Content Marketing Statistics 2026: How Many Businesses Use Content & Does It Work?

of B2B marketers report that content marketing is part of their core marketing strategy — the highest rate since CMI began tracking adoption.

of B2C marketers also use content marketing, indicating the strategy has crossed over from enterprise niche to mainstream business practice.

of businesses with 1,000+ employees use content marketing — but even 68% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees have an active content strategy.

Global content marketing industry projected value by 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 16%.

of marketers say content marketing is the most effective digital marketing tactic — ranking higher than paid search, social ads, and influencer marketing.

of companies that increased content marketing investment in 2023 reported positive business impact within 12 months of doing so.

Short-form video is the highest-ROI content format for the third consecutive year, cited by 54% of marketers as their best-performing content type.

of video marketers say video has directly increased sales, making it the format with the clearest attributed business impact across all content types.

of marketers plan to increase their investment in short-form video in 2024–2025, making it the most targeted area of content budget growth.

of B2B buyers say they prefer learning about a product via video over any other format — including written case studies, webinars, and datasheets.

of marketers cite podcasts as a content format they plan to invest in for the first time in 2024, the sharpest new-entry growth rate of any format.

more leads generated by interactive content (quizzes, calculators, assessments) versus passive content (blog posts, white papers) with equivalent traffic.

more website visitors for businesses that publish a regular blog, compared to those that don't maintain a content publishing schedule.

more inbound links generated by companies with an active blog — and backlinks remain one of the top three Google ranking factors.

Average word count of blog posts that rank on the first page of Google search results — up from 1,200 words in 2019 as content quality requirements rise.

more backlinks earned by long-form content (2,000+ words) compared to articles under 1,000 words, directly improving domain authority over time.

of people say they prefer learning about a company or product through written articles rather than paid advertisements — supporting organic content investment.

more engagement driven by consistently updated content (updated older articles) versus purely new posts — making content maintenance a high-ROI activity.

of businesses now use video as a marketing tool — the highest adoption rate ever recorded for any single content format.

Average time per day people spend watching video content online — a figure that has doubled since 2018 and continues to grow.

of consumers would rather watch a short video to learn about a product or service, compared to just 18% who prefer a text-based article or guide.

of video marketers say video has been effective for generating leads — up from 83% in 2022 and 74% in 2019 as the medium matures.

faster revenue growth for businesses using video marketing compared to those without a video strategy — as reported in annual business performance benchmarks.

less cost to generate leads through content marketing compared to traditional outbound methods like cold calling, paid ads, and trade shows.

more leads generated per dollar spent on content marketing compared to paid search — the core ROI argument for investing in content over advertising.

higher conversion rates for companies that use content marketing consistently versus those that don't have a structured content program.

of B2B marketers say content marketing was very or extremely successful at building brand awareness in the prior 12 months — the top-cited content marketing outcome.

of marketers say content marketing increases engagement — the second most cited business outcome after awareness, ahead of lead generation and sales.

of buyers consume 3 to 5 pieces of vendor content before engaging with a sales rep — reinforcing the case for top-of-funnel content volume.

of the most successful B2B content marketers have a documented content strategy — versus only 16% of the least successful content programs.

of B2B content marketers do not have a documented strategy, relying instead on informal plans — a key differentiator between average and top-performing programs.

posts per week is the publishing frequency that HubSpot identifies as the sweet spot for maximising organic traffic without cannibalising keyword rankings.

of marketers say that creating consistent content is their top challenge — ahead of producing enough content and measuring content's impact.

of marketers now use AI tools to assist in content creation — and those who do report a 30%+ increase in content output volume month-over-month.

of all online experiences begin with a search engine — making organic content the entry point for the majority of buyer journeys across industries.

Close rate for leads from SEO-driven content, versus 1.7% for outbound leads like direct mail or cold calls — a 9x performance gap.

of searchers click results from the second page of Google — meaning first-page rankings capture essentially 100% of organic search traffic intent.

of marketers cite SEO / organic search as delivering the highest ROI of all marketing channels — the top-ranked response for the fourth year running.

of global businesses rank updating and repurposing existing content as their most productive SEO tactic, above link building and keyword research.