Starting your B2B content marketing journey is tough. Is it a case of locking yourself in the garden shed and writing three blogs a day until your arthritic fingers give out? Or should you take a more strategic, targeted approach to your content? Well, the best place to start is by copying what works for other B2B marketers. And, of course, learning what doesn’t.
In this blog you’ll find stats which should help get your content marketing engine up and running. We’ll be covering:
- Content production
- SEO
- B2B content marketing strategy
- B2B content marketing challenges
- B2B content marketing metrics
- Social media
B2B content marketing stats
Content production
Ah, staring into blank space and hoping, praying for a spark. A feeling every writer is familiar with. But overcoming it is clearly in the content maestro’s arsenal...
That’s because:
- Small businesses post new content one to four times per week while larger organisations often post new content several times a day. (HubSpot)
And...
- The average blog post takes around four hours to write and is around 1,200 words long. (Orbit Media Studios)
Even those who spend longer pushing through the brick wall reap the rewards.
- 38% of bloggers who spend more than six hours on their blogs report strong results. (Orbit Media Studios)
Smashing the keyboard like a maniac seems a lot more pointless now, huh?
SEO
SEO is a helluva topic. It can fry your brain. It can make you tear your hair out. It can get you to question what’s real and what’s imagined. But you have to get your head around it.
That’s because:
- There are over two trillion Google searches every year. (Internet Live Stats)
And...
- The first five organic results on the Google search engine results page (SERP) account for 68% of all clicks. (Zero Limit Web)
That means having high-ranking answers to these search queries is crucial. To do that...
- Focus on high quality content, getting backlinks and pleasing the RankBrain algorithm. After all, they’re Google’s three most important ranking signals. (Search Engine Watch)
And remember...
- The average length of blogs ranking at either #1 or #2 on the search engine results page (SERP) is over 2,450 words. (serpIQ)
So to rank, you may have to spend more time than the average content marketer does on their content.
Content strategy
Any content strategy should be underpinned by data. After all, it’s the only way you can know that you’re answering the questions your target audience is asking.
That's why...
- 69% of the most successful marketers have a documented content marketing strategy in 2020. (Content Marketing Institute)
Still...
- 63% of businesses don’t have a documented content strategy. (Content Marketing Institute)
And...
- Only 9% of marketers believe their content strategies are excellent. (SEMrush)
That means by nailing yours, you can really set yourself apart from the competition.
Content challenges
Yes, content marketing success requires a lot of elbow grease. But many common challenges are easily solved.
For example...
- 52% of bloggers also say it’s becoming more challenging to get content engagement. (Orbit Media Studios)
To level-up engagement, marketers need to start pleasing Google as well as their readers. They can also work on their amplification strategies and try mapping their content to the buyer journey. Download our ultimate guide below to learn more
Also...
- 47% of marketers say budget is their biggest blocker to scaling content. (marketing charts)
But a lot of B2B marketers don’t maximise the budget afforded to them. For example, plunging money into Google Ads without working on your organic search efforts will skyrocket your costs. Scaling before you’re ready can do more harm than good.
And...
- 43% of marketers say uncertainty over the effectiveness of their content hampers development. (marketing charts)
The outputs of modern content marketing shouldn’t be uncertain. To make sure you can show ROI, you need to decide on your content marketing metrics, which we’ll come to next.
Finally...
- 38% of marketers reckon translating content ideas into reality is a significant problem. (marketing charts)
Content calendars regiment blog production. They give you a clear sense of your aims and expectations and, crucially, deadlines. Check out Trello's template for inspiration.
Content marketing metrics
It’s soul destroying to write great content that gets no traction. It also does you no favours come your performance review. But fear not. There are simple ways to check if your strategy is working and make changes to stay on the right track.
For example...
- Organic traffic is the most popular content marketing metric, used by 76% of marketers. (SEMrush)
If your content is getting people to your site, then great. With more visitors comes more brand awareness and potentially more conversions. But traffic isn’t the only piece in the B2B content marketing puzzle.
So, don’t forget...
- Lead generation is the second most popular content marketing metric, used by 62% of marketers. (SEMrush)
This means people who become interested in your product/service as a result of your content. Lead gen tends to come through a combination of your organic search and paid ads strategies.
Finally...
- Conversion rate is the third most popular content marketing metric, used by 47% of marketers. (SEMrush)
Conversion rate doesn’t just mean customers who have bought your product or service because of your content. It could mean that they’ve downloaded an eBook you included in your blog as a call to action (CTA) or signed up to your newsletter. Basically any desired customer action is up for grabs here.
Social media
At the beginning and throughout your content marketing journey, socials are a key distribution channel. And for B2Bs, LinkedIn tends to be the best place to hang out. But pushing your content out thoughtlessly can really murder a vibe. So make sure you’re ticking the boxes you need to generate traction.
For example...
- 50-100 characters is the ideal length for a LinkedIn status update. (Sprout Social)
And...
- The best times to post on LinkedIn are between 8-10am and 12pm on Wednesdays. Thursdays at 9am and between 1-2pm also perform well, as do Fridays at 9am. (Sprout Social)
Finally...
- Long, text-only LinkedIn posts up to 1,300 characters with emojis can get serious traction. (Espirian)
All of this will help your content reach relevant audiences and make your brand more authoritative.
B2B content marketing stats: Key takeaways
- B2B content marketers need to invest in high-quality, long-form content to appear on SERPs
- Content strategies and calendars help B2B marketers build momentum
- Content marketing metrics are crucial to demonstrating ROI
- There’s an art to pushing your content on socials
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