2020 was a long, strange year. The COVID-19 pandemic shut down many small businesses and forced many others to pivot quickly to work-from-home environments. Not only that, it forced most businesses to change the way they offered products and engaged with their customers. The new reality brought about shifts in marketing and other sales tactics.
But in the midst of everything that changed in 2020, content marketing proved to remain every bit as important as it has in the last several years—if not even more so. With things starting to return to a somewhat normal state, it is refreshing to see that content marketing never wavered during turbulent times. Let’s take a look at some trends and statistics we saw from the course of 2020 and compare them to data we’ve gathered during 2022 to see where the industry is at.
Before we get specifically into content, let’s look at some more general digital marketing statistics from 2020, to get a feel for the industry overall.
Digital marketing is a tool with limitless potential for businesses of all kinds. But does the data prove it remains a vital asset?
With some of the stats listed above alone, you can see how and why content marketing continues to be so important. Indeed, if your business hasn’t focused on content marketing up to this point, it’s a good idea to start—especially since 60% of B2C businesses are using content marketing strategies (Review42). Let’s look at a few content marketing statistics from 2020 that are particularly telling.
Content statistics in 2022 proved that content is still king, but let’s take a closer look at how 2022 stacked up to the pandemic era.
Knowing what we know from those statistics, what were some trends that we saw in content marketing that we can expect to continue on in 2021? Here are a few that are likely to dominate the industry for a while.
Video will continue to rule. It’s the top form of content marketing between both B2B and B2C marketers (Statista), and with platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and the ever-popular YouTube, video has nowhere to go but up.
Competition among content providers is going to continue growing. As more and more marketers and smaller brands start using content to market themselves, the already-crowded market is going to get even more dense. This means it will be even more important to stand out.
Mobile is going to continue its path to domination. If you aren’t creating content specifically designed for mobile viewing, it’s unlikely to perform well.
In addition to video, live streaming is on the rise among both consumers and businesses. Part of that, of course, is because of social distancing protocols enacted thanks to COVID-19, but its popularity is unlikely to wane once the world transitions back to the “old normal.” It’s easier and more cost-effective for things like conferences and makes attending something easy. While you can definitely expect people to crave in-person events, a flexible option should always exist.
Finally, cross channel marketing will become increasingly important. Cross channel marketing is all about using content across various distribution channels. Teams are already being asked to create more engaging, creative, and higher quality content, while doing it for less and less. Businesses will continue to invest in content, but efficiency will be top of mind. So sharing these pieces of content across channels, and optimizing them for each, should be a priority.
The content writing statistics in 2022 proved that organic content is a huge driver behind business growth. One of the biggest takeaways from 2020 and current day is how video content in partnership with strong written work will generate the most traffic for your company. Other methods will continue to pop up, but there is no better way to engage your audience than with content marketing. To stay relevant amongst the sea of content more than 50% of marketers will create more of it. Set yourself up for success by partnering with an organization like DemandJump that understands the new generation of content— pillar-based marketing.
DemandJump's consumer behavior insights uncover the most important topics, questions, and keywords your team should be focusing on and identifies competitive gaps where you can gain traffic share immediately.
We even take most of the effort out of the process by automatically generating content outlines that will show you exactly how to structure the content to ensure it ranks - fast! You can then write it in house or use our content team to get your company ranking on page one! Try it today!