Last year, we made a presentation called 50 Stats You Need to Know About Content Marketing, which received more than 200,000 views on SlideShare and became one of our top blog posts ever. This year, we’re going further by showing not just why you should invest in Content Marketing, but also why it’s essential.

The following SlideShare will demonstrate the value of Content Marketing and how it can help build your business. We hope you can walk away with a better understanding of Content Marketing – and even convince your CEO – why this should be your number one marketing priority.

56 Reasons Why Content Marketing Works: 2014 Edition from NewsCred

We believe three things absolutely:

1. Content marketing is necessary to efficiently build your business

2. Customer acquisition requires many simultaneous tactics

3. Blogging, email marketing, and social media are the main drivers of brand engagement

  • Where Are We Coming From? Last year we created 50 Stats You Need to Know About Content Marketing, which garnered over 200,000 views. This year we’re taking it a step further, demonstrating not only why you should invest in Content Marketing, but why you need to as well.
  • Where Are We Headed? Content marketing isn’t just a tactic; it’s a long-term approach. The top content marketers show the value of their work by demonstrating how content boosts brand awareness, generates leads, engages audiences, and increases sales. The upcoming slides will highlight the benefits of Content Marketing and how it can support your business growth. We hope you leave with a clearer understanding of Content Marketing—and even persuade your CEO—on why it should be your top marketing focus.
  • This deck covers the following themes:

1. Banner ads are the problem and content marketing is the answer

2. Businesses with a defined content strategy have smarter marketing

3. Investing in a content marketing team is crucial to building your business

4. Blogging and social media drive customer acquisition

5. Email marketing generates revenue

6. Visual, relevant, and social content builds brand engagement

The Claim: Banner ads are the problem and content marketing is the answer

  • Consumers reject banner ads at rates greater than 99%. (Content Marketing Institute)
  • The average click-through rate for display ads is 0.11%. (Coull)
  • Mobile banner ads have an average click-through rate of 0.35%. (Coull)
  • 58% of B2B marketers and 60% of B2C marketers will increase their content marketing budgets in 2014. (Marketing Profs)
  • 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. (Business2Community)

The Claim: Businesses with a defined content strategy are better marketers

  • 80% of B2B marketers who have a documented content strategy are creating more content than they did one year ago. (Content Marketing Institute)
  • Average website conversion for companies with defined content processes is more than twice that of companies without (5.9% vs. 3.8%). (Kapost)
  • Using content-driven tactics saves an average of 13% in overall cost per lead. (Hubspot)
  • Testing content efforts propels ROI improvements: Companies who test are 75% more likely to show ROI for content marketing than those who fail to test their strategies. (Hubspot)

The Claim: Investing in a content marketing team is crucial to building your business

  • 86% of the most effective B2B marketers have someone who oversees content marketing strategy; however, only 46% of less effective marketers do. (Content Marketing Institute)
  • Marketers work in very small teams: 81% of all content teams contain fewer than six people. (Hubspot)
  • Blogs require roughly 9% of marketers’ total full-time staff dedications and demand just 7% of marketers’ total budgets. (Hubspot)
  • 16% of companies employ a full-time social media specialist and 11% are paying a dedicated email marketer. (Hubspot)

The Claim: Blogging drives customer acquisition

  • 82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI for their content-driven marketing. (State of Inbound Marketing)
  • 79% of ‘best-in-class’ B2B marketers rate blogs as the most effective customer acquisition tactic. (Content Marketing Institute)
  • 82% of marketers who blog daily acquired a customer using their blog, as opposed to 57% of marketers who blog monthly. (Hubspot)
  • Brands that create 15 blog posts per month average 1,200 new leads per month. (Hubspot)
  • Blogs produce low-cost leads for 24% of the marketing community. (Hubspot)
  • Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost. (Hubspot)
  • The Claim: Social media drives customer acquisition
  • 77% of buyers say they are more likely to buy from a company whose CEO uses social media. (Emarketer)
  • 52% of marketers generated a lead from Facebook in 2013. (Hubspot)
  • 43% of marketers generated a customer from LinkedIn in 2013. (Hubspot)
  • 36% of marketers found a new customer from Twitter this year. (Hubspot)
  • Customers spend more money when they convert from Pinterest than any other social referral. (Buffer)

The Claim: Email marketing generates revenue

  • CMOs say email marketing: generates brand awareness (76%), increases customer retention (75%), increases website visits (73%), drives lead generation (69%), and generates sales (65%). (icontact)
  • 59% of B2B marketers say email is the most effective channel in generating revenue. (Hubspot)
  • Subscriber to lead conversion rates increase 51% when video is included in email marketing campaigns. (Digital Sherpa)
  • Consumers who received email marketing spend 83% more when shopping. Their orders are 43% larger and they order 28% more often, too. (icontact)
  • The word “exclusive” in email promotional campaigns increases unique open rates by 14%. (Hubspot)

The Claim: Visual content builds brand engagement

  • The top three most widely adopted content marketing tactics are videos (87%), website articles (86%), and in-person events (85%). (Content Marketing Institute)
  • 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. (Billion Dollar Graphics)
  • Photos are liked 2x more than text updates, while videos are shared 12x times more than links and text posts combined. (Sprout Social)
  • 80% of your online visitors will watch a video, while only 20% will actually read content. (Digital Sherpa)
  • Video constitutes 50% of all mobile online traffic and over 90% of internet traffic. (Diode Digital)
  • 58% of online video watchers watch content on a social network site. (Pew)
  • Infographics have seen the largest year-over-year increase in usage. In 2013, 38% of B2B marketers were using infographics, compared with 51% in 2014. (Content Marketing Institute)

The Claim: Relevant content builds brand engagement

  • 73% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content appears that has nothing to do with their interests. (Hubspot)
  • 90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them. (CMO Council)
  • The most effective B2B marketers tailor content to the following categories: trends (65%), decision maker profiles (59%), company characteristics (55%), buy-cycle stage (43%), content preferences (21%), competitor’s content (11%). (Content Marketing Institute)
  • Twitter users follow a median of six brands on Twitter, looking for things like interesting and fun content, news and updates, and discounts and promos. (Buffer)

The Claim: Social content builds brand engagement: Facebook

  • Among retail brands, posting 1-4 times a week on Facebook generates 71% more engagement (Kissmetrics)
  • Facebook posts with photos get 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs. (Kissmetrics)
  • Facebook posts with 80 characters or less get 66% more engagement. (Kissmetrics)
  • Facebook posts with questions get 100% more comments. (Kissmetrics)
  • Among retail brands, posting 1-2 times on Facebook a day gets 40% more engagement. (Kissmetrics)

The Claim: Social content builds brand engagement: Twitter

  • Twitter drives amplification for brand messages. 78% of user engagement with a brand’s Tweets is in the form of retweets. (Buffer)
  • Tweets that specifically ask followers to “retweet” receive 12x higher retweet rates than those that do not. (Buffer)
  • Content that is greater than 1500 words on average receives 68.1% more tweets. (Quicksprout)

The Claim: Social content builds brand engagement: LinkedIn

  • LinkedIn accounts for 64% of all social referrals to corporate homepages. (Buffer)
  • 60% of LinkedIn users are interested in industry insights. (Buffer)
  • Posting at least 20 times per month can help reach 60% of your unique audience. (Buffer)

The Claim: Content fuels our social web – Instagram

  • By using just three hashtags, brands can gain a 110% increase in likes on their Instagram posts. (Piqora)
  • By using five hashtags, brands can gain a 180% increase in likes on their Instagram posts. (Piqora)

The Claim: Social content builds brand engagement: YouTube

  • 90% of internet users say that watching a video about a product is helpful in the decision process. (Digital Sherpa)
  • 50% of executives watch business-related YouTube videos at least once a week. (Video Brewery)
  • Website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video. (Digital Sherpa)