B2B Content Marketing Statistics – Everything You Need to Know to Boost Business Growth

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With over 5 billion people using the internet and 4.8 billion active users on social media worldwide, content marketing has become a goldmine for business growth. Whether it’s social media, blogs, or webinars, content marketing is a tool that, if used wisely, can help you expand your reach, multiply leads, and establish a base of loyal clients.

Despite the value that meticulously designed content marketing represents, 63% of businesses don’t have a documented gameplan when it comes to marketing. We get that planning how to sell yourself online is daunting, especially when there’s so many ways of doing it, tools to use, costs to account for, and online impressions of your brand to keep up with.

So, to help you put your content marketing cards right on the money, we’ve spoken to businesses to learn how they nailed down their strategies, and have also gathered key statistics to equip you with all the insights you need to help your business thrive.

Key B2B Content Marketing Statistics

B2B content marketing top statistics infographic

The specific goals you want to pursue as a business through content marketing will need to be tailored to what you’re looking to achieve specifically. Regardless of the goal you’re racing towards, here are eight statistics that you need to know about B2B content marketing:

  • 72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement
  • 72% of business leaders also said content marketing has increased their number of leads
  • 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing to reach customers
  • 73% of B2B marketers use content marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy, according to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI)
  • 69% of companies plan to increase their content marketing budget in 2023
  • 90% of respondents used short articles or posts for content marketing purposes in the last 12 months
  • 97% of businesses claimed content was a tactic that formed an important part of their overall marketing strategy in 2021
  • 79% of very successful content marketers spent more than 10% of their total marketing budget on content

If you like the graphics on this page, please feel free to use them! We also have an infographic version compiling them together too. You can access them all on this Google Drive – all we ask is that you credit us with a link back to this page if you do use any. Thanks!

Is B2B Content Marketing Worth It?

You may think creating nice graphics and blog posts is just for B2C marketing. But research is increasingly proving that content marketing is critical in the B2B sector, too.

Across all industries, organic search or links from other websites are the top source of website traffic. Paid content just doesn't bring in the readers like fresh blog posts and useful industry guides.

The focus on non-paid marketing is only set to continue; 71% of B2B marketers confirmed content marketing became more important in their organization between 2021 and 2022.

This reflects changing buyer habits too, with 55% of B2B buyers relying more on content to make purchasing decisions in 2022 than they did in 2021.

Attracting new business is the lifeblood of your enterprise, meaning content marketing is a must-do in 2023. A strategy to keep the customers rolling in will smooth relations within your organization, too. Indeed, more than one in ten (13%) of B2B marketers believed a steady supply of leads was the best way to keep up relations with their sales team.

To find out how businesses are using content marketing right now, we asked business owners about their content marketing strategies. Here’s what one told us:

Heat Pump Source

“We increased our traffic by over 900% by using SEO for content marketing. By producing high-quality content, you can improve your website’s ranking on search engines, which can lead to more traffic and conversions. Part of our strategy was to create guides, answer questions our potential customers were asking, create infographics, and review products for our content marketing campaign. Not only did our traffic increase, but our conversion rate went up as well.”

Ryan Collier, Director
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Different Types of B2B Content Marketing

Content marketing is so much more than just throwing content out into the internet and hoping it lands on its feet, and generates leads for your business. There certainly are horror stories out there of employees giving the wrong impression of companies for posting the wrong kind of stuff online.

Key to making your content marketing strategy a success is knowing which channels are best for reaching your target audience. Here are some stats to give you a feel of what’s popular and tends to perform well:

Also, according to Semrush, the top five most successful content types are blog posts, videos, webinars, case studies, and success stories.

B2B Social Media Content Marketing Statistics

When it comes to taking the first steps in improving or developing your content marketing strategy, social media is probably one of the first channels that pops up. According to analysis from Kepsios, there were about 4.8 billion social media users globally in April 2023, which amounts to almost 60% of the total global population.

Social media has undoubtedly made itself a key channel for marketing, as 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make purchase decisions.

It will come as no surprise then, that 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to generate leads.

While you need to be careful to select the right platforms for your audience, you shouldn't rule out investing in newer and smaller social media channels, too. A rather remarkable 15% of B2B leaders used TikTok to market their businesses in 2022.

It's never smart to stretch yourself too thin, and neglect your business profiles over time. If your resources are limited, you can just focus on one or two of the larger platforms. Pair that with an efficient management platform for monitoring your social media or a top social media marketing agency, and you have yourself a robust content marketing strategy.

Finsbury Media

“By creating valuable content that attracts and engages customers, businesses can easily connect with their target audiences in a way that drives results. The key is to create content that is relevant to your target audience and that provides value. One of the main benefits of content marketing is that it helps brands build trust with their audience.”

Angel Martins, Marketing Specialist
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Blogging Statistics

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 60% of B2B marketers struggle with creating engaging content, yet it’s crucially important to get your blogging right as 71% of B2B buyers read at least one blog post during their research.

B2B blogging statistics infographic

What does this tell us? Essentially, blogs are a great way to expand the reach and visibility of your business, but most importantly, they’re a piece of content that you definitely shouldn’t miss when assembling your content marketing strategy.

Tank Retailer

“My business serves business customers and I use content marketing to answer customer questions that I get when I take customer calls.

“A good example is the content I produce for fuel transfer tanks. The most common customer question I get is around the size of a fuel transfer tank. My content marketing is designed to answer those types of questions and offer multiple tank sizes as solutions.”

Lou Haverty, Owner
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B2B Video Marketing Content Statistics

Video marketing can be a tricky one to get right for B2B marketers. While production costs have dropped since with the advent of so many free editing tools, you still need a talented videographer to create professional results.

Research shows marketers are curious about using video, but are not yet confident in fully incorporating it into overall strategies. For instance, just one in five (21%) of B2B companies used video marketing in 2022, according to Sagefrog Marketing Group.

Yet the same report found 32% are looking to explore video marketing more in 2023. The only other avenue of greater interest to B2B marketers was AI and automation. So if your interest is piqued, you're in good company.

There are some incredibly useful benefits to video marketing. A Hubspot survey found:

  • 86% of marketers found video improved customers' understanding of their products or services
  • 85% of marketing specialists found video content was effective in engaging audiences with their brands
  • 78% of marketing professionals found video generated leads for their brands

Video content marketing doesn't have to be scary; it works in the same way as blog posts and white-papers. Your goal is to provide a clear, compelling overview of your products or services. Sure, it will take a little planning to decide what to include, how to film it, and where to publicize it.

Still, the B2B buying journey is becoming increasingly digitized, therefore video is essential to stay competitive. In fact, around 27% of B2B buyers' time is spent researching online. So grab their attention with your excellent videos.

B2B video marketing statistics infographic

Webinar And Event Content Statistics

As the pandemic pushed events online, webinars have become an indispensable part of content marketing, particularly because they provide excellent value for users. Here’s a few figures to show why:

  • Average webinar conversion rate is 55%
  • 85% of marketers who use webinars as a marketing tool say that webinars are crucial for their marketing efforts
  • Over 70% of webinar marketers say that webinars are either highly effective or most effective
  • 67% of marketers in 2021 were increasing their investment in webinars
Key takeaways

So, is it worth investing in a robust content marketing strategy? Based on the statistics and our own research, we definitely think it is.

Although the perfect combination of content marketing cards looks different for every business based on capacity, goals, and target audience, understanding what answers and information your potential customers will need and translating that into content that builds trust and awareness will always be a key ingredient to have.

We also know that the best content marketing strategies aren’t something that can be whooshed out of thin air. The statistics and our conversations with businesses tell us that organization, planning, and readjustments are all part of the process of consistently being able to convert audiences into customers. So whether it’s in-house or outsourced, creating a well-oiled machinery of content marketing can definitely be a path to growing your business online.

Written by:
Fernanda is a Mexican-born Expert Market writer, specialising in providing in-depth insights about business software to help businesses of all shapes and sizes thrive. From VoIP systems to project management software, she’s passionate about helping businesses find the tools and methods that will help give them an edge over their competitors. Fernanda has ample journalistic experience, having written for a multitude of online magazines about topics ranging from Latin American politics to cryptocurrency.
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Robyn Summers-Emler, Grow Online Editor, Profile Picture
Robyn started working on Expert Market in 2021 as a specialist in business websites and digital marketing. As the Grow Online Editor, she ideates, commissions and optimizes content on Expert Market that helps businesses thrive in online spaces and maximize their ecommerce potential. Covering everything from choosing a website builder to scaling a social media marketing strategy - Robyn uses her expertise to help startups, SMBs, and larger businesses realize digital growth in an increasingly competitive landscape.