20 Figures on Why Content Marketing Counts

There is a lot of content out there. Wouldn’t it be nice to be shown relevant information that can help you do your job better? Content Marketing is an increasingly powerful tool to generate leads, establish credibility for your business, and to build trust with prospects. But breaking through the noise in the marketplace is increasingly difficult. B2B marketers need to find new ways to reach them and deliver valuable, hyper-relevant content where and when their prospects need it.

Here are 20 figures that illustrate the need for content marketing and the kind of content B2B buyers are seeking:

• 49% of B2B buyers said they now rely more on content to research and make purchase decisions (Demand Gen Report).
• 65% of content consumers strongly agree they have higher preferences for credible content from industry influencers (Demand Gen Report).
• 52% strongly agreed that packaging relevant content together would help expedite the research phase (Demand Gen Report)
• The average percentage of total marketing budget spent on content marketing is 26% (among all respondents); the most successful, however, spend 40%, while the least successful spend 14% (Content Marketing Institute).
• 38% of all respondents expect their content marketing budget to increase in the next 12 months; that figure is nearly the same percentage reported by the most successful and the least successful (Content Marketing Institute).
• In the report from Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs’ 2018 B2B Content Marketing Benchmark, Budgets, and Trends-North America, 91% of B2B marketers are already employing content marketing in their mix, and among those yet to take the dive, 54% plan to do so in the coming year.
• Companies are 67% better at closing deals when sales and marketing teams are in sync (Marketo) and they also generate 208% more revenue for their marketing efforts (MarketingProfs).
• 84% believe that ABM provides significant benefits for retaining and expanding current client relationships. (SiriusDecisions)
• 71% stated they consumed blog content during the purchase process compared to 66% last year (MarTechSeries)
• Buyers are willing to spend no more than 5 minutes reviewing most content formats (Demand Gen Report)
• Case studies remain on top as the preferred content format, with 79% of respondents saying they consumed this type of content over the past 12 months (Demand Gen Report).
• Prior to engaging with a salesperson, 40% of survey respondents said they consumed between 3-5 pieces of content (Demand Gen Report).
• 55% use lead generation/nurturing to measure content marketing success (KOMarketing)
• 62% of customers want content that speaks to their needs and pain points (Content Marketing Institute)
• 45% of Enterprises are investing more than $20,000 on SEO each month (KOMarketing)
• More than 70% of respondents can demonstrate, with metrics, audience engagement and number of leads (Content Marketing Institute)
• 75% of respondents stated they would share more information to receive webinar content (Demand Gen)
• 64% of respondents give more credence to peer reviews, user-generated feedback and third-party publications/analysts (Demand Gen Report)
• 65% strongly agreed that making content easier to access- whether through fewer form fields or even single-click registration- would also help vendor credibility. (Demand Gen Report)
• As almost 40% of B2B marketers were using content with no strategy, which was getting them nowhere, it’s expected that 75% of them are going to incorporate content marketing strategy in order to make their content successful in the following year (B2B News Network)

Learn what to do and what not to do when it comes to content marketing in our Big Book of Do’s and Don’ts for B2B Marketing.