66 Content Marketing Statistics for 2022

A recent study found that only 10% of marketers do not use content marketing (spoiler alert). So, for the remaining majority of marketers, and perhaps the skeptics, we’ve curated, vetted, and classified a list of up-to-date statistics to help you make the most of 2022.

The most important content marketing statistics

Here are the most intriguing content marketing statistics we believe you should be aware of.

1. Eighty-two percent of marketers are actively investing in content marketing, ten percent are not, and eight percent are unsure if their company uses content marketing (HubSpot).
2. 43 percent of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, and 60 percent of the most successful B2B marketers have one as well (Content Marketing Institute).
3. Sixty-nine percent of marketers actively invest in SEO (HubSpot).
4. Sixty percent of marketers say content marketing generates demand/leads. Furthermore, 70% of marketers believe that content marketing helps to educate the audience, and 60% believe that it helps to build loyalty with existing clients/customers (CMI).
5. In 2021, video will be the most popular form of marketing media, followed by blogs (used by more than half of marketing teams), and then infographics (HubSpot).
6. 73% of people admit to skimming blog posts, while 27% read them thoroughly (HubSpot).
7. Targeting strategic keywords is the top SEO tactic for 71% of marketers (HubSpot).
8. Every day, 51% of businesses that invest in content marketing publish content (The Manifest).
9. Despite the fact that 32% of respondents are overwhelmed by the amount of content available, the majority (44%) say they typically consume three to five pieces of content before engaging with a vendor (DemandGen).
10. A short video is preferred by 69 percent of respondents for learning about a product or service. 18% would rather read a text-based article, website, or blog post. An infographic is preferred by 4% of those polled. Only 3% prefer to download an ebook or manual. 3 percent would rather attend a webinar or pitch. 2% would rather receive a sales call or a demo (Wyzowl).
11. 81 percent of marketers consider content to be a critical business strategy (CMI).

Content marketing strategy statistics

As demonstrated in the preceding section, the majority of successful content marketers have a documented content strategy. Here are some statistics to help you plan your strategy.

1. The top three primary goals of content creation are to increase sales, build customer relationships, and raise brand awareness (eMarketer).
2. Content marketing generates more than three times the number of leads as outbound marketing while costing 62 percent less (Demand Metric).
3. The ROI of content marketing is measured by 72 percent of the most successful marketers in North America (eMarketer).

B2B content marketing statistics

Here’s what B2B marketers have to say about their content marketing initiatives.

1. Only 4% of B2B marketers do not intend to develop a content marketing strategy (CMI).
2. 87 percent of B2B marketers place the audience’s informational needs ahead of the company’s sales/promotional messages (CMI).
3. Among B2B marketers, content creation is the most outsourced content marketing activity (CMI).
4. B2B marketers’ top three organic content distribution channels are social media, email, and their company’s blog/website (CMI).
5. 96 percent of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn (CMI).
6. Only 28% of B2B marketers use paid content distribution channels (CMI).
7. While creating content, 78 percent of B2B marketers conduct keyword research for SEO (CMI).

Statistics on B2C content marketing

Let’s compare the responses of B2C content marketers to those of B2B content marketers.

1. Only 6% of B2C marketers do not intend to develop a content marketing strategy (CMI).
2. Among B2C marketers, content creation is the most outsourced content marketing activity (CMI).
3. B2C marketers’ top three organic content distribution channels are social media, email, and their company’s blog/website (CMI).
4. B2C marketers’ top three content formats are blog posts/short articles, email newsletters, and videos (CMI).
5. According to B2C marketers who use at least two organic social media platforms, Facebook (59%) and Instagram (21%), produce the best overall content marketing results (CMI).
6. Only 28% of B2C marketers avoid paid content distribution channels (CMI).
7. While creating content, 73% of B2C marketers conduct keyword research for SEO (CMI).

Organic search statistics

As our data has shown, the majority of content marketers conduct keyword research and invest in SEO. In other words, they put money into organic search. Let’s look into what else we can learn about this marketing channel.

Google sends no organic search traffic to 90.63 percent of pages (Ahrefs).

1. A search engine is the starting point for 68% of online experiences (Brightedge).
2. 71% of B2B researchers begin their research with a generic search rather than a branded search (Google).
3. 53 percent of shoppers say they always conduct research before making a purchase to ensure they are making the best decision possible (Google).
4. Within a year of publication, only 5.7 percent of pages will rank in the top 10 search results (Ahrefs).
5. Mobile devices account for nearly two-thirds of global online search (Perficient).
6. Sixty-nine percent of marketers actively invest in SEO (HubSpot).
7. The top three SEO metrics are keyword ranking, organic traffic, and time spent on page (HubSpot).
8. In general, the more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it receives from Google (Ahrefs).
9. The average number one ranking page will also rank in the top ten for nearly 1,000 additional relevant keywords (Ahrefs).
10. There is no relationship between Flesch Reading Ease and ranking positions (Ahrefs).

Blogging statistics

Statistics are hand-picked for this cornerstone of many content strategies.

1. People rarely read on the internet. They will scan rather than read word for word. They simply want to select the information that is most relevant to their current requirements (Nielsen).
2. 70% of people prefer blogs to traditional advertisements for information (Demand Metric).
3. Out of the world’s 1.9 billion websites, there are currently over 600 million blogs. Their authors are responsible for over 6 million blog posts per day, or over 2.5 billion per year (hosting tribunal).
4. The most popular content formats are how-to articles (77%), followed by news and trends (49%), and guides and ebooks (47%). (Statista).
5. Only one-third of bloggers check their blog’s traffic analytics on a regular basis (Statista).
6. Posts with a reading time of more than seven minutes experience a drop in engagement (Medium).

Video statistics

According to Hubspot, the video will be the primary form of marketing media created in 2021. Video marketing appears to be out of the question.

1. 70% of viewers purchased from a brand after seeing it on YouTube (Google).
2. By watching a video, 79 percent of people say they were persuaded to buy or download a piece of software or app (Wyzowl).
3. YouTube is used by 50.9 percent of B2B decision-makers to research purchases (Hootsuite).
4. By organic traffic, YouTube is the second-most visited website in the United States (Ahrefs).
5. In an average week, YouTube reaches more 18- to 49-year-olds than all cable TV networks combined (Google).
6. Video viewers rate content relating to their interests as three times more important than content starring famous actors (Google).
7. Relating to one’s passions is 1.6X more important to video viewers than high-production-quality content (Google).
8. Video is used as a marketing tool by 86% of businesses (Wyzowl).
9. 91 percent of marketers believe the pandemic has increased the importance of video for brands (Wyzowl).
10. In order to learn more about a product or service, 96% of people have watched an explainer video (Wyzowl).
11. In 2021, 85 percent of people want to see more brand videos (Wyzowl).

Podcast statistics

Brands such as Slack, Shopify, and Basecamp have already invested in the development of a branded podcast. According to these statistics, marketers should at the very least consider advertising on podcasts.

1. Podcast advertising spending in the United States is expected to reach $1.74 billion in 2022, a 23 percent increase from 2021. (Statista).
2. Podcasts are listened to by 57% of Americans (Edison Research).
3. Eighty percent of podcast listeners listen to the entire episode or the majority of it (Podcast Insights).
4. Weekly podcast listeners consume eight podcasts per week on average (Edison Research).
5. Every week in the United States, there are more podcast listeners than Netflix subscribers (Edison Research).

Other interesting statistics

Is visual content essential? Is there such a thing as the best day to publish? What factors influence people’s decisions about which links to click? Discover more by reading on.

1. People who follow directions with text and illustrations outperform those who follow directions without illustrations by 323 percent (W.H Levie, H.Lentz).
2. The majority of marketers polled believe that visual content is an important part of their marketing strategy. Visuals are considered essential or very important by 64% of respondents. Only 9.6 percent say they don’t need visuals for their content marketing (Venngage).
3. There is no “best day” to publish new content. Social shares are distributed equitably across posts published on various days of the week (Backlinko).
4. The average amount of time a reader devotes to a newsletter after opening it is 51 seconds. Only 19% of newsletters were read completely by study participants (Nielsen).
5. Users choose the links with the highest information scent when deciding which to click on the web, which is a combination of cues from the link label, the context in which the link is displayed, and their prior experiences (Nielsen).

Finally, some thoughts

I hope you found useful information in the statistics presented above. After all, looking for data-driven answers to your marketing hypotheses is always a good idea.

But keep in mind that any statistic should be taken with a grain of salt. Statistics are oversimplifications of only a subset of reality. They are also not always methodologically sound: small sample sizes, packing, and spurious correlations are all common.

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