The State of B2B Content Marketing: 25 Need-to-Know Stats [Infographic]

Content marketing has become hugely important to B2B marketers, so much so that 91% now use content marketing to generate demand and fill the top of the funnel.

And in just the last few years, content marketing has transformed from something that seemed like a good idea to a savvy business tactic. According to HubSpot, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those that do not blog.

Yet, despite overwhelming evidence pointing to the efficacy of content marketing, only 44% of B2B marketers have a documented strategy.

Content marketing is clearly important and growing more so by the day. To give you a better understanding of content marketing, its use cases, effectiveness and where it’s headed, we’ve laid out 25 Need-to-Know Stats on the State of Content Marketing. Check out the infographic below:

1. 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing (Content Marketing Institute)
2. 44% of B2B content marketers have a documented content strategy (Content Marketing Institute)
3. 84% of B2B marketers said brand awareness was a top goal (Content Marketing Institute)
4. 55% of B2B organizations organizations plan to increase their content marketing budget in the next 12 months (Content Marketing Institute)
5. B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those that do not blog (HubSpot)
6. Brands relying on inbound marketing save over $14 dollars for every new customer acquired (HubSpot)
7. Organic search leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound marketing leads have a 1.7% close rate (HubSpot)
8. 72% of marketers think that branded content is more effective than magazine advertisements, 69% say it’s superior to direct mail and PR (Custom Content Council)
9. Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters  (Kapost)
10. B2B marketers cite web traffic (63%) and sales lead quality (54%) as their top content marketing metrics. (IAB)
11. Only 21% of B2B marketers indicate that they are successful at tracking ROI of their content marketing programs. (Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs)
12. B2B marketers publish new content: Daily (16%); Multiple Times per Week (26%); Weekly (17%); Multiple Times per Month (19%). (Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs)
13. 73% of B2B marketers use video as a content marketing tactic (Content Marketing Institute)
14. 63% of B2B marketers rate videos as effective (Top Rank Blog)
15. Interactive content, such as apps, assessments, calculators, configurators and quizzes, generate conversions moderately or very well 70% of the time, compared to just 36% for passive content (Ion Interactive)
16. Top 5 B2B content marketing tactics: Social Media Content (92%); eNewletters (83%); Articles on your Web Site (81%); Blogs (80%); In-Person Events (77%). (IMN Inc.)
17. 65% of B2B buyers report that the winning vendor’s content had a “significant impact” on their buying decision. (DemandGen Report)
18. 68% of B2B buyers strongly agree that B2B vendors should curb the sales messages to improve the quality of their content. (DemandGen Report)
19. 80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. (Roper Public Affairs)
20. 87% of B2B marketers are using social media to distribute content (Content Marketing Institute)
21. LinkedIn generates more leads for B2B companies than Facebook, Twitter or blogs individually. Yet only 47% of B2B marketers say they are actively using LinkedIn vs. 90% on Facebook
22. B2B content marketing social media platform usage: LinkedIn (94%); Twitter (88%); Facebook (84%); YouTube (72%); Google+ (64%); SlideShare (41%) (Content Marketing Institute / MarketingProfs)
23. 73% of B2B organizations have a person dedicated to overseeing content marketing strategy (Content Marketing Institute)
24. 47% of B2B marketers have a dedicated content marketing group. (Content Marketing Institute)
25. 78% of B2B marketers plan to grow their “content marketing teams” by 1-3 people in the next year (Marketing Charts)

Thanks to our friends at Ceros for building this interactive infographic. Header image by Rachel Worthman.