42 reasons every brand needs a content marketing strategy in 2012

Peter Drucker said: “The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.”  This succinctly stated truth is the essential requirement for every brand.
Although Peter left us in 2005, I think he would agree the spark that keeps the customer relationship going is relevant content. It’s a fundamental way to create trust by proving you understand what your audience values.

84% of us turn to the internet for relevant content, especially when it comes to subjects like the government, news, healthcare, and commerce, according to the  Pew Internet and American Life Project; 75%  of us say we get what we are looking for.

For some more revealing percentages, here are 42 reasons every brand needs a content marketing strategy in 2012.

  1. 93% of CMO’s plan to use some form of user generated content in their marketing effort this year
  2. 92% of shoppers have more confidence in information sought online versus a salesperson or some other source
  3. 90% of all purchase decisions begin on the internet
  4. 90% of CMO’s participate in an average of 3 or more social media activities
  5. 84% of brand managers says they use online videos on their brand websites for marketing product and services
  6. 81% of CMO’s say they plan to track social media activities to revenues in order to determine ROI. However, only 40% actually do.
  7. 80% of traffic to a web site begins with search query
  8. 78% of marketers believe content is key to the success of their organization but only 49 have a content strategy in place
  9. 78% of B2B marketers say generating high quality leads is their top priority
  10. 77% of search users choose organic over paid search listings
  11. 74% of consumers rely on social networks to help them make a purchase decision
  12. 73% of companies now use social media for marketing
  13. 66% of companies report using online video for brand awareness; 21% for lead generation and 12% for ecommerce/sales
  14. 66% of marketers says their greatest concern is lead generation; only 17% say it’s brand awareness
  15. 65% of consumers report a digital brand experience changed their opinion about a product or service
  16. 62% click a link on the first page of search engine results
  17. 61% of marketers say they implement a social media strategy for lead generation
  18. 60% of retailers use customer reviews as a form of content marketing
  19. 60% of brand managers says they are going to increase spending for online videos in the next 12 months
  20. 55% of the time people spend on the internet is directly related to content consumption
  21. 55% of companies use case studies as part of their content marketing strategy
  22. 51% use a blog for content marketing
  23. 51% of marketers say they are going to increase content marketing spending within the next 12 months
  24. 49% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a social network
  25. 44% of all content shared on internet comes from Facebook
  26. 43% of companies says they are writing “white papers” and sharing them online as part of their content marketing
  27. 43%of companies report higher click-through on RSS feeds with reviews than without
  28. 42% of consumers say, when shopping online, they prefer to look for an answer online
  29. 40% or Republican and 38% of Democrats use social network sites to become more polictically involved
  30. Only 38% of consumers say they watch an online video in its entirety
  31. 32% of consumers now browse or research products at least once a month on mobile devices
  32. 26% higher conversion results for products when they have product reviews
  33. 26% of total marketing budgets are allocated to content marketing by B2B marketers
  34. 25% of search results for the world’s 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content
  35. Only 21% of branded mobile apps now contain videos. However, 70 of brand manager says they are going to add videos to their mobile apps within the next 12 months
  36. 14% of B2B marketers say they send e-mails on an opt-out basis; down from 23% a year ago
  37. Only 2.6% of all brands views occur through off-site embeds of branded videos
  38. 300 other companies compete with Facebook for content sharing
  39. 30 minutes is the average that people watch online videos every day
  40. E-mail providers, such as Yahoo, AOL and Gmail, all use the number of time a consumers hits the “report spam” button as their #1 criteria for sending future e-mails to that consumer
  41. Companies with over 1000 employees use an average of 9 content marketing tactics
  42. Companies with under 10 employees use an average of 6 content marketing tactics

Laurence Peter, the educator who developed the Peter Principle said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up someplace else.” The numbers clearly state content marketing is on the rise but, before you jump in, have a content marketing strategy.
NOTE: The facts and statistics in this post all feature studies conducted within the last year. The sources include: Nielsen, eMarketer, comScore, Edelman Digital, BazaarVoice, MediaPost, Webbiquity among others with appreciation.
The number, 42, was deliberately chosen to acknowledge the great work Junta42 and Joe Pulizzi do in content marketing.
In the compilation of the stats, the best infographic I came across on content marketing comes from Marketo and was passed along by Wendy Emerson at business2community.com because a picture is worth 1000 words. It is below.
Will your brand have a content marketing strategy to create and keep customers in 2012?



7 Comments

  1. rhonda hurwitz

    Brilliant post, Rob. From the big picture to the supporting facts, you nailed it.
    Now … with 35 hours of new content loaded to You tube each minute, and tons of clutter on every other social platform … the question becomes how to break through the clutter and create content that is not only seen, but shared.

    1. Rob Petersen

      Thanks Rhonda. There are great content marketing blog out there. I just thought it was worth a post to do a compilation of some of their findings. Glad it was helpful.
      Rob

  2. Cari

    Agree with Rhonda cutting the clutter is key

  3. Ferry Roen

    i love this web, thank you
    from ferry in indonesia

    1. Rob Petersen

      Thanks Ferry. Appreciate the kind words from Indonesia.

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