It’s no secret that content has fast become a new focal point in overall brand marketing efforts. Its meteoric rise has been well documented with various facts and figures: 78 percent of CMOs think rich content is the future, according to Hanley Wood, and a Content Marketing Institute survey shows that 86 percent of B2B marketers are using content marketing with 70 percent of them creating more content than they did a year ago.
Those facts aren’t particularly surprising, and they’ve been shared thousands of times over. But the role of rich content production and distribution within larger marketing efforts continues to change and grow. Here are 10 important new and notable facts about content marketing that illustrate its shift from the new kid on the block to a standard and necessary marketing practice.
1. Blogging increases Web traffic by 55 percent for brands. Adding regularly updated content to a website by way of a blog publishing platform is a key way to increase site visitors. (Rocket Post)
2. Almost half of respondents (46 percent) in one survey said a website’s design is the No. 1 criteria for determining a company’s credibility. For content marketers, this means the platform to publish content needs to be aesthetically appealing, or you might find readers quickly exiting the site shortly after arriving. (NewsCred)
3. Articles with images get 94 percent more views than those without photos. Producing rich, relevant content is one thing. Producing content that draws a reader in and keeps them there takes more work, and should include photos. (NewsCred)
4. Content doesn’t necessarily need to be original. About 48% of marketers curate noteworthy content from trustworthy sources and repackage it for their readers. (Design & Promote)
5. Despite the growth of content marketing, 54 percent of brands don’t have an on-site, dedicated content director. (NewsCred)
6. Customer testimonials have the highest effectiveness rating for content marketing at 89 percent. The content still needs to be authentic and targeted at readers, but using testimonials can improve brand trustworthiness. (Social Fresh)
7. LinkedIn is the top social network for B2B marketing. 83 percent of marketers say they prefer to use LinkedIn for distributing B2B content. (Real Business Rescue)
8. 17 percent of marketers plan to increase efforts on SlideShare this year. Repackaging live presentations, webinars and information Adobe PDF portfolios to SlideShare is gaining popularity, showing how distribution channels for content continue to grow. (Forbes)
9. More than half (53 percent) of marketers rank content creation as the single most effective SEO tactic. (NewsCred)
10. Roughly 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared everyday. That number will only continue to grow, showing just how dominant content is becoming in the marketing landscape, and how competitive it will be in the future. (AOL and Nielsen)