For B2B marketers content is still king in 2017 and that means blogging and B2B content marketing remain a top priority.
As your B2B content marketing agency or your in-house team plan for the next quarter and the remainder of 2017 it is vital to review recent content marketing data to get a macro picture of the current state of B2B blogging.
While some B2B trends are evolving, there several trends that continue to remain the same. For example:
- Business blogging continues to be on the rise B2B companies with a consistent blog receive more qualified leads than those that don’t
- Increased blogging frequency is more effective
- B2B blogging has valuable SEO benefits, and organic search attracts higher-quality leads and blog subscribers
- Increased ROI can be had from a company blog when compared to traditional marketing effortsThese B2B trends aside, there are several emerging B2B blogging trends to integrate into your plan:
- Increased demand for visual content will play a large role in their blog content. Expect to see more video, graphics, charts and photos in B2B blogs in 2017
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Longer form blog content tends to perform better in search engine results and simultaneously word count numbers have continued to climb over the last several years
These 10 Blogging Statistics Will Reshape Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy:
1) An astonishing 45% of marketers indicated that blogging is the most important piece of their content strategy. (source)
Between increased brand awareness, SEO benefits, lead generation, and thought-leadership positioning, very few areas of marketing, if any, do not benefit from blogging.
2) Website’s with a blog have 434% more indexed pages. (source)
A critical variable of SEO is having a significant amount of relevant content for search engines to crawl, understand, then index. This assists search engines in recognizing your website as a trusted resource with tons of high-quality content for people to consume.
3) B2B businesses and websites use blogging as a marketing tool than B2C companies and websites. (source)
Blogging is critical to B2B marketing success because with B2B blogging there is an emphasis on generating leads when compared to B2C companies.
4) Compounding blog posts, on average, makeup 10% of all blog posts and generate 38% of overall traffic. (source)
In layman terms, do not neglect your older blog content. If you are anything like Dreamweaver Brand Communications, a leading marketing agency in South Florida or Hubspot, a significant portion of your website traffic is coming from content that was not created in the past six months. To keep this content relevant, ranking, and driving traffic or leads, spend some time and optimize your earlier B2B blogs.
5) In 2015 bloggers reported publishing on a daily compared to 2014; however, 66% of bloggers are publishing less daily but more often than monthly. (source)
Without an experienced content marketing agency on retainer or if you have an overstretched marketing team, daily blogging is not ideal, practical, or economical for all businesses. However, at a minimum, you should be publishing content on a weekly basis to maximize the SEO benefits and lead generation opportunities. However, an increased publishing schedule will not only boost traffic but act as a differentiator between you and your competitors.
6) Top ranking content in Google has an average word count of between 1,140 and 1,285 words. (source)
Both B2B and B2C blogging continues to become more competitive literally by the search and Google favors, comprehensive, in-depth content that provide’s the user valuable information and improves the user experience compared to short blog posts of days gone by.
7) Savvy B2B Marketers that utilize blog receive 67% more leads than those marketers that do not blog. (source)
Simply put, traditional methods of lead generation are not time or cost effective versus blogging for B2B marketers.
8) 47% of buyers viewed and engaged with 3-5 pieces of content before taking the next step and engaging with a sales representative. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)
Your B2B blog should include content for all stages of the funnel. Typically, top-of-the-funnel content draws new people in, middle-of-the-funnel content lays the foundation for potentially working with your company or considering your product or service.
9) 43% of people openly admit to skimming blog posts (source)
Let’s face it, people are busy and their email boxes full. Utilize videos, infographics, headers, and bullet lists to make the most critical pieces of your blog get noticed and remembered.
10) Leads generated through SEO have a 14.6% closing rate versus outbound leads (ex. print advertising or direct mail) have a 1.7% close rate. (source)
The central objective of blogging is the goal of getting found and indexed by search engines. Keyword focused, high-quality blog posts that are optimized for search engines can help you, and your website get found by more qualified individuals who are ready to close. Also, if you integrate SEO with a PR campaign this tactic with enhance your lead generation efforts.
We understand that many B2B companies are busy doing what they do best, foucusing on their core business. Let the content markerters are Dreamweaver Brand Communications handle your content marketing so you can remain focused! Learn more about B2B digital marketing.
