2020 was a challenging year in many ways and 2021 is still taking the brunt of it.

The digital landscape is changing and content is not far behind.

The industry is positively thriving!

Content marketing has already proved to be an extremely effective tool for marketers, from building brand awareness to generating leads and getting conversions and it’s safe to say it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

All the while marketers who’ve jumped on the bandwagon and created informed strategies are reaping the benefits of their efforts as you are reading this.

Don’t you want to be one of them?

Perhaps you need a gentle push?

Well, I’ve gathered some must-know content marketing statistics so that you can confidently invest in content marketing without a second thought.

Let’s dive in!

General Content Marketing Stats

According to CMI, 91% of B2B and 86% of B2C marketers have already adopted content marketing. (CMI)

94% of businesses use content marketing as a marketing approach. (SEMrush)

84% of companies have a content marketing strategy. (SEMrush)

95% of B2B consumers admit that they view content as a trustworthy marker when evaluating a business. (Demand Gen Report)


79% of B2B marketers reported their organization has a content marketing strategy. 85% of B2B marketers saw promising results on their content marketing campaigns. (CMI)

The biggest content marketing challenge among B2B marketers is content creation. Additionally, content creation is the biggest activity that they usually outsource, and they’re likely to invest more in 2021. (CMI)

70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. Roughly 60% of marketers stated that content marketing is ‘very important’ or ‘extremely important’ to their overall strategy. (HubSpot)

51% of marketers rate their 2020 content marketing strategy as ‘good’. (SEMrush)

63% of content marketers use their content strategy to build loyalty with their existing clients. (CMI)

The Impact of the Pandemic

Now more than ever, the pressure is on for marketing teams to drive results across every stage of the funnel, from customer acquisition all the way through sales and retention.

In response to the pandemic, many B2B marketers changed their targeting/messaging strategy, editorial calendar, and distribution strategy. Fewer revisited the customer journey and personas, or adjusted their content marketing KPIs.


Regarding the speed of response, 83% of marketers said they made quick changes to their content marketing strategy. 80% felt the changes were effective and 86% expected some of the changes to stay in effect for the foreseeable future. (CMI)

70% made major or moderate adjustments to their strategy in the aftermath of the pandemic, 64% adjusted their editorial calendar, and 53% changed their content distribution strategy. (CMI)

One in three marketers say the pandemic has resulted in rapid digital transformation of business processes. (Criteo)

25% of marketers cite the impact of the pandemic on their b2b content marketing strategy as major, 22% view those adjustments as short-term and 66% view them as both short- and long-term. (CMI)

Blogging Statistics

According to a recent survey, blog posts continue to be the most popular content format among content marketers, with 92% of them producing blog posts to help achieve their overall marketing goals (SEMrush). In comparison, the next two most popular formats, emails and case studies, are only carried out by 66% and 47% of all content marketers.


There are more than 600 million blogs out of the 1.7 billion websites (GrowthBadger)

The number of active bloggers in the United States has reached 31.7 million. (OptinMonster)

77% of people regularly read blogs online. (Quora Creative)

55% of marketers list blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority (HubSpot).

Blogs affect customers’ buying decisions as 47% of them go through 3 to 5 blog posts before making a purchase. (Demand Gen Report)

Organic search is the biggest traffic source for blogs, accounting for 59.22% of traffic. Additionally, organic search is also the fastest growing channel at 9.01% per month. (Animalz)

Companies that publish at least 16 blog posts per month receive 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish fewer than four posts (HubSpot).

A recent survey showed that “quality of content” is rated the most important success factor among all bloggers. (GrowthBadger)

Content Marketing Budget

It’s apparent content marketing isn’t going away and many marketers are catching up. 44% of marketers say their content marketing budgets will increase in 2021. (Criteo)


Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional outbound methods, yet it generates three times the number of leads. (Demand Metric)

29% of marketers say their 2021 content marketing budget will increase up to 10%, 25% say it will increase by 11-25%, while 14% are willing to change it more than 25%. (SEMrush)

92% of marketers reported that their company views content as a business asset. (CMI)

To achieve their content marketing goals, most companies are ready to spend around $10,000 (37%) and sometimes up to $25,000. (SEMrush)

66.3% of the total content marketing budget spent in the US in 2020 went to digital channels, ahead of TV (10.4%) and direct mail (7%). (Borrell, 2020)

79% of marketers prioritize generating more quality leads through content marketing in 2021, 75% prioritize attracting more traffic, while 56% plan to improve their brand reputation. (SEMrush)

Content Marketing ROI

Building an effective content marketing funnel is essential and the majority of marketers find it challenging to determine what type of content is more likely to generate leads (52%) while 47% of content marketers see creating content that drives traffic as their biggest challenge. To overcome these challenges, 88% of marketers leverage website analytics tools, 82% SEO tools, 61% email marketing software, and 52% content management systems. (CMI)

Organic traffic was the number one key metric used by marketers to measure their content success (83%), followed by page views and sessions (70%) than leads (66%), then conversion rate. (SEMrush)


47% of B2B marketers don’t measure ROI from their content marketing efforts. (CMI)

Only 48% of B2B marketers frequently craft content based on the specific stages to the customer journey. CMI

Content marketing produces 3x more leads per $ plus brands that published 15 posts/month averaged 1,200 new leads during that time. (Kapost)

Content marketing generates 3X more leads than paid ads. It also costs 62% less than the old forms of advertising. (Siteefy)

Companies that use content marketing see a 6x increase in overall conversion rate compared to those that rely on traditional marketing. (Siteefy)

B2B marketers that blog get 67% more leads per month than those who don’t. (Antevenio)

Email campaigns (87%) and educational content (77%) are the top content marketing methods B2B marketers use to nurture their audience. (CMI)

27% of marketers conduct content audits twice a year. (SEMrush)

Video Content Stats

Aside from text, video is one of the best performing content formats out there and its popularity is ever climbing.

86% of businesses use video as a marketing tool. (Wyzowl)


68% of consumers say the pandemic has impacted the amount of video content they’ve watched online, with the overwhelming majority (96%) saying this has increased.

86% of video marketers say video has increased traffic to their website. (Down 1% from last year)

84% of video marketers say video has helped them generate leads.

87% of video marketers say video, in general, gives them a good return on their investment.

79% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video.

The most commonly cited success metric measured by video marketers was video engagement (including shares, comments, likes, etc.) with 63% of them responding this way. Next up was video reach - determined by number of views - with 58%. Leads and click throughs were next, with 55%. Customer engagement/retention were a consideration for 43% of video marketers.

Brand awareness/PR was next up with 42%. A surprising 29% of marketers said that bottom line sales were part of their evaluation of video ROI. (Wyzowl)

Visual Content Statistics

Visuals are great for increasing engagement as they are perceived and understood with no effort. That’s why they are shared so eagerly.

Posts with one image get twice as much traffic as posts containing text only. These also get 30% more shares and 25% more backlinks.


Posts that don’t contain a video get 92% less traffic and 24% less shares than posts with at least one video.

Posts with 7+ images get X4 more traffic than articles containing just text.

36.7% of marketers report that creating engaging visual content consistently is one of their top struggles.

Stock photography (40%) and infographics (37%) are the most frequently used visual content.

Best Performing Content Stats

Last but not least let’s take a look at the factors that contribute to the visibility and engagement rate of articles online.

Evidently 7000+ word articles get almost 3 times more pageviews and 43% more shares than shorter ones (900–1200 words). (SEMush)


A clear structure makes your content better, that’s why more than half of the posts with a complex structure (h2+h3+h4) perform better in terms of traffic and engagement.

44% of posts with a simpler structure (h2+h3) also perform well while 39% of content with no structure at all (no h2) performs poorly in terms of traffic and engagement. (SEMush)

When it comes to titles 10–13-word headlines drive twice as much traffic and X1.5 more shares than shorter ones (< 7 words).

Human attention is limited and lists solve that for us. Posts containing at least one list per every 500 words of plain text also get 70% more traffic than content without lists. (SEMush)

56% of B2B buyers report they would like to see content organized by topic by B2B vendors, 54% by industry/vertical, 49% by issue/pain point, and 35% by business role. (Demand Gen Report)

The Ball’s In Your Court

There you have it!

Content marketing is more prominent than ever, especially in the age of coronavirus. Marketers need to put even more emphasis on their digital strategies to stay connected and in tune with their audience.

Time to use these insightful statistics to your advantage, increase your budget, streamline your content creation and invest in a good strategy.

Need a powerful content marketing strategy to supercharge your efforts? Check out Keyword Cupid and its many cool features any marketer needs in their toolkit.

Until next time!

Sources:

BENCHMARKS, BUDGETS, AND TRENDS 11TH ANNUAL INSIGHTS FOR 2021

Global Content Marketing Report 2020 | Semrush

15 Visual Content Marketing Statistics for 2021

How Often Should You (or Your Company) Blog? [New Data]

2021 Marketing Statistics, Trends & Data — The Ultimate List of Digital Marketing Stats

Report: State of Video Marketing 2021

The State of Digital Advertising 2021: Marketing Budgets & Priorities in a New World

The Animalz Content Marketing Benchmark Report 2020

How Many Blogs Are There? (And 141 Other Blogging Stats)

Ultimate List of Blogging Statistics and Facts (Updated for 2021)

Top List of Blogging Statistics and Facts (2020 Update)

SIZING THE CONTENT MARKETING OPPORTUNITY

2016 Content Preferences Survey: B2B Buyers Value Content That Offers Data And Analysis

2 thoughts on “167+ Internet Statistics, Trends and Facts [Mobile Included]”

Content Marketing Infographic

Content is King: Measuring the ROI of Content Marketing Operations

The importance of a blog and of content generation on a corporate website