The latest
blogging statistics
and trends in 2022

Blogging and content marketing in 2022

Chapter 1

Business blogging statistics

Chapter 2

The anatomy of a successful blog post

Chapter 3

Blogging Continues To Be A Crucial Marketing Tactic

Conclusion

KEY FINDINGS

9 out of 10 marketers use blogging in their content marketing strategies.
82% of marketers use content marketing in their marketing efforts.
3 out of 4 marketers have a content marketing strategy.
The average blog post took close to 4 hours to write.
In 2020, the average blog post was 1,269 words.
The content marketing industry is worth $412.88 billion.
68% of bloggers use SEO to drive traffic to their blog posts.

CHAPTER 1

Blogging and Content Marketing in 2022

The content marketing industry is worth $412.88 billion.

Content marketing isn’t a new notion. Though it has been used for over 250 years, content marketing wasn’t considered a crucial marketing tactic. The oldest track of content marketing was in 1732 when Benjamin Franklin published the yearly Poor Richard’s Almanack intending to promote his printing business.

However, the rise of the internet made content a buzz in the world of marketing.
Researchers predict that content marketing will enjoy an annual growth rate of 16% in the next five years.

Content marketing is predicted to be an industry worth $412.88 billion by 2021.

64% of marketers want to learn how to build a better content strategy

72% of marketers say content marketing increases engagement

Why marketers use

lower costs than
traditional advertising

an increased
conversion rate

helps to build
brand awareness

The current state of the blogosphere

One in two websites is a blog

In 1991, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, launched the first world-wide-web website. By the end of the world-wide-web first decade, over 36 million sites were on the internet, a 360% increase in five years. Today, 30 years later, there are over 1.9 billion websites.

As a result of the world wide web, in 1994, Justin Hall created his personal website, giving birth to the blogging industry. While in 1999 there were only 23 blogs, the number reached 2 million in 2004. With a soaring exponential growth during the 2000s, blogging became a popular form of media for individuals and businesses. Today there are over 600 million blogs online, which means one in two websites is a blog.

80 blog posts are published every second

With 600 million blogs online, there are 2.5 billion blog posts published every year, which counts for over 208 million blog posts published every month.

Over 6.9 million blog posts are published on any given day, which translates to 4757 blog posts every minute.

Number of blogs published every year

0 Billion

Number of blogs published every month

0 Million

Number of blogs published everyday

0 Million

Buyers use blogs to inform themselves of their purchasing journey

In the new media age, with information under our fingerprints, it is easy for a buyer to research on their own before making a purchase. That is partly the answer to why the content marketing industry boomed at the beginning of the 21st century.

As research before buying becomes more common, people are being aware of the content preference that suits their needs. Among various content formats, blogs continue to be a favorite choice by consumers.

6 out of 10 buyers value blogs at the early stages of their buying journey

People consume several contents for different stages of their buying process. However, blogging continues to be a favorite format for early purchasing stages.

As early stages are more informative, consumers prefer to engage with shorter assets such as blogs. In 2019, 6 out of 10 consumers said they read blogs during the early buying stages.

1 out of 3 consumers find blogs helpful in the middle stages of buying journey

As consumers progress in their buying process, they change their content consumption preferences. At mid-stages, they prefer content that is more interactive, such as webinars and video content.

However, they still value blogs in this stage, as they can provide more in-depth information to help with their purchasing decisions

6% of buyers use blogs to get information for the late stages of purchasing journey

In the late stages of purchasing, consumers are usually focused on receiving detailed information for their purchasing decision. Usually, they opt-in for white papers, podcasts, and video content before making a decision.

Yet, even in this stage, they continue to rely on blogs to get the information they need before buying.

CHAPTER 2

Business Blogging Statistics

The effectiveness of content marketing and its low costs made content marketing a marketer’s favorite. Today, most marketers use some form of content marketing in their marketing strategies.

With more focus, content marketing brings better results. Recent reports show most businesses with a documented content marketing strategy enjoy higher success rates.

While marketers employ various tactics in their content marketing efforts, blogging continues to be a favorite. A scalable and cheap tactic, blogging helps marketers to increase brand awareness, generate more leads, and receive more inbound links.

How are businesses using content marketing?

82% of marketers use content marketing in their marketing efforts

Content marketing is becoming an integral tactic for marketers due to its low costs and potential to generate many leads. In 2020, 70% of marketers reported using content marketing. The use jumped to 82% in 2021.

The jump comes from the pandemic, forcing marketers to grow businesses and brands through online channels.

1 in 3 marketers say their content marketing efforts are effective

Marketers are investing a lot of resources in content marketing, but only because it is effective.

In 2021, 85% of marketers said their content marketing efforts bring results, with 33% saying their content marketing efforts are effective or very effective. This comes as a 5% increase from the previous year.

3 out of 4 marketers have a content marketing strategy

While marketers are using content marketing, not everyone has a content marketing strategy. In fact, in 2021, only 42.5% of marketers say they have a documented content marketing strategy.

A documented content marketing strategy is crucial as it streamlines processes and maximizes ROI. This is also reflected in numbers, where 60% of marketers who say their content marketing efforts are effective have a documented strategy, compared to 20% of least successful marketers.

of marketers use blogs

0 %

higher ROI from blogging

0 x

Marketers use blogging because it scales easily as well as generates more results. In fact, blogging results in a 13 times higher ROI compared to other content marketing tactics.

9 out of 10 marketers use blogging in their content marketing strategies

Blogging continues to be a favorite content marketing tactic, with 88% of marketers saying they use blogs. This constitutes a 15% increase from eight years ago.

Businesses that blog have

more leads

more visitors

The Anatomy of a Successful Blog

Bloggers changed their behaviors over the years. In the early days of blogging, bloggers published shorter posts, spent less time writing, and published more often.

However, in recent years the blogging trends changed. From search results to backlinking to answering audience questions, longer content performs better. Better results from longer content pushed bloggers to invest more time writing in-depth pieces. Among other things, successful bloggers now understand visuals play a crucial role in the success of their posts. Nowadays, most blog posts include at least an image.

Here’s a detailed rundown of how successful blog posts look like in 2021

The Optimal Length of a Blog Post

In 2021, the average blog post is 1,416 words

In the early days of blogging, bloggers wrote shorter pieces. In 2014, the average blog post was 808 words. However, over the years, the public started to show a preference for longer content. In longer blog posts, you can read more in-depth information on the topic. That’s why longer content performs better.

The blog post length jumped by 57% in six years, with the average blog post in 2021 being 1,416 words.

Blog post length

3,000 words blog posts generate 77.2% more backlinks than shorter blog posts

Blogging continues to be a favorite content marketing tactic, with 88% of marketers saying they use blogs. This constitutes a 15% increase from eight years ago.

To give the site a better authority and increase the chances of others linking back to the blog, bloggers focus on writing longer, and in-depth blog posts.

How much time do bloggers spend writing blog posts?

In 2021, the average blog post took close to 4 hours to write.

As the average length of blog posts increased, so did the time bloggers spent writing it. In 2014, on average, it took 2 hours and 24 minutes to write a blog post. Now that number has increased to almost 4 hours. The change in writing time results from bloggers focusing on delivering comprehensive content rather than posting often shorter pieces.

1 in 5 bloggers spend 6 hours in a blog post

The blog post length jumped by 57% in six years, with the average blog post in 2020 being 1,269 words.

Time spent on a blog post in 2021

Blogger’s publishing habits

In 2020, 22% of bloggers published weekly on their blog

As the length of blog posts increased, the number of posts published decreased. It makes sense as bloggers focused more on publishing quality content rather than publish frequently.

In 2014, half of the bloggers published weekly or 2 to 6 blog posts per week. Now 22% of bloggers publish weekly, with the other 22% publishing several times per month and 17% publishing 2 to 6 posts per week.

Publishing frequency of bloggers in 2021

Morning is the best time to publish blog posts

Hubspot analyzed the performance of 170,000 blog posts to find out the best time to post on your blog. According to the data, mornings (except Saturday and Sunday) are the best time to get more views in your blog.

In contrast, publishing in the morning during the weekend brings you higher engagement.

Blogging growth tactics

In 2020, 9 out of 10 bloggers added
images in their posts

Visuals have become an integral part of blog posts as it is proven to bring better results. In 2020, images continued to be a favorite media format for blog posts, with 90% of bloggers adding at least one. 1 in 4 bloggers are adding videos to their posts, an increase of 11% from 2014.

However, 39% of the bloggers who reported strong results said they had ten pictures in their posts. This shows that the more visual your post is, the better chances the blog post performs.

Content with relevant images get
94% more views

Pictures, videos, and other visual content increase the results of your blog posts. A Backlinko case study showed visuals generate more backlinks. More than that, visual content boosts the number of views by 94%.

This exists because we have a higher retention rate for visuals than for text. Visuals are an effective way to transmit information faster and are digested easier by the brain. That’s why our long-term memory remembers better visual content.

6 out of 10 marketers said updating content is the most efficient content marketing tactic

In 2020, marketers said repurposing and updating content is one of the most efficient marketing tactics. The content update helps businesses to save on content creation costs. While repurposing the content helps companies reach wider audiences across different platforms.

Most efficient content marketing tactics

At the same time, content update is an effective tactic for SEO, helping organizations to rank higher in search results. Vox made an internal experiment updating 88 old articles. The results came with over 500,000 new page views.

Social media and SEO are the main tactics to drive traffic to blog posts

The job of a blogger doesn’t stop after they write and publish the blog post. Promoting the content is another factor determining the success of the blog post.

More than 94% of bloggers relied on social media to promote their blog posts for over six years in a row. Social media is widely used because it is easy to use, and among numerous social media platforms, you can easily find and connect with your audience.

SEO also proves to be an effective tactic, even though implementing SEO requires more skills. In 2021, 68% of bloggers said they use SEO tactics, the most common keyword research. However, bloggers use SEO mainly to increase search engine traffic.

Tactics bloggers use to drive traffic to blog posts

Key Takeaways: Blogging Continues To Be A Crucial Marketing Tactic

As we see from the data above, content marketing and blogging experienced an upward trend in the 21st century, and they have no intention to stop. Why? Because they are proven marketing tactics that bring results.

Content marketing has fewer costs than traditional marketing–compare how much brands pay to produce and distribute a TV commercial with how much a company spends to run a blog on their website. Recent reports show content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing. At the same time, content marketing generates three times more leads for each dollar they spend compared to traditional marketing.

Content marketing is not preferred by marketers only. On the contrary, content marketing took off because it was convenient for consumers. The public trusts more a brand’s blog than their advertisements showing on TV. 80% of consumers prefer learning more about a brand or business through blogs rather than ads.

With the pandemic forcing our communication to migrate to the digital world, content marketing and blogging will continue to play a substantial role in reaching audiences. However, the tactics and formats content marketing and blogging follows may change along the way.

The latest blogging statistics and trends in 2022