Content marketing: 4 rules that really work

Approximately 70% of the content created by marketing departments is never used by sales departments. And a similar percentage of generated leads (potential customers who have expressed their interest in your product or service) become irrelevant.

The study examined 34 million interactions between customers and content. The result is a good starting point for learning the basic aspects of any content marketing initiative: how much time your potential customers actually spend on content, what devices they use, when and what type of content they prefer.

1. You have less than three minutes to make an impression, and there is an optimal duration of viewing content.

It’s no secret that customers get a lot of different messages every day. This explains why the average time to view content is 2 minutes and 27 seconds. During this short period, potential customers take many hasty actions, including decision to move or not to move to the next step.

Research data also shows that most of company’s promotional materials are viewed by potential customers in their spare time.

If a customer became immediately interested in and read part of the content on Wednesday, he will return on the weekend to study the information more carefully. This reflects the important reality of shopping in the 21st century.

2. Mobile phone is important but overrated.

Extensive use of smartphones, iPads, and other devices has led to a huge belief in the need to create content for people who purchase via mobile phones. But data shows that it makes sense to optimize content for viewing in multiple formats and on various devices.

Moreover, when interested customers become potential customers, the vast majority of them begin to read content on desktop rather than mobile devices.

So focus on creating content that works well in multiple formats.

3. There is no ‘best day’ to publish content.

There are many claims about the best day of the week to publish content. But the greatest day is today.

Instead, it is better to prioritize depending on the level of involvement of potential customers in different types of content and processes that occur with them after the first contact.

For many companies, this often means linking content marketing to the niche, in which your potential customers currently are, and develop suitable approaches to working with them. Distribution of content by niches also works well for sales departments.

4. Potential customers still prefer one type of content over another.

Which type of content is usually the most effective? The one that is viewed to the end. According to research data, thematic content has 83% of full views, much more than other types of marketing materials.

Customers, especially B2B ones, want to know what people do (but not what they can do) with your products.

Content marketing is evolving. If you can’t track what, when, where and how long your potential customers read, it means you have a serious blind spot. And your investment will hardly pay off with this approach.