25 Stats Content Marketers Need to Know

As content marketing continues to evolve, so too do the stats surrounding its practice.

That’s why we’ve put together 25 of the best, most recent stats to reflect on the present and future of content marketing. We also put together a framework for how the best content marketing is done—you’ll find the statistics below each key phase in creating the most effective content.

Take in the numbers, ye content marketing nerds, and rejoice.

It’s all about strategy

1. 43 percent of B2C marketers with a documented strategy considered themselves effective, vs. 33 percent of those without. —Content Marketing Institute (Tweet this!)

2. 36 percent of B2B companies with a documented content marketing strategy considered themselves very effective, three times more than those without a documented strategy. —LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community (Tweet this!)

3. 84 percent of B2B marketers said brand awareness was a top goal. —Content Marketing Institute (Tweet this!)

4. 68 percent of content marketers back original content over licensed content. —Contently (Tweet this!)

And following through

5. 70 percent of B2B organizations and 69 percent of B2C organizations report that they made more content in 2014 than in 2013. —Content Marketing Institute (Tweet this!)

6. Creating more engaging content was B2B marketers’ top initiative for 2014. —Content Marketing Institute (Tweet this!)

7. 48 percent of B2C marketers and 42 percent of B2B marketers now publish more than once a week. —Content Marketing Institute (Tweet this!)

8. 57 percent of organizations now have two or more people dedicated to content marketing. —Contently (Tweet this!)

9. 24 percent of organizations now devote 50 percent or more of their budget to content. —Contently (Tweet this!)

While using social to get eyeballs on your content

10. Facebook now drives 25 percent of all Internet traffic. —Shareaholic (Tweet this!)

11. Facebook posts earn 340 percent more shares than each of the other four major social networks—except for food content, which does better on Pinterest. —Buffer (Tweet this!)

12. LinkedIn accounts for 21 percent of shares of high-engagement publications in the business vertical. —Buffer (Tweet this!)

13. 63 percent of B2B marketers rate LinkedIn the most effective social media platform. —Content Marketing Institute (Tweet this!)

14. 51 percent of high-engagement publications are shared on Pinterest. —Buffer (Tweet this!)

15. Pinterest drive 5 percent of all traffic on the web, nearly three times as much as all non-Facebook social networks. —Shareaholic (Tweet this!)

16. 25 percent of Gen Z’ers left Facebook in 2014. —Adweek (Tweet this!)

And measuring success

17. 77 percent of marketers are confident in their data-driven approach. —MediaMath (Tweet this!)

18. B2B marketers cite web traffic (63 percent) and sales lead quality (54 percent) as their top metrics. —HubSpot (Tweet this!)

19. 69 percent of data efforts are being focused on targeting of offers, messages, and content. —MediaMath (Tweet this!)

20. Leaders in data-driven marketing are more than six times more likely than laggards to report achieving competitive advantage in increasing profitability (45 percent vs. 7 percent) and five times more likely in customer retention (74 percent vs. 13 percent). —Forbes (Tweet this!)

21. 47 percent of content marketer reported better campaign measurement and 33 percent reported better campaign ROI as the primary benefits of using a tag management service. —eMarketer (Tweet this!)

To drive results

22. Having a documented content strategy nearly doubles the chance that you’re successfully tracking ROI. —Content Marketing Institute (Tweet this!)

23. Inbound marketers who measure ROI are more than 12 times more likely to generate a greater year-over-year return. —HubSpot (Tweet this!)

24. Marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13 times more likely to have a positive ROI. —HubSpot (Tweet this!)

25. Kraft estimates that it generates the equivalent of 1.1 billion ad impressions a year and a four-times-better ROI through content marketing than through even targeted advertising, according to Julie Fleischer, the company’s director of data, content, and media. —AdAge (Tweet this!)