Manisha Rao

In recent years, content marketing has been moving at the speed of light and the reason behind this is also very clear. The brands are highly indulged in advertising and sales tactics to attract customers and show them about their authenticity, transparency, and friendliness.

Content marketing has been reliable, proven way to drive traffic and increase leads and sales. The advent of the internet and social media has a lot to do with this. Content marketing is used by most of businesses as it is helping their customers to pick and choose exactly whom they want to interact with. Marketing statistics is a great way to remain relevant and stay up to date on marketing trends. We know that enterprises are giving out so much content daily, there is no wonder that marketers may be guessing if content marketing could still be a relevant thing to do. So, to take this question out of marketers mind, we have pulled out some of the content marketing statistics and facts to prove them wrong.

1. Stats of Content Marketing Trends

• 61% of marketers improved “their strength to measure and analyze marketing efforts”.
• 92% of marketers perspective content as a real business success asset.
• 70% give importance to the content quality than quantity.
• For the content distribution 64% of content marketers use PPC or SEM
• 62% of companies having more than develop daily content.
• Infographics (37%) and Stock photography (40%) are the most frequently utilized visual content.
• Over 91% of the audience reward the brands for their authenticity.
• 51% of content is gathered from organic search.
• According to the 35% of the marketers, the major struggle that they face is in creating engaging visual content frequently.
• Prescriptive content is used by 97% of content marketers, while 78% uses press release in the strategy.
• 56% of the businesses increased their content creation spending.
• Major concern of content marketing organizations is changes to SEO and social media algorithms.
• The challenges that have been seen in content marketing is reportedly lack of data and lack of strategy.

2. A cost-effective method than paid advertising campaigns 

You won’t believe that each person watches more than 5,000 advertisements per day. With so much clutter, people have now learned the ways to tune out banner ads, pop-ups, and pay-to-click links on Google. Look at the stats that we have considered taking in account about the price of hiring a content team vs. creating a paid search campaign. If we take a medium to a large-sized enterprises, the cost of content marketing may be up to 41% less per lead than paid search. However, the cost for a big enterprise for an average customer acquisition has been dropped per lead after switching to content marketing. It is true that it takes much less time to get a paid campaign give results, but, the content marketing strategies create four times over leads.

(Image: © Smartinsights)

Always remember the fact that more the content on website= more the traffic. Companies who pay to write blogs have more than 434% indexed pages than the companies who doesn’t believe in writing the blogs. Publish the content frequently, Google will definitely continue to increase your page rank. Hence, it will be easier for the customers to find you. 77% of users read blogs and this information is known to be a subtle way to increase your audience’s attention. After all, blogs are a perfect way to let customer learn about a company. So don’t wait further just start writing!

3. Content strategy is followed by 38% of B2C brands and 37% of B2B brands 

The key to get successful in content marketing is to have a full-fledged strategy. Despite the fact that there is a strong relation between representing a strategy and sensing success, just 37% of B2B brands and 38% of B2C brands strategize. The message is clear by this statistics that you need to analyze the data and spot the recent trends to gain success. If you are wondering what kind of content would perform better with your audience, first of all modify the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy. One way by which it could be done is by looking at your competitors. You can also try to spend time with customers to observe their behavior, get a meaningful small data. After this, you need to create a one-page plan with all the objectives, strategy, goals, and the performance metrics.

4. Video Content Marketing Statistics

Video is another type of visual content marketing and there is no doubt why marketers are going big on video. As we know, most of the people are spending more than 4 hours in watching videos. This is why about 48% of the marketers are taking YouTube video as a priority and not only this, 46% plan to focus on Facebook video. Video gets results and there is nothing much surprising in this. Customers trust videos and those who are aged 18-34 would stop whatever they’re doing to watch a new video. Videos are effective and the content marketing statistics show 72% of B2B marketers and 76% of B2C marketers are using the video marketing that is possibly generating 66% more leads per year.

5. The Cost of Content Marketing

• Paid method is used by 71% of B2B marketers: Content marketing is comparatively inexpensive than traditional methods. A marketer has to pay for content creation, no matter if it is done in-house or by a freelancer. A B2B marketer spend money on dispensing the content. The content contains backlinks and social media advertisements. Paid version is used to find a much wider audience so that it helps in boosting various content marketing statistics that are important.
• Cost is 62% less than traditional marketing: A phrase like “building a trusting relationship” sounds nice. And, the idea behind it is also great as the ultimate goal behind content marketing is to make money, while spending as little as possible.

Summing up

Content marketing is a priority and must be a priority, no matter your business is new or old. By all the statistics above, one thing is sure that content marketing can do wonders to your business.

So, what do you think? Tell us in the comments below.

Increasing organic traffic is not easy in a scenario where paid marketing is widely used. Organic traffic can only be increased if you focus on high-volume, organic keywords. Not only increasing, you should even know which ones get the most traffic. Determining which keywords are driving traffic is what you should know to make your SEO pay off.

Keep in mind, some random keywords may provide you the rankings, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going well with SEO. Getting better rankings on Google is a real struggle. If you are not able to get it, then the possibility is that you are using techniques which are outdated for keyword research. Keyword research is among one of the things that you must master. It is the way to generate high traffic on website. If you are into digital marketing, you must be knowing that most of the users never browse past the first page of Google search results. Now, you can imagine how important it is to do proper keyword research to rank among the top 10 search results.

Keyword Research

If you are wondering what is Keyword research, here we explain. It is the process of finding and analyzing the actual search terms, which people enter into search engines. Keyword research is the foundation on which every search marketing campaign runs. Targeting relevant keywords, structuring the campaigns and relevant ad groups, and eliminating wasteful negative keywords are among the steps that advertisers follow to build a strong marketing campaigns.

Optimize your website for organic keywords

Now that you know what keyword research is, let’s move ahead with optimization. On-page optimization is holds a strong position to drive traffic through organic search. In this, site organization is also important as one cannot just dump all the keywords onto one page and hope it will work.

For example, if you run a cake shop, you may want to create a single resource which targets a set of keywords related to cakes. These different keyword variations may include how to bake a cake, cake baking tips, or ideas for cake designs. Also, with this if you have a baking classes, you should create a separate landing page optimized for “baking classes” keywords. Also, keep in mind one thing, quality is important for search engines and users. They both favor content which unique and exceptionally helpful.

Below mentioned are some of the areas where your keywords need to appear to help you in ranking organically.

• In the URL
• In title and H1 tags
• First sentence or at least the first paragraph
• Subheadings
• Image file names and alt text
• The meta description
• In links to related content

How to upgrade your keyword research strategy?

Now that we have understood the importance of keyword research, let’s see where to start? Give a productive start by following these tips.

1. Brainstorm broad topics related to your business: Start thinking of the different topics on which pertain to your business. While thinking start with broad category, and don’t worry about getting too specific. For example, if you own a bakery, you may have to break down your topics by the types of baked goods that you sell. Think about creating topics on croissants, cupcakes, cakes, quiches, brownies, cookies and many more. Note the main topics which you’ve thought.
2. Don’t force keywords: Some businesses, in their SEO strategies, define an arbitrary keyword density goal, which usually leads to redundant and superfluous phrasing. This decreases the quality of the content. Always keep in mind that shoving keywords into the articles doesn’t improve your SEO. The simple technique is to enter the keywords naturally in your content. But, if doing so distracts your reader just leave it. In few cases where you cannot include the keyword in your content, you should go back to your research and select new ones.
3. Find what users want: Content Strategy is the thing from where the keyword research process begins. You should first figure out what type of topics people are searching for, before you start researching about the keywords. And, Quora is one of the best platforms to do so. You can browse the category on Quora and figure out what kind of questions people are asking. After this, you can create a keyword rich topic for your blog post.
4. Gather keyword ideas and group similar keywords: Anything that a person search for, to want to buy product or services is a potential keyword. Look at emails from customers or customer questions and have analytics data to find keywords. Moreover, use the competing sites for finding the keywords. This way you will get the list of keywords and the next thing which you need to do to start grouping related keywords together. Phrases like ‘Cake shop in Japan’ and ‘Japan cake shop’ are same.
5. Use keyword searching tools: Alright, the fun begins from here. First, you really need to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Understand what they would likely to search. Begin simply with brainstorming. Let’s get back to our cake shop example. If you are making cakes for special occasions, some keywords like “birthday cakes,” “affordable wedding cakes,” and “wedding cakes”. But, for all this you need to use keyword tools to surface all the relevant keywords. Keyword searching tools are easy to use to get a list of related keywords. They are even associated search volume and other data. All you need to do is to type the specific keywords to see what kind of volume they are getting.

Some keyword searching tools:

• WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool
• Jaaxy
• Google Search Console
• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
• Moz’s Keyword Explorer
• SEMrush
• SECockpit
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google’s Keyword Planner
• KeywordTool.io

For more information, refer another blog.

Conclusion

Keyword research might seem like a daunting task. But, with an organized method and the right tools, you are able to generate organic traffic for the website. Your search engine optimization efforts are only ever going to be as effective as your process.

What efforts have you put in to generate organic traffic?

Gone are the days when traditional marketing was used to be effective. Now as a forward-thinking marketer, it is time to enter content marketing. Content marketing can be defined as a strategic approach, which is focused towards developing and sharing relevant, valuable, and consistent content in order to attract and retain audience. The ultimate aim of content marketing is to drive profitable customer action. The content is called as king. And, there is no doubt in it because, instead of pitching products or services, organizations are providing truly relevant and useful content to customers.

The view on Content marketing…

Most of the people, according to the stats, think that an average piece of content which ranks on Google contains 1,890 words. But, here is the thing, writing in-depth content that is 1,890 words doesn’t get you more search traffic. It just means that the average web page on page 1 contains that many words. In this case, you may be thinking that you are writing enough content but, for some reason, you aren’t getting the amount of search traffic. It happens and we understand what you are going through. The solution to this is writing effective content not too much of it. The quality is important than the quantity even in writing.

Some of the predictions for Content Marketing:

• It will become more important.
• The creation and distribution will change radically.

Only authentic, useful, and perfectly suited content will be demanded by the internet generation. The message regarding content marketing is crystal clear: Develop creative content which is centered on your client’s queries and they’ll come in leaps and in bounds towards you. However, this is only some part. We should keep a track of what content marketing trends should we watch out for? How to change the marketing strategy to keep pace with these changes?

Defining the Future of Content Marketing

Content marketing has become a fast paced thing in today’s world and it’s changing rapidly. Well, its future cannot be defined without the past. The content that was created yesterday is the foundation of today’s and tomorrow’s.  According to a research, people tend to be more inclined in interactivity. Infographics is still among widely used methods in the industry. Infographics have the ability to engage audiences quickly and it remains one of the most preferred ways to create content.

Well, with the new technology is on the rise, we have to move forward. Now, 360° video cameras are costing way less than a smartphone, VR is increasing every year, AR becoming accessible, so is the landscape content marketing is evolving.

The Future of Content Marketing

Let’s have a look at what is stored in the future of for content marketing in the years ahead. Few facts may be scary, but one thing is sure that content is definitely here to stay.

1. People are watching more and reading less: If we believe the reports, 74% of social media marketers use visual assets and 60 percent use video in their social media marketing. This increased demand of the visual content is directly related to shifting of consumer habits. This is true that any customer would like to watch a video about a product than read about it. So, in the coming years, video content will continue to dominate. Video will be the medium from which 80% of all global internet traffic will come. Video grabs and keeps the consumer attention and not only this, it captivates audiences with powerful, thought-provoking messages.

2. Voice search will be a thing: Aren’t you familiar with Alexa? Of course, who isn’t? A new way of searching is becoming famous among the people, which is searching through voice. Yes, you may not be using it now, but it is definitely becoming the most popular among younger people. The future generations will be using voice for all kinds of needs. You won’t believe younger generation is using it to get answers for their queries related to studies. Voice search devices are easy to use and are quite responsive. They’re comfortable with acknowledging speech, without heavy enunciation. You may be thinking what can happen to the content creators? The first real problem they are going to face is that they really need to tailor their content. They have to write in such a manner that it meet the request of voice search.

3. Question optimization: Writers were forced to build content around keyword. They were asked to set phrases that needed to include in a copy a certain number of times. Well, there was a huge gap between content creation and optimization. This was not only killing the creativity, but the approach had another big issue of keywords de-humanize writing. Google has now introduced the algorithms, which are quickly putting an end to this outdated optimization tactic, so it is no longer focused on keyword strings. Google has now the ability to evaluate each query’s context and intent. This has brought another great marketing trend: Question optimization. Why?

• Questions are closer to natural language than keywords
• Google understands and features questions
• Questions are easier to relate to

How to survive?

Not everyone can adapt to the changes which content marketing has stored in its future.  Only the fittest is going to survive in content marketing. And, it’s essential, natural and inevitable. For the future, it’s now the time to put the performance high for the content marketing. This will be the only way to demand web optimization, account-based marketing lead generation, and client management initiatives. Making strategies. Before you start something know what you’re doing. Any modern approach would need sales and marketing techniques alignment, commercial KPIs, and data analysis. Don’t get it wrong else you won’t be able to meet the targets.

Conclusion

There is a constant evolution in content. We have to cope up with the changing trends that content marketing is demanding. By all this, one thing is sure that content marketing’s future is safe and sound. It’s just, content is now demanding new thinking, skills and disciplines.

What are your views on changing content marketing strategies?