30 Need-to-Know B2B Content Marketing Stats for 2023

2023 is just around the corner, making now the perfect time to review your B2B content strategy before the new year hits.

To help you do that, we commissioned an independent research firm* to survey 200 content marketing leaders from across the U.S., asking them about their content strategy performance, challenges they’ve faced, and changes they plan to make for 2023.

We’ve condensed our findings into 30 need-to-know statistics to help inform your content strategy planning for Q1 and beyond. Take a look!

General Content Marketing Stats

• 83% of marketing leaders aren’t sure they can meet their goals without effective content as a tactic.

• 67% of marketing leaders say their buyers seek brand information on social platforms.

• 59% of marketing leaders design their content to sell rather than offer knowledge.

• 79% of marketing leaders report actively using a content syndication vendor.

• On average, 46% of content is gated.

• The majority of content marketing leaders (58%) see content as a branding tool rather than a lead generation tool.

Content Marketing Throughout the Funnel

• The most popular content formats for bottom-funnel leads are:
  • Social media
  • Videos
  • Online reviews
  • Templates
  • Podcasts

• The most popular content formats for middle-funnel leads are:
  • Videos
  • White papers & eBooks
  • Online reviews
  • Blogging
  • Social media

• The most popular content formats for top-funnel leads are:
  • Videos
  • Social media
  • Online reviews
  • Success stories
  • Customer testimonials

• 69% of organizations use content as a top-of-funnel tactic for lead generation.

Measuring Content Performance

• Only 31% of B2B marketers report to be “very satisfied” with the performance of their content.

• The industries in which marketing leaders are the least satisfied with their content performance are:
  • Education
  • Scientific services
  • Hospitality

• The main reasons marketing leaders aren’t satisfied with their content performance are:
  • Low quality leads
  • Not enough clicks
  • Content isn’t current
  • Not targeted well enough
  • Not enough video

• Marketing leaders think the following would make the biggest positive impact on their content:
  • Bigger budget
  • Bigger content team
  • More thought leadership
  • Better graphic design and imagery
  • More video

Content Marketing Challenges

• 74% of content marketers say attracting quality leads is their biggest challenge.

• Poor lead quality is the #1 complaint among 50% of sales teams handling inbound leads.

• Poor targeting is the #1 complaint among 38% of marketing teams doing social media advertising.

• 96% of content marketing leaders struggle to come up with compelling topics for content.

The Relationship Between Lead Generation and Content Marketing

• For 71% of marketers, content marketing generates twice as many leads as outbound marketing at less than half the cost.

• 75% of B2B companies use content for lead generation.

• 79% of marketing leaders say their content’s lead quality is more important than lead quantity.

• 80% of marketing leaders say lead quality is the primary goal of their content strategy.

• 64% of marketing leaders aren’t sure how to improve lead quality from their content going into next year.

• The top marketing solutions content marketers plan to use in 2023 to improve lead quality are:
  • Improved content messaging
  • Better content distribution
  • Better content targeting

• Content is the #1 source of leads for 74% of organizations, but only 24% of organizations are happy with the quality of these leads.

Measuring Content Success

• Over 64% of marketing leaders measure the success of their content strategy through SQLs.

• The top metrics for measuring content success are:
  • Leads generated
  • Quality of leads generated
  • Views
  • Number of times shared

Content Marketing in 2023

• 66% of marketing leaders plan to increase their investment in content marketing in 2023.

• 65% of marketing leaders say they are focusing on granular targeting in 2023.

• Video makes up 51% of content today, but that number is expected to increase to 60% within the next 3 years.

Summary

Content marketing continues to play a hugely impactful part in B2B marketing strategies, and that’s not set to change in 2023. However, while most marketing leaders do find success in generating leads from their content, the quality of those leads remains a challenge. Therefore, 2023 will be spent trying to bridge this gap, helping both sales and marketing teams get better results from their content.

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* Source: Ethington, J. (2022). [Unpublished raw data on B2B content marketing trends for 2023]. TrendCandy Research Services.