Content marketing can be extremely effective if conducted with a clear aim. That you should first understand the target market hardly needs saying. Ditto deciding what you want to achieve by having people read your content. But before a word is typed it is worth being aware of the following parameters.
Adblockers
If you are considering online advertising to boost your traffic, remember that in 2015, 200m people were using adblockers. In 2016, this rose to 316m. Moreover, mobile adblocking has increased by 90 per cent year-on-year.
This makes content marketing the best route when it comes to reaching the consumer – and this will continue to be the case.
Social searching
Two million people a day use Facebook to search for content. Social search is also important on other forms of social media. Google PageRank is important, but don’t despair. There other ways to generate traffic.
Time – or lack of it
According to this research by NewsCred, people will spend an average of 37 seconds reading a content marketing article.
Moreover, 81 per cent skim-read online content and form an opinion in 50 milliseconds. The average person is distracted after just 8 seconds.
Outbound is a waste
Despite the challenges listed above, content marketing still appears to be winning. According to HubSpot’s State of Inbound research, 39 per cent of US executives at vice-president level thought outbound advertising (print and TV) was overrated. This compares to 7 per cent who thought the same of blogging.
Conclusion
The conclusion is obvious. Make your content interesting. Think about putting your best material at the top but prioritise maintaining quality.
Four content marketing statistics to think about is part of Content24, the blog for London content marketing agency FirstWord.
