the past year have a content marketing strategy.
5. Overall, businesses that blog see 126% more leads than those that don’t.
6. Nearly 80% of all internet users regularly interact with blogs.
7. Content marketing campaigns cost 62% less to launch and maintain vs. other types of campaigns.
8. According to a survey done by Dimensional Research, 90% of customers say their buying decisions are influenced by reviews.
9. 28.5% of searchers end up clicking on the first Google result.
10. The top three results on a Google search page get 75% of all clicks.
11. SEO blogging brings in 1,000% more traffic than social media.
12. 86% of entrepreneurs say publishing a book helped grow their business.
13. 90.63% of all blogs will get zero traffic from Google, and by extension, zero traction and zero results.
14. Most content entrepreneurs spend just 30-40% of their time actually creating content.
The remainder of that time (the majority) is spent running their business and managing people. Most of these entrepreneurs hired help just 18 months after starting their venture.
15. Nearly 70% of all online experiences start with a search.
16. 66 billion people worldwide (59.5% of Earth’s total population) use the internet.
17. 53.3% of all web traffic comes from organic search.
18. Leads coming in as a result of search engine optimization (SEO) have a close rate of nearly 15%.
19. Google is responsible for more than 90% of the world’s search queries online.
20. Google tells us outright in their SEO starter guide that creating good content will likely influence your website more than any other factor.
21. 75% of brands say the most efficient content marketing tactic they use is search engine optimization.
22. 15% of companies have no idea what they’re spending on content marketing.
23. The average amount companies spend annually on content marketing is $10,000 or less.
24. The biggest goal people want to achieve through content marketing is to generate more high-quality leads (79%).
25. 78% of content marketers believe custom content is the future of marketing.
26. When it comes to generating sales, 70% said SEO gives them better results than PPC (pay-per-click).
27. Blog posts are the most popular type of content being produced.
28. People spend an average of 7 hours per day consuming digital content, almost doubling the prior year’s stats.
29. Companies with 10 or fewer employees see 3.5x more traffic with 300 blog posts vs. companies with 0-50 blog posts.
30. Both B2B and B2C companies get more leads the more blog posts they publish.
31. Across the board, content marketers spend much more time and effort on creating a blog post than they did in 2014.
32. 55% of successful content marketers said the best way they improved their strategies was by focusing on improving content quality.
33. 59% of shoppers say they use Google to research a purchase.
34. More than half of shoppers say they use Google to discover or find a new brand.
35. 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results page.
36. The biggest challenge for 44% of marketers is content production.
37. Compared to traditional marketing, content marketing costs 62% less and generates around 3x the leads.
38. There was a 10% decrease in outsourcing content marketing in the last year.
39. The most common outsourced role for content marketing is writers (81%), making it one of the most valuable and relevant marketing skills.
40. When it comes to sales funnels, 69% of content is created for the top of the funnel. 43% is created for the middle, 20% for the bottom, and 18% for retention.
41. After reading custom content, 82% of consumers feel more positive about a brand.
42. 46% of unsuccessful content marketers never conduct a content audit to update old content.
43. 46% of people take recommendations from bloggers into account while shopping, and companies that blog for marketing purposes see 13x times the ROI over businesses that don’t blog.
44. Consumers in the 18-24 age bracket use search engines more than their Facebook feed for catching up on news, business, and lifestyle stories, at 56% vs 54%.
45. Only 19% of companies say they have an advanced content marketing strategy.
Source: Semrush
Mind-Blowing B2B Content Marketing ROI Statistics
In the world of businesses marketing and selling to each other, content matters to each stage of the buyer’s journey.
So, how do content marketing ROI statistics shake out in the B2B sector?
Generally, you’ll see an emphasis on the benefits of strategy as well as content creation statistics that showcase the following:
- What content types B2Bs are focused on
- Which content types play well with B2B audiences
- How B2Bs plan and spend their content budgets
- How often businesses should blog for results
The stats:
91% of B2B marketers use content marketing.
86% of B2B marketers have used content marketing to successfully create brand awareness.
B2B companies publishing 11+ blog posts per month receive 3.75x more leads vs. those publishing three or fewer posts.
B2B brands publishing 11+ blog posts per month receive 1.75x more leads than those publishing 6-10 blog posts.
66% of B2B brands increased their marketing budget from 2021 to 2022.
Content creation is outsourced by 86% of B2B companies.
B2B companies saw 2.5x more traffic with 400+ blog posts than those with 200 or fewer posts.
95% of B2B product buyers say they view content as a trustworthy marker to evaluate a business.
The most preferred types of content for B2B buyers are webinars (57%), ebooks (57%), and whitepapers (55%).
71% of B2B customers consume blog content during the purchase process.
By the year 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions will occur via digital channels.
Nearly 80% of all major brands have a 1-3 person content marketing team
Companies that maintain an active blog have an average of 434% more indexed pages and 97% more inbound links.
79% of B2B companies say they have a content marketing strategy.
Only 43% of B2B brands have a documented content strategy.
Source: CMI
B2C Content Marketing ROI Statistics
In the business-to-consumer (B2C) realm, content marketing is just as effective as it is for B2Bs. (The marketing strategy statistics don’t lie.)
Here are the content ROI statistics to pay attention to:
86% of B2C marketers use content marketing.
B2C companies publishing 11+ blog posts per month receive more than 4x the leads than those that only publish 4-5 blog posts/month.
B2C brands with 400+ blog posts get 2.5x times more traffic than those with 300-399 blog posts.
50% of online shoppers will read 3-5+ blogs.
27% of B2C content marketing teams increased their size in the last year.
The average number of people on a B2C organization’s content marketing team is 2-5.
When it comes to editorial tools, 73% of content marketers use a keyword research tool like Semrush for search engine optimization during the content creation process.
Budget issues are the #1 challenge for B2C organizations seeking outsourced content marketing.
26% of B2C organizations don’t have a single person dedicated to content marketing.
Blog posts are the most popular content type B2C marketers use at 83%.
Email content marketing is the 2nd most popular content type for B2C organizations with 74% favoring it.
87% of B2C brands track website traffic to measure content performance.
Key Takeaways from B2B and B2C Content Marketing ROI Stats
- Blogs are one of the highest ROI marketing channels for any type of business.
- Quality, quantity, and consistency have a HUGE impact on the success of your content marketing. If you want to produce amazing content that earns ROI, you need all three.
- Shoppers are using Google to find products and services, so crafting SEO-friendly content is extremely important. 📢
- Content marketing is 100% worth the investment.
- Generally, the more frequently you blog, the more traffic you’ll get (but quality remains important).
- Buyers use content as a way to determine whether brands are trustworthy.
- Regular and consistent publishing of high-quality posts increases traffic and leads.
It may sound like too much work to push out high-quality blog posts consistently, but with the right processes, you can learn to do it like a pro. I believe content marketing’s incredible ROI makes investing in a content strategy mentor a GREAT idea, one you’ll wish you did sooner.
Email Content Marketing ROI Statistics
When combined with content marketing, these email marketing ROI statistics show businesses can expect to see a great return from their email content.
The stats:
Personalizing the content in your subject lines can give a 50% boost in open rates.
Nearly 22% of all email campaigns are opened within the first hour of sending.
Spam accounts for 85% of the total email traffic worldwide.
94% of malware is delivered via email.
There will be 6 billion daily email users by 2025.
Fridays have the highest email open rates at nearly 19%.
The worst day to send emails is Saturday with an open rate of only 17%.
Brands that consistently include an A/B test as part of their email content marketing strategy generate a ROI of 48:1.
Using personas to inform and improve personalization in your marketing increases conversions by 10% and email click-through rates by 14%.
The global email marketing market was valued at $7.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027.
99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day. Of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning.
64% of small businesses use email marketing to reach their customers.
Only 57% of small businesses plan to increase spending on email marketing, versus the 78% who plan to increase spending for digital marketing.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Key Takeaways from Email Content Marketing Statistics
- What content type has the best ROI in marketing? While people do enjoy consuming short-form content like email and social media posts, long-form content like blog posts perform better long-term. 🎉
- Email content marketing works best when you personalize your message to your audience segments, including the subject line and signature.
- A/B testing your emails is a great way to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t for your particular readers.
- Email is just as ubiquitous as it was 10, 15, or even 20 years ago — if not more so. Investing in email therefore has a great ROI.
Visual Content Marketing ROI Statistics
Visual content marketing involves photos, images, webinars, and videos that convey ideas in a visible form. It’s a strategic marketing method that aims to engage and inform.
Additionally, a lot of visual content marketing statistics are related to social media ROI statistics. That’s because the content that works on social is most often visual — and visual-heavy posts tend to perform better on those channels.
(Surprised at how many different types of content there are? Here are the types you should focus on for your business.)
The stats:
47% of B2B buyers consider webinars valuable content in the mid-stage of their purchase journey.
The most popular type of content for B2B buyers is webinars (57%).
75% of content marketers get a higher ROI when visuals are added to their content.
78% of marketers consistently use a visual when posting content.
58% of marketers pass over visuals and videos to say original written content is the most important content type.
Looking at social media ROI, 88% of content marketers are satisfied with their video marketing efforts.
70% of marketers think their content marketing is currently more successful than it was in the previous year.
Paid Facebook Ad ROI has plummeted to .6%.
85% of U.S. internet users watch video content monthly (across all their devices).
All age groups agree that video content is the most memorable, while it’s most popular among younger demographics.
Video is the #1 type of content people like to see from brands on their social media feeds. 🎥
54% of buyers want to see more video content from the brands they support.
YouTube is used by at least 67% of every single age group of U.S. internet users. That includes 77%+ of all people in the U.S. aged 15-35.
Internet video traffic accounts for 80% of all internet traffic — a 67% increase from 2016.
74% of marketers say video has a better return on investment (ROI) than a static image.
Content marketers distribute video over YouTube (including me) more than any other channel, at 88%.
Source: Wyzowl
Key Takeaways from Visual Content Marketing Statistics
- Visual content marketing helps boost content marketing’s success.
- However, the most impactful type of content marketing remains written content.
- Just like written content, consistency, quality, and quantity make a massive impact on the success of visual content.
- Video is worth the investment if you have the means to do it.
Pandemic-Related Content Marketing ROI Statistics
The pandemic changed the entire world as we know it, including content marketing. These stats make it clear that marketing looked very different before Covid-19, and after Covid-19.
The stats:
Since the pandemic started, 64% of marketers updated their editorial calendars.
31% of marketers have re-examined the customer’s journey.
20% of marketers adjusted their key performance indicators (KPIs).
87% of consumers said they’ve appreciated brands willing to take the extra step to deliver timely and relevant information during the pandemic.
Only 18% of B2C marketers adjusted their buyer personas in response to the pandemic.
More than 40% of marketers saw budget cuts to email since the pandemic.
A historically high 47.4 million people (in the U.S. alone) quit their jobs in 2021, and by 2027 the majority of the U.S. workforce will have become freelancers-for-hire.
There are now over 8 billion Google searches per day vs. just 3.6 billion before the pandemic.
The top industries for marketing job growth in the second half of 2021 were arts (85.9% growth), retail (72.6%), and education (63.7%).
70% of B2B marketers said the pandemic made a moderate to major impact on their content marketing strategy.
Brands reported after the onset of the pandemic, “We increased our empathy toward our audience and found them to be more receptive.”
The same report found that 51% of brands said it has become increasingly difficult to capture their audience’s attention.
During 2021, 28% of Americans (80 million) consumed weekly podcast content.
Key Takeaways from Pandemic-Related Content ROI Statistics
- The pandemic is being credited with “awakening the sleeping giant” that is content marketing.
- Content marketing changes from the pandemic are here to stay.
- Marketing after the pandemic looks incredibly different than the days before the Covid-19 outbreak.
- The Great Resignation will contribute to a growing pool of contractors available for expanding content marketing teams.
What’s Your Content Marketing ROI?
The staggering ROI statistics on this list show a clear trajectory into a future where content marketing is the only marketing left.
If these are the content marketing statistics of 2021 and 2022, can you even IMAGINE what lies beyond this?
It’s an exciting time. 🚀
Clearly, blog posts continue to thrive because of their incredible power for lead generation and therefore remain the most popular form of content. Their ability to attract high-quality leads and traffic while engaging and helping people is part of what makes content marketing SO powerful.
So as these content marketing ROI statistics prove, the time to step up your content game is now.
Because, if you’re reading this, you’re already onto something big. You now know how INCREDIBLY important it is to create a content marketing strategy — your next step is to learn how. And I can teach you every single thing you or your team will need to know to do it and do it well.
Join our Content Hacker Community to learn live from me, every month, the tips and tricks of the content marketing game.
