What is shaking up the content marketing industry in 2022?
In our landmark State of Content Marketing 2022 Global Report, we surveyed 1,500 content marketers across selected industries and compiled thousands of data points that paint the picture of the content marketing landscape.
Scroll down to explore some of the most important content marketing statistics that will help you establish benchmarks, understand the industry trends, and enhance your own strategy.
Methodology
We surveyed 1,500 businesses in over 20 industries, from e-commerce and IT to offline services and manufacturing. They had from 1 to 10,000+ employees and were involved in the B2C, B2B and hybrid sectors.
The Use of Content Marketing
97% of our survey respondents claimed that content was a tactic that formed an important part of their overall marketing strategy in 2021.
We also saw a 22% increase in the search for “what is content marketing,” along with other telltale searches that strongly indicate content marketing is on the rise.
At the same time, the complexity or sophistication of their strategy varied significantly.
Top highlights of this section include that:
57% of respondents had a documented content marketing strategy 19% reported an advanced content marketing strategy 42% reported they are taking their first steps in content marketing 36% of respondents claimed their strategy was fairly developed
Key takeaway: Content marketing is clearly something that companies and brands are doubling down on. However, a little less than half of our respondents indicated that they were taking their initial steps in creating a content marketing strategy—meaning a large portion of organizations have an immense opportunity available this year.
Defining Content Marketing Success
Content marketers in 20 industries across 40 countries participated in our survey, giving us a very detailed picture of what criteria can be used to benchmark content marketing success. Here’s what we learned:
78% of those who believe their content marketing was very successful in 2021 had a documented content marketing strategy 73% of companies that spend from 10% to 70% of their total marketing budget on content marketing were very successful 46% of companies that had highly successful content marketing increased their paid content promotional budget in 2021These statistics reveal three underlying factors to success: the importance of documentation, the re-allocation of more financial resources to support content marketing specifically, and using additional (paid) channels to promote content.
With that said, our respondents reported their own content marketing success overall:
19% of companies believed their content marketing efforts were very successful in 2021 33% were moderately successful in 2021 39% found their content marketing efforts to be only somewhat successful in 2021While less than a fifth of our surveyed companies believed their content marketing was “very successful,” our respondents cited similar trends across the board when it came to the tactics that brought them the most success. Namely:
55% of successful content marketing strategies focused on improving the quality of content 46% of those surveyed made SEO a priority 41% focused on creating more video and visual content
Key takeaway: Document, document, document! Having a formal process for content marketing was a tactic that the most successful content marketers shared in 2021. The next priority involves the continual improvement of the quality of your content. Focus on improving personalization and humanizing your content, while making sure it’s backed by solid research and an understanding of who your customers are. Don’t be afraid to show the personality and voice of your brand, all the while giving your audience a reason to engage with you.
Goals and Challenges in Content Marketing
Inflation, the pandemic, and global supply chain disruptions could easily be described as the trifecta of 2021—so how did content marketers adjust their goals to adapt to and supersede these challenges?
Content Marketing Goals
Our survey respondents cited the following key content goals for 2022:
45% want to increase brand awareness 37% want to attract more traffic to their website 36% are focused on generating leads through content marketing 27% of respondents want increased sales and revenue 23% strive for improved customer loyalty and engagement with their brandContent Marketing Challenges Challenges
With more businesses and industries leaning into digital channels to reach their audiences, the following were among the top challenges faced by our research participants:
Key takeaway: Even in times of global change, economic instability, and a public health crisis, the same core goals, and challenges remain in digital marketing. Brands want to use content marketing to enhance their online visibility, gain new traffic and customers, and ultimately see a return on their investment (ROI); a difficult gap to bridge, but one that’s getting easier.
With online users becoming savvier in their purchase journey, brands and content marketers should lean into creating quality content that provides resonating, long-term value beyond a visit or single sale. Each industry views the importance of its content in a different way; therefore, definitions and criteria for content marketing success will be unique.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Content Marketing
As we’ve already mentioned, the pandemic certainly influenced our lives in ways we never could have imagined. It altered our attitudes about work productivity, how we interact with our peers and customers, and impacted business continuity measures across the board.
Interestingly enough, our survey found that 30% of businesses, both in B2B and B2C, said that the coronavirus and a potential lift of restrictions would not change anything about how they plan to conduct their 2022 content marketing strategy.
Other interesting statistics from our survey found that:
30% of businesses will participate in selected events offline, while focusing on specific online events (such as webinars) 30% intend to create longer-term content plans 26% will switch to regularly hosting and attending in-person events 26% are planning to invest in growing their team due to the lift in COVID restrictions 20% will adopt a hybrid or in-office work mode
Key takeaway: While COVID-19 initially devastated businesses, particularly brick and mortars, marketing efforts are growing at a positive rate. Many businesses plan to expand their teams, invest in content marketing activities, and reinstate in-person events.
Content Budgets
Does inflation influence the cost of advertising? Yes. Does it have an impact on the cost of hiring content marketers? Absolutely. Yet the question remains: Is investing more into content marketing the right choice?
According to our research, failure to budget for content does come at a cost.
We found that 53% of surveyed companies that were unsuccessful with content marketing in 2021 spent less than 5% of their marketing budget on content. Some other highlights of our research included the following:
73% of companies who increased their spending from 10% to 70% of their total marketing budget to content marketing were very successful 46% of companies that had highly successful content marketing increased their paid content promotional budget in 2021 72% of companies plan to increase their content marketing budget in 2022With only 2% of respondents expecting to decrease their budget, it’s clear that the whopping majority of businesses plan to invest more seriously into their content marketing efforts.
The top three areas of investment are social media and community building, improving the quality of content, and content promotion and distribution.
Key takeaway: Companies are realizing that it takes time, resources, and additional spending to truly make their content resonate. In order to increase effectiveness, they are prioritizing social media, improving content quality, investing in content marketing spend, content promotion, and distribution.
Content Performance
What content fared the best in 2021? From strategy to format, our report reveals intriguing findings that emerged last year.
But before we dive deep, here are some details about the way companies measure content performance:
Only 66% of brands claim to measure content performance in some way The top 3 content marketing success metrics include Organic Traffic, Search Rankings and LeadsThe Power of the Content Audit
Content audits took center stage in this year’s study, revealing that:
65% of companies that succeed in content marketing run content audits more than twice a year 46% of companies whose content marketing was unsuccessful in 2021 never run content auditsIf you’re not running content audits on the regular, you might be missing out. To boot, respondents shared their results after updating their content following an audit.
Auditing and pruning your existing content is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement, rankings, and traffic without having to spend additional resources on new content.
Most Successful Content Types by Format
From video to success stories, guides, and more, these were the top-performing content types in 2021:
Key takeaway: Pruning existing content is an excellent and cost-effective method to reinvigorate what you already have and generate quick wins. We’re also seeing bigger gains for case studies, success stories, video, and other content formats that provide original research. Focus on authentic content as part of your strategy to earn customer loyalty and trust.
To learn more about creating successful content, explore the 2022 Anatomy of Top-Performing Organic Content.
Content Teams
The companies we surveyed had anywhere from one to 1K+ employees, giving us a good range of how various organizations constructed their content marketing teams:
42% of companies have one to three specialists 21% lack a content marketing person or team entirely 20% have four to 10 specialists in-house 48% intend to increase the size of their marketing team in 2022, 49% say it will stay the same, and only 2% believe they will downsize
Key takeaway: Content marketing is becoming a bigger priority for brands across the board. With the rise of more searches for content marketing-related topics, including content marketing salaries and job descriptions, this may indicate that more people are seeking to enter the content marketing field, and companies are ready to invest in them.
Using Content Marketing Statistics for Long-Term Brand Growth
If you found our study interesting and would like to remember the most important statistics, make sure to save this infographic:
While our study gathered data from a wide array of sources, countries, and industries, note that these statistics can only provide a common backdrop of the main trends and happenings in our content marketing world.
What other tips, trends, and statistics can you implement into your 2022 content marketing strategy? Download the entire State of Content Marketing 2022 Global Report by Semrush for more insights.
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