Top 50 content marketing statistics for 2023 success

Overcome overwhelm: the best stats to help you understand how to tap into current trends to reach new audiences

Great content marketing helps build brand awareness, educate and inform audiences, and build credibility and trust. And with 71 per cent of marketers telling the Content Marketing Institute’s latest annual survey that content has become more important to their organisations over the past year, getting it right has never been more vital.

Yet there’s clearly a lot of scope for improvement, with only a tiny 5 per cent telling the CMI that their organisation is extremely or very successful with content marketing, and only 40 per cent having a documented strategy.

Knowledge is power here, so effort and money can be put behind the strategies most likely to succeed. With that in mind, we’ve once again scoured the web to find the most authoritative stats and indicators that can guide success and grouped these into key content areas. Together, they offer pointers to what best practice in content marketing should look like in 2023.

In a rush? The full article is stacked with useful information, but the key points to absorb for 2023 are:

• Video use continues to soar and is expected to see the most growth – and investment – in 2023. B2B marketers report having more success with short-form video such as TikToks than their B2C colleagues.
• But don’t write off written content – a blogging strategy combined with SEO remains one of the most powerful tools for both raising brand awareness and generating leads.
• Podcast downloads also continue to soar – and listener numbers are predicted to roar past 500 million by the end of next year, signalling lasting longevity for this format.
• Social media remains dominant as the most-used marketing channel and the best way to acquire new customers.
• And, last but not least, over two-thirds of marketers – a rise of 7 per cent on last year – told the CMI that content marketing is helping them drive demand and leads, so getting it right in 2023 will genuinely be business-critical.

READ ON FOR THE BIG 50 STATS YOU NEED TO KNOW…

Video – say hello to 2023’s fastest-growing trend

1. Short-form videos will see the most growth of any content type in 2023, according to marketing software company HubSpot, based on the fact that they are the most engaging.
2. According to research from on-demand video production company Lemonlight, the top two traits that consumers value are clear messaging / storyline and authenticity.
3. Of marketers surveyed, 90 per cent using short-form video will increase or maintain their investment in 2023…
4. … and 21 per cent plan to leverage short-form video for the first time – this, clearly, is not a trend that is going to die off any time soon.
5. However, not all videos are created equal – those that are funny or interactive tend to get best engagement overall – think polls, games or augmented reality for the latter.
6. Interestingly, B2B marketers actually see higher engagement and better ROI on TikTok than their B2C colleagues.
7. B2B video was big news in 2022, with 75 per cent of CMI respondents having created or used video, second only to short articles as a B2B asset type.
8. But who is creating all these videos? According to HubSpot, 37 per cent of companies exclusively create video content in-house, 14 per cent rely on an agency, and 49 per cent use a mix of in-house and agency-created videos.
9. In terms of distribution, the Lemonlight research found that if respondents could only choose one social platform to showcase video content, 29 per cent would choose LinkedIn, 19 per cent would choose Facebook and 24 per cent would choose YouTube.
10. It also found that 58 per cent of consumers prefer to watch video on a smartphone, meaning responsive templates and formats are crucial. Laptops came second at 19 per cent.

Blogs – the written word is still a content cornerstone

11. Blogs remain a key plank of content marketing strategies and the second most-used content format (after video) across all marketers.
12. For B2B marketers, articles under 1,500 words were the most frequently produced type of content in the last 12 months.
13. An annual survey of more than 1,000 bloggers worldwide found that the time taken to write a blog post is increasing – to an average of 4 hours and 10 minutes in 2022, up from 2 hours 24 minutes when this research was first conducted in 2014.
14. Of course, there is some correlation with typical blog length, which has also been growing steadily over the years, but levelled off in 2022 at 1,376 words.
15. Most bloggers, however, produce articles in the 500-2,000-word range.
16. And, really, blog length should be defined by audience – research from software company SEMrush found that 600-1,000 words is best for “educational blogs of a newsworthy nature”…
17. … but that B2B use cases – which it found was one of the most trusted types of content – could range from 500-1,500 words.
18. The most popular types of content are how-to guides, produced by 76 per cent of bloggers, followed by lists (55 per cent), and guides and eBooks (43 per cent).
19. For the third year in a row, organic search was the top source of blog traffic – and there is a strong correlation between keyword research and better results. (Good) SEO still rules.
20. Quality continues to be crucial for readers – bloggers who work with professional editors (hello!) are 90 per cent more likely to report strong results.

Podcasts – lend me your ears…

21. Podcast listenership has broadly been on the rise for the past 15 years and recent research found that more than six in 10 consumers in the US have listened to at least one podcast in 2022.
22. Listening has also exploded in southern European markets such as France, Spain, Italy with podcast downloads up 397 percent, 298 per cent and 244 per cent respectively, according to Spotify.
23. Research from market intelligence company DemandSage estimates that there will be around 504.9 million podcast listeners worldwide by the end of 2024 – so this is another trend that shows no signs of tailing off.
24. While millennials and Generation Z are seen as the biggest podcast consumers, new research shows rises in teenage listeners (13-17) and the over-55s, with growth of between 42 and 49 per cent.
25. The majority of listeners – 73 per cent – use smartphones to listen to podcasts…
26. … but Spotify also notes a rise in new types of listening – smart speakers, TVs and in cars.
27. As to when people tune in, the DemandSage research found that podcast listening is highest in the morning.
28. According to podcast host Buzzsprout, Apple remains the top hosting platform in 2023, with 38.6 per cent of market share, followed by Spotify on 26.7 per cent.
29. On the Buzzsprout platform, the most popular duration of podcasts uploaded to its platform is 20-40 minutes (31 per cent of episodes), while 20 per cent are 40 minutes to an hour, and 17 per cent are over 60 minutes.
30. But UK research from summer 2022 into how audio content is consumed suggests the majority of podcast listeners (68 per cent) stay for a whole episode once they’ve tuned in.

Social media – sharing is caring

31. Social media was the most effective channel for acquiring new customers in 2022, according to HubSpot, and the top marketing channel across both B2B and B2C.
32. And 95 per cent of marketers surveyed by the CMI cited social media platforms as their preferred organic distribution method for content.
33. B2B use of platforms hasn’t changed much since last year, with LinkedIn used by 96 per cent, Facebook by 76 per cent and Twitter by 70 per cent.
34. In terms of organic results, LinkedIn was judged most effective, while Facebook had the lowest ratings, with 37 per cent saying it was not very or not at all effective.
35. Timing is everything – research shows 6pm to 9pm is the best time to post on social media for Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok.
36. But optimum days vary – it’s Thursday for Facebook and TikTok, Tuesday for Twitter and Wednesday for YouTube. LinkedIn is an even split between Tuesday and Thursday.
37. Across all channels, the most common posting frequency is 4-6 times a week.
38. Facebook is the most popular place for the 80 per cent of brands who use paid social media advertising to buy ads.
39. But, overall, use of paid content distribution is down – to 67 per cent in 2022 from 81 per cent the previous year.
40. Of those that do still buy paid promotion, LinkedIn is judged most effective, with Facebook and Instagram judged least effective.

Other things to consider / looking to the future…

41. Because you can’t manage what you don’t measure, 81 per cent of CMI respondents said they were now tracking content performance, up from 75 per cent the previous year.
42. However, this isn’t without its difficulties – the top challenge faced is integrating data from multiple platforms (48 per cent), followed by lack of organisational KPI setting to measure against (45 per cent).
43. Research from HubSpot found that influencer marketing – collaboration between brands and influencers – was the top emerging trend in 2022 amid predictions that the industry could hit $16 billion.
44. As Covid restrictions were eased, the CMI found that events came roaring back. The 49 per cent surveyed who used them in 2022 found in-person events were the content type that produced the best results.
45. Nearly three out of four marketers now use email newsletters to distribute content and most publish them themselves.
46. Elsewhere, 47 per cent of B2B marketers think their organisation will hire or contract content producers in 2023, according to the CMI.
47. And 57 per cent of B2B marketers expect investment in social media / community building, up from 37 per cent in 2022.
48. Content technology – or a lack of it – is starting to become a problem as volume increases. Only 28 per cent of CMI respondents felt they had the right tech in place across their organisation to manage content.
49. The same CMI research found that marketers’ top two biggest challenges were creating content for buying journeys and aligning content efforts across sales and marketing teams.
50. And, finally, content marketing budgets are stabilising – perhaps the sign of an uncertain economy. In the CMI’s 2021 survey, 66 per cent expected their marketing budget to rise in 2022, but a year later only 50 per cent expect their 2023 budget to increase.

• Can we help you with your content? Get in touch to see how we can use our experience working with 200-plus clients in 18 countries to help you build an effective content marketing strategy, produce beautiful and effective content for multiple mediums and meet your marketing goals in 2023.