97 Content Marketing Statistics 2026 Report (ROI, AI, Trends & Growth)

By Liam Austin

Updated: November 27, 2025

The content marketing landscape is changing fast.

As it drives results for different businesses, being updated with different content marketing statistics keeps your strategies relevant.

The numbers tell a powerful story. More coaches are using blogs, videos, and social media to attract clients without spending thousands on ads.

From blog marketing to email marketing and more, understanding marketing trends gives you an advantage in building an online business.

This article contains the 97 content marketing statistics you need to know. Use them to guide your business decisions and optimize your content.

What Is Content Marketing?

Liam Austin sitting at a marble table in a bright cafe, waving at the camera while working on his laptop to help clients grow their business.

Content marketing is a strategic way to attract and retain your ideal clients by creating valuable, helpful content.

Instead of pitching your services directly, you focus on educating your audience and building trust first. When done right, content marketing turns strangers into paying clients over time.

Think of it like planting seeds.

Each blog post, video, or email you send builds awareness and credibility. Eventually, the people you help will come to you when they need a coach.

What is content in content marketing?

Infographic explaining different types of content piece options in content marketing such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, emails, case studies, and infographics.

Content is anything you create to help, educate, or entertain your audience. This includes:

Blog posts
Videos
Social media posts
Podcasts
Emails
Case studies
Webinars
Infographics

For coaches, great quality content might include how-to guides on setting goals, client success stories, or quick tips shared on Instagram.

The type of content you choose depends on where your audience spends time and how they prefer to learn.

Marketing vs content marketing

Content marketing is part of digital marketing. Here’s how these strategies play out:

Digital marketing is the umbrella term that covers promoting your services through ads, calls, and direct pitches. For example, you run Facebook ads for your coaching program.
Content marketing attracts people by giving them useful information first (e.g., a how-to blog post).

Social media marketing vs content marketing

Social media is one place you distribute content, but content marketing is the bigger strategy.

Social media marketing uses platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook to connect with your audience.
Content marketing focuses on creating valuable information across all channels, including social media.

The best strategies use both together to reach more people and drive consistent traffic.

Why Content Marketing Is Important

Content marketing helps coaches stand out in a crowded market.

Ever since 2024, I’ve been publishing unique personal content like blogs and social posts daily. I even started Talks.co to generate more content and get in front of new audiences.

The results? Getting seen and featured on Google, ChatGPT, and other platforms and being known as an expert in the field.

Here’s a list of content marketing benefits for your business:

Authority: When you consistently share helpful content, people see you as an expert.
Trust: It’s easier to secure clients who already trust you before they ever book a call.
Cost-effectiveness: Instead of paying for ads every month, good content keeps working for you long after you publish it.

Why is content important in marketing?

Content gives people a reason to pay attention to you. Without it, you’re just another voice trying to sell something.

Here are specific reasons why content marketing is important for coaches:

Educate potential clients: You give them quick wins and useful information even before they hire you.
Answer their questions: Establish yourself as their go-to person for getting knowledge and advice on a particular topic.
Address their fears: Create grounding content that gives potential clients a realistic view of their situation.
Preview your expertise: You can show what it would be like to work with you.

The more value you provide upfront, the easier it is to convert readers into paying clients.

Key Content Marketing Statistics (Quick Summary)

What is the current state of content marketing? These ten global content marketing statistics show why this strategy matters for coaches in 2026:

Revenue: Worldwide content marketing revenue will reach $107.5 billion by 2026 (Statista, 2025).
Types of content: 92% of B2B marketers use short articles or posts, 76% use videos, and 75% use case studies (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Brand awareness: 87% of B2B marketers say content marketing created brand awareness in the last 12 months (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Driving traffic: Video marketing has helped 87% of marketers increase website traffic (Wyzowl).
Lead generation: Content marketing generates over 3x as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less (Demand Metric).
Highest ROI: Email marketing ROI remains high, delivering an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent (Firework).
AI impact: 68% of businesses see an increase in content marketing ROI thanks to using AI (Semrush, 2024).
B2C vs. B2B: B2C content produces 9.7x more shares than content on B2B sites (Backlinko).
Use of AI: 89% of marketers say they use generative AI tools (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Budget growth: Content marketing budget will increase for 46% of B2B marketers in 2025 (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).

97 Content Marketing Statistics

Content marketing is evolving fast. Let’s look at the valuable content marketing statistics for coaches to know in 2026.

Use these statistics to see what’s working right now and guide your strategy.

Content marketing facts

Bar chart showing blogging trends across years comparing average article lengths, highlighting how long-form content has declined among bloggers.

Here are general content marketing stats and some content marketing strategies that work for blogging, emails and social media:

Top content types: The most common content types used by marketers are online articles (94%), videos (92%), product reviews (81%), case studies (75%), and webinars (72%) (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Top content goals: Brand awareness and building loyalty among content marketers are the top goals companies have for their content marketing efforts (Statista, 2025).
Content creation challenges: The most common challenges marketers face include finding ideas for new content (16%), creating content that drives high engagement (16%), and attracting more website traffic (15%) (HubSpot, 2025).
High-quality content: 33% of marketing and media leaders say that creating high-quality content is their biggest challenge (Statista, 2025).
Small business content: 80% of small business owners write content themselves (Semrush, 2025).
Learning new tech: 43% of Gen Z and 45% of Millennial marketers want to advance their content marketing strategies with new technologies.
Interactive content success: 44.4% of those leveraging interactive content report a mildly or very successful strategy (Siege Media + Wynter).
Blog post length: The average blog post is around 1,400 words (Annual Blogger Survey, 2024).
How-to articles: 74% of bloggers create how-to articles (Annual Blogger Survey, 2024).
Image impact: Blog posts with seven or more images generated 55% more backlinks in comparison to posts without images (Semrush).
Blogging statistics: Businesses that blog get 55% more website visitors on average than those that don’t (HubSpot, 2025).
Buyer behavior: Almost 50% of buyers read a company’s blog when evaluating their purchase options (HubSpot, 2025).
Content vs ads: 70% of people would rather get information from blogs than from traditional advertisements (Demand Metric).
Email personalization: 80% of marketers say email personalization improves performance (Litmus, 2024).
Role of social media: 86% of marketers think social media is essential to their overall content marketing strategy (HubSpot, 2024).

Content Marketing Institute statistics

Bar chart showing how marketers use AI for various content strategies, including brainstorming topics, summarizing content, writing drafts, and optimizing content.

Here are some top content marketing statistics published by the Content Marketing Institute:

Team growth expectations: 29% expect their content marketing team to grow in 2025.
Strategy effectiveness: 29% say their documented content strategy is very effective.
Technology in place: 26% have the right technology for content management.
Scalable content model: 35% have a scalable model for content creation.
Desired outcomes: 41% say their model yields desired outcomes.
Performance management: 51% effectively measure content performance.
Demand generation: 74% agree that content marketing generates demand and leads.
Lead nurturing: 62% agree that content marketing nurtures subscribers, audiences, and leads.
Customer loyalty: 52% agree that content marketing grows loyalty with existing clients and customers.
Revenue generation: 52% agree that content marketing generates sales and revenue.

Content marketing ROI statistics

These content marketing stats prove the effectiveness of content marketing efforts:

Organic blog traffic: 85.19% of all blog traffic comes from organic search (Animalz, 2021).
Biggest ROI: 14% of businesses said that their content marketing efforts resulted in the biggest ROI (HubSpot, 2024).
Email marketing returns: Email marketing ROI remains high, delivering an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent (Firework).
B2C success rates: Success is higher among B2C professionals, with 43.3% of B2C content marketers reporting strategy success compared to 32% of those in B2B (Siege Media + Wynter).
Organic channel performance: Across both B2C and B2B, organic channels like email marketing and SEO outperform most inorganic channels in conversion rates (FirstPageSage, 2024).
Lead generation: Content marketing generates over 3x as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less (Demand Metric).
AI ROI boost: Marketers who use AI see an average of 70% increase in 2025 ROI (Kibo Commerce, 2020).
AI impact on ROI: 68% of businesses see an increase in content marketing ROI thanks to using AI (Semrush, 2024).

B2B content marketing statistics

Here are the latest B2B content marketing statistics you should know:

Revenue channel: 49% of US B2B marketers say content marketing is the most effective channel for driving revenues (eMarketer).
Brand awareness: 87% of B2B marketers say content marketing created brand awareness in the last 12 months (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Performance success: 22% say their content marketing is very successful, most of them crediting their knowledge of their audience.
Best content formats: 53% of B2B marketers say case studies, customer stories, and videos produce the best content marketing results (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Content types used: 92% of B2B content marketers use short articles and posts, 76% use videos, and 75% use case studies and customer stories, with videos producing the best results (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Organic content distribution: Most B2B marketers (89%) use organic social media platform channels to distribute content (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Social shares: 2% of articles created by B2B brands result in 75% of social shares of all B2B content marketing (Backlinko).
Blog investment: Over 40% of B2B companies said they plan to increase their use of blogs (LinkedIn, 2024).
Common challenge: 42% of struggling marketers lack clear goals (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Scalable model gap: 45% of B2B content marketers lack a scalable model for content creation (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Measurement challenges: 56% have trouble attributing ROI or tracking customer journeys (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Zero links: 93% of content on B2B sites gets zero links from other sites (Backlinko).
Documented strategy: Less than half (41%) of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy (Gartner).

B2C content marketing statistics

These statistics measure content performance for B2C industries:

Higher social shares: B2C content produces 9.7x more shares than content on B2B sites (Backlinko).
Best content results: 48% of B2C content marketers claim in-person events produced the best results, followed by short articles and posts (47%), videos (45%), and virtual events, webinars, and online courses (41%) (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Distribution channels: The vast majority of B2C marketers used their own company websites (87%), blogs (76%), and email newsletters (68%) among owned-media platforms to distribute content (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Content management tools: The top three types of tools that B2C marketers use to manage their content are analytics tools (81%), social media publishing and analytics (72%), and email marketing software (65%) (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Paid distribution: The top three paid channels that B2C marketers use as part of their content marketing strategy are social media advertising and promoted posts (88%), search engine marketing (SEM) and pay-per-click (73%), and sponsorships (55%) (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Paid methods: 63% of B2C content marketers used paid channels. (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Performance measurement: 82% of B2C content marketers report measuring content performance (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Spending increase: 47% of B2C marketers have increased their spending on content marketing (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).

Video content marketing statistics

Bar chart showing which form of content delivers the highest ROI, including short-form video, images, live-streamed video, podcasts, and user-generated content.

Here are video marketing statistics on consumer behavior and its impact:

Consumer demand: 89% of consumers like more video content from brands in 2024 (Wyzowl, 2024).
Preferred learning medium: 44% of consumers said that a short-form video was their favorite medium to learn about a product or service (Wyzowl).
Retention rate: The average retention rate for videos under one minute long is 66% (Vidyard).
YouTube conversions: 70% of viewers bought a product after seeing it on YouTube (Google, 2020).
Software purchases: 82% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software or app by watching a video (Wyzowl, 2024).
Explainer videos: 91% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service (Wyzowl, 2024).
Global viewing time: YouTube’s Android app users worldwide spend over 10 trillion minutes per month watching videos (DataReportal).
Traffic increase: 87% of marketers say video marketing has helped them increase website traffic (Wyzowl).
Marketer expectations: 84% of marketers claim that results from videos meet or exceed their expectations (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Video types: More than half of marketers use social video videos (77%), branded stories (61%), and how-to videos (59%) in their video marketing initiatives (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Distribution platforms: Marketers report that YouTube (85%), LinkedIn (84%), and Facebook (67%) are the top three social platforms to distribute content (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Traffic boost: Articles with at least one video received 70% more traffic compared to articles without videos (Semrush).
Product awareness: 49% of marketers use videos to tell customers more about their product or service (Vidico, 2024).
Short-form ROI: 21% of marketers say short-form video content delivers the best return-on-investment (ROI) in 2025 (HubSpot, 2025).
Video impact on email: Emails with video have 4-12% higher open rates, and 1-2% more clicks (GetResponse, 2024).

Visual content marketing statistics

These statistics show the importance of visual content in digital marketing efforts:

Infographic investment: 88% of marketers plan to increase or maintain their investment in infographics in 2024 (HubSpot Blog Research, 2024).
SEO strategy: 21% of marketers list using visual content to boost dwell time as a top SEO marketing strategy (HubSpot State of Marketing Report, 2023).
Infographic readership: Infographics are 30x more likely to be read than a written article, and they can increase website traffic by up to 12% (DemandSage, 2023).
Social media infographics: 55% of marketers create social media infographics more than any other visual media (DemandSage, 2023).
Visual content challenges: 43% of marketers say that creating consistently high-quality content is one of the biggest hurdles they face (DemandSage, 2023).

SaaS content marketing statistics

Here are some up-to-date content marketing statistics on SaaS:

Case study success: Nearly 40% of SaaS marketers consider case studies highly successful in increasing sales (Uplift Content, 2024).
Growth and retention: SaaS firms see 35% higher growth and 10% better retention with content marketing (Uplift Content, 2024).
Success rate: 93% SaaS companies achieve content marketing success (Loud Growth, 2025).
Webinar repurposing: A striking 92.31% of SaaS companies that host webinars repurpose the recordings as lead magnets (Digital Silk, 2025).

Future of content marketing

The future of content marketing looks bright with an increase in spending and a positive outlook from the industry:

Budget increase: 38% of CMOs plan to increase content marketing budgets at their organizations (Matter Communications, 2024).
Media leader plans: 45% of marketing and media leaders plan to increase budgets in the next 12 months (Statista, 2024).
Budget stability: 88.2% expect content budgets to grow or remain steady in 2025 (Siege Media + Wynter).
Video investment: 61% B2B marketers expect rising video investments (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Creator investment: 92% of brands said they plan to increase investments in content creators (Adweek, 2024).
Industry revenue: Worldwide content marketing revenue will reach $107.5 billion by 2026 (Statista, 2025).

Explore more ways to improve your marketing as a coach with this guide.

Statistics on AI in content marketing

Look at these AI content marketing statistics to stay relevant:

AI adoption: 89% of marketers use generative AI for content tools (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
AI use: Marketers use AI to brainstorm new topics (62%), summarize content (53%), and write drafts (44%) (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Efficiency: 86% of marketers said using AI helps them save more than an hour on creative tasks (HubSpot).
ChatGPT use: 29% of marketing and media leaders said they use ChatGPT for content-related tasks (Statista).
AI for analytics: 36% of marketers said they use AI for analytics and insights (Ascend, 2024).
Ad hoc approach: Most B2B marketing teams (54%) take an ad hoc or experimental approach to AI (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
AI quality rating: 17% of B2B marketers rate the quality of the content generated by AI as excellent or very good (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
AI guidelines: 38% of organizations have generative AI usage guidelines (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
AI integration: 19% of marketers say that AI is integrated into daily processes and workflows (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Workflow efficiency: 45% of marketers realize more efficient workflows from AI (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).
Content optimization: 42% of content marketers see improved content optimization from AI for content creation (Content Marketing Institute, 2025).

Learn more ways to improve your coaching content with this guide on digital marketing for coaches.

Is content marketing a good career?

Yes, content marketing is a strong career choice. The demand for skilled content marketers continues to grow as more businesses realize the value of content over traditional ads. Plus, the pay is competitive.

Average annual salary of content marketers in the US: $112,000 (Content Marketing Institute).
Freelance vs. full-time employees: Higher at $121,224 (vs. $108,824 annually) (Superpath, 2024).

This reflects the high value companies place on professionals who can attract and convert customers through content.

The rise of AI in content tools also means content marketers who know how to use technology strategically will have even more opportunities.

Companies need people who understand both content strategy and how to leverage AI for content creation without losing the human touch.

Value for Value

Screenshot of EHQ Club showing Liam Austin teaching the High Ticket Offer funnel through video content, with steps like free ticket, low ticket, book a call, and enroll.

Good content takes you on a path of organic and sustainable growth. These content marketing statistics prove that.

Using this marketing data, you can adjust your content marketing strategy to one that works.

Want proven systems to drive your business decisions?

Ground your coaching practice in my 3-Step Blueprint to Become a Highly-Paid Coach.

This free resource boils down the three simple steps that have helped hundreds of coaches land high-ticket deals.

No need to guess and try processes that won’t work for you. This tried-and-tested method helps you scale your business and find your ideal clients.

Help Me Create a Highly Scalable, Highly Profitable Business.

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Liam Austin

Liam Austin is the co-founder of Entrepreneurs HQ and a business mentor who’s been helping coaches, consultants, and experts build profitable businesses since 2015. With a proven 3-step system, he helps clients craft irresistible high-ticket offers, generate consistent leads by leveraging other people’s audiences, and enroll clients with confidence. So if you're ready for more visibility and clients, talk with Liam.