151 Content Marketing Statistics for 2022

This is a vetted list of the most up-to-date content marketing statistics available.

Including:

General Content Marketing Statistics

Content Marketing ROI Statistics

Social Media Marketing Statistics

Video Content Marketing Statistics

Podcasting Statistics

Email Marketing Statistics

SEO Statistics

Blogging Facts and Statistics

Read on for all the stats.

General Content Marketing Statistics

The most successful companies are 40% more likely to have a documented content marketing strategy. (Content Marketing Institute, 2021)

The content marketing industry is expected to grow by $417.85 billion from 2021 to 2025. (Technavio, 2021)

The top 5 marketing channels businesses use are: social media, websites, email marketing, content marketing / SEO, and paid social. (HubSpot, 2021)

82% of surveyed companies say they actively use content marketing. (HubSpot, 2021)

Only 4% of marketers measure ROI over a six-month timeframe or longer. (LinkedIn, 2021)

The top 5 forms of content marketing in 2021 were videos, blogs, infographics, case studies, and interviews. (HubSpot, 2021)

94% of content marketers changed their content marketing strategy because of the pandemic. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020)

People create and share 2.5 billion gigabytes of content each day worldwide. (Domo, 2021)

By 2025, people are expected to generate over 463 billion gigabytes of content per day. (Raconteur, 2020)

43% of companies use chatbots as marketing tools. (HubSpot, 2021)

63% of companies reported an increase in their marketing budgets for 2021. (HubSpot, 2021)

72% of companies use Google Analytics. (HubSpot, 2021)

The most sought-after skills for content marketers to have are: social media, SEO, marketing strategy, email marketing, and analytics. (Semrush, 2020)

The top 7 ways companies measure the success of their content marketing strategies are sales, web traffic, social engagement, lead generation, onsite engagement, SEO success, and authority. (HubSpot, 2021)

30% of content marketers outsource content creation. (Semrush, 2020)

34% of outsourced content is plagiarized, and another 18% is written by AI. (2022, GrowthBadger)

69% of companies say most of their new content is for the top of their marketing funnel. (Semrush, 2020)

The most common types of specialists companies hire for their content marketing teams are:

Writer / content creator (54% of companies)
SEO content manager (38% of companies)
Social media manager (30% of companies)
Designer (29% of companies)
Content strategist (27% of companies) (Semrush, 2020)

72% of marketers say “how-to” guides are the best type of content for driving traffic. And 44% say they’re also the best for lead generation. This makes how-to guides excellent for multiple stages of the marketing funnel. (Semrush, 2020)

The 5 most common types of content that marketers produce are:

Blog posts (92% of marketers)
Emails (66% of marketers)
Case studies (47% of marketers)
Infographics (45% of marketers)
Ebooks and white papers (37% of marketers) (Semrush, 2020)

The 5 most common content distribution channels used by marketers are:

Organic search (89% of marketers)
Social media (87% of marketers)
Email marketing (72% of marketers)
PPC / paid advertising (47% of marketers)
External publications / guest posting (24% of marketers) (Semrush, 2020)

62% of companies with 5,000 or more employees produce content on a daily basis. (The Manifest, 2019)

55% of B2C marketers outsource at least one aspect of content marketing. And of those that outsource, 80% outsource content creation. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020)

Only 33% of organizations have a documented content strategy. (Content Marketing Institute, 2020)

Content Marketing ROI Statistics

Only 4% of marketers measure ROI over a six-month timeframe or longer. (LinkedIn, 2021)

61% of companies that engage in content marketing have a way to measure their content marketing ROI. (Semrush, 2020)

44% of B2B marketers say their top priority is to measure the ROI of their demand generation activities better. (Demand Gen Report, 2021)

53% of B2B marketers say webinars are the best type of top-of-funnel marketing for bringing in high-quality leads. (Demand Gen Report, 2021)

83% of organizations surveyed say they are either very or somewhat confident that their website is helping them reach their marketing targets. (HubSpot, 2021)

72% of marketers say their company uses reporting tools. But only 53% say they use attribution reporting. (HubSpot, 2021)

Marketers say their top marketing priority for 2021 was generating more leads. (HubSpot, 2021)

Every $1 spent on email generates $36 in revenue. In other words, email drives an average ROI of 3500%. (Litmus, 2020)

According to Twitter, brands that tap into trending topics see an 8% increase in brand awareness, a 7% increase in brand preference, and a 3% increase in purchase intent. (Twitter, 2018)

About 40% of marketers say that content marketing is a “very important” part of their marketing strategy. (HubSpot, 2020)

82% of companies used social media marketing in 2021. (HubSpot, 2021)

Social media was the #1 marketing channel used by businesses in 2021. (HubSpot, 2021)

According to a 2021 survey by Pew Research Center, the most commonly used social networks in the U.S. are:

YouTube (used by 81% of adults)
Facebook (used by 69% of adults)
Instagram (used by 40% of adults)
Pinterest (used by 31% of adults)
LinkedIn (used by 28% of adults)
Twitter (used by 23% of adults)
WhatsApp (used by 23% of adults)
TikTok (used by 21% of adults)
Reddit (used by 18% of adults)
Nextdoor (used by 13% of adults) (Pew Research Center, 2021)

In 2021, 62% of companies used social listening, 48% used hashtags, and 46% used live video. (HubSpot, 2021)

82% of Americans over the age of twelve actively use social media. (Edison Research, 2021)

TikTok was used by 44% of American 12-34 year olds in 2021, up from 25% in 2020. (Edison Research, 2021)

96% of B2B marketers who distribute content on social media organically use LinkedIn. (Content Marketing Institute, 2021)

66% of B2B marketers say that compared to all other social media platforms, LinkedIn brought in the best organic content marketing results for their companies in the last year. (Content Marketing Institute, 2021)

90% of video plays on Twitter occur on mobile devices. (HubSpot, 2021)

Tweets with videos get 10 times more engagement than tweets without videos. (Twitter, 2021)

87% of marketers use social media for content distribution. (Semrush, 2020)

WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messaging platform in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users. Over 100 billion WhatsApp messages are sent per day. (TechCrunch, 2020)

The most popular social networks in the world are:

Facebook – 2.85 billion monthly active users
YouTube – 2.29 billion monthly active users
WhatsApp – 2 billion monthly active users
Instagram – 1.39 billion
Facebook Messenger – 1.3 billion
Weixin / WeChat – 1.24 billion
TikTok – 732 million
QQ – 606 million
Douyin – 600 million
Telegram – 550 million
Sina Weibo – 530 million
Snapchat – 514 million
Kuaishou – 481 million
Pinterest – 478 million
Reddit – 430 million
Twitter – 397 million
Quora – 300 million (Source: Statista, 2021)

The family of Meta social media networks now boasts over 3.6 billion monthly core product users. (Including Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.) (Statista, 2021)

Facebook is the most-used social network in the U.S., followed by Instagram and Pinterest. (Edison Research, 2021)

Reddit drives more than 3 times as much traffic to blogs as YouTube does. (GrowthBadger, 2020)

The most common social networks used by businesses in English-speaking countries are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Snapchat and Tumblr. (HubSpot, 2021)

The best times to post on Facebook are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 am – 1 pm, U.S. Central. (Sprout Social, 2021)

The best times to post on Instagram are Tuesdays from 11 am – 2 pm and other weekdays at 11 am, U.S. Central. (Sprout Social, 2021)

The best times to post on Twitter are Wednesdays from 9 am – 3 pm and Tuesdays through Thursdays from 9 – 11 am, U.S. Central. (Sprout Social, 2021)

The best times to post on LinkedIn are Tuesdays through Thursdays from 9 am – 12 pm, U.S. Central. (Sprout Social, 2021)

67% of marketers who use TikTok say that it’s an effective marketing channel. (Wyzowl, 2021)

Video Content Marketing Statistics (Including Live Streaming)

Over 82% of all internet traffic is online video. (Cisco, 2021)

People are 2x as likely to share video with their friends than any other type of content. (Wyzowl, 2021)

Ecommerce product pages with embedded video convert 80% better than those without video. (Social Media Today, 2018)

According to YouTube, channels that host a weekly live stream can expect up to 40% more subscribers. (YouTube)

People watch over 1 billion hours of video on YouTube every day, globally. (YouTube, 2021)

Articles with embedded video get 12.5 times as much traffic and 32% more shares than articles without video. (Semrush, 2021)

84% of people say branded video content has convinced them to buy a product or service. (Wyzowl, 2021)

96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn about a product or service. (Wyzowl, 2021)

YouTube has 2.3 billion active users. And the platform now makes more revenue than Netflix. (Business of Apps, 2021)

One in five Americans aged 12+ have watched a video game livestream. And 10% themselves broadcast livestreams while gaming. (Edison Research, 2021)

94% of video marketers say the medium increases their users’ understanding of their product or service. (Wyzowl, 2021)

86% of video marketers say video has driven more traffic to their websites. 78% say video has directly helped increase sales. And 84% say it has helped them generate leads. (Wyzowl, 2021)

The first 15 seconds of a video are critical: 43% of consumers decide in that time whether they want to watch it until the end. (Wyzowl, 2021)

Millennials are the generation that consumes the most videos. 75% of consumers aged 18-34 watch videos at least once a day. (Wyzowl, 2021)

Podcasting Statistics

There are now over 2,000,000 different podcasts and more than 48 million individual podcast episodes in existence. (Podcast Insights, 2021)

78% of Americans aged 12+ are familiar with podcasting in 2021. (That’s up from just 49% in 2015.) (Edison Research, 2021)

57% of Americans aged 12+ have listened to a podcast. (Edison Research, 2021)

41% of Americans aged 12+ listen to podcasts each month. That’s about 116 million monthly podcast listeners in the U.S. alone. (Edison Research, 2021)

In the United States, 43% of men and 39% of women listen to podcasts on a monthly basis. (Edison Research, 2021)

68% of Americans aged 12+ now listen to streaming online audio each month. And 62% do each week. (Edison Research, 2021)

The average American listens to 16 hours and 14 minutes of podcasts, streaming music and online radio per week. (Edison Research, 2021)

Spotify is the #1 most popular online audio service in the United States, followed by Pandora at #2, Google Play / YouTube Music at #3, Apple Music at #4 and iHeart Radio at #5. (Edison Research, 2021)

33% of Americans aged 12+ now own a smart speaker. And more than one-third of those that do have three or more such devices in their home. (Edison Research, 2021)

46% of Americans aged 12+ have ever listened to an audiobook. (Edison Research, 2021)

Email Marketing Statistics and Facts

90.3% of U.S. adults use email. (Statista, 2020)

77% of marketers say they got more email engagement in 2021 than in 2020. (HubS pot, 2021)

Email drives an ROI of 3500%. In other words, every $1 spent on email generates $36 in revenue. (Litmus, 2020)

87% of B2B marketers use email to distribute their content. (Content Marketing Institute, 2021)

The three most popular email service providers are MailChimp, Constant Contact and Salesforce. (HubSpot, 2021)

The average open rate for triggered transactional emails is 53%. (Statista, 2020)

There are now over 4 billion email users worldwide. By 2025, that number is expected to reach 4.6 billion. (Statista, 2020)

B2B marketing emails get 47% higher CTRs than B2C emails. (Emfluence, 2020)

Welcome emails have an average open rate of 86.03%. (GetResponse, 2020)

Across every industry, single opt-in subscriptions are more common than double-opt in ones. (GetResponse, 2020)

21.49% of all email opens occur in the first hour after sending. (GetResponse, 2020)

For email newsletters, the average open rate is 18.76%, the average click-through rate is 2.14%, and the average unsubscribe rate is 0.11%. (GetResponse, 2020)

Using an emoji in the subject line makes very little difference to open rates and click-through rates. (GetResponse, 2020)

Including a preheader increases email open rates by over 15%. (GetResponse, 2020)

54% of emails are opened on mobile devices. (Campaign Monitor, 2021)

According to Campaign Monitor, 72% of consumers say they’re more likely to open an email that mentions a discount in the subject line. (Campaign Monitor, 2021)

72% of content marketers use email for content distribution. (Semrush, 2020)

SEO Statistics

Google drives 8 times more traffic than all social networks combined. (GrowthBadger, 2020)

People search Google 5.6 billion times per day. That’s 2 trillion searches each year. (HubSpot, 2021)

In 2021, 69% of marketers invested in SEO — up from 64% in 2020. (HubSpot, 2021)

75% of companies say their SEO tactics are effective at helping them achieve their marketing goals. (HubSpot, 2021)

70% of web searches are for long-tail keywords (phrases of 3+ words). (CWS, 2017)

Organic search drives 51% of all online content consumption. (Kuno Creative, 2017)

The #1 ranked organic search result gets 10 times as many clicks as the #10 ranked result. (Backlinko, 2021)

The #1 ranking page in Google organic search gets an average CTR of 31.7% (Backlinko, 2021)

Moving up a single position in organic search rankings will increase that page’s CTR by 30.8% on average. (Backlinko, 2021)

89% of content marketers use SEO for content distribution. (Semrush, 2020)

Blogging Statistics

Long articles of 7,000+ words get almost 4 times as much traffic as average-length articles of 900 – 1,200 words. (Semrush, 2021)

List articles get 80% more traffic than other types of posts. (Semrush, 2021)

Over 2.5 billion new blog posts are published each year. (GrowthBadger, 2021)

77% of internet users read blog posts. (Impact Plus, 2016)

Bullet points help blog posts perform better: posts that have at least one list per 500 words of other text get 70% more traffic than posts that don’t. (Semrush, 2021)

WordPress now powers 42.8% of websites on the internet. That’s up from 35% in 2020. (W3Techs, 2021)

Among content management systems, WordPress has a market share of 65.1%. (W3Techs, 2021)

The perfect length for article headlines is 10 – 13 words. Articles with 10 – 13 words in their headlines drive twice as much traffic and get 1.5 times more shares than articles with short headlines under 7 words. (Semrush, 2021)

Articles with embedded video get 12.5 times as much traffic and 32% more shares than articles without video. (Semrush, 2021)

There are over 600 million blogs on the internet today. (GrowthBadger, 2021)

Blog posts with one or more images get 2x as much traffic, 30% more shares, and 25% more backlinks than blog posts without images. (Semrush, 2021)