Content marketing is a long game that requires focus and dedication. And unlike a paid ad campaign with an easy-to-track cost per click, the results can be hard to analyze. Taken together, these factors can lead some people to think that content marketing just isn’t worth it.

But to create enough quality content for a successful strategy, you’ll need a team — and the full buy-in of everyone on it. If you have any hold outs who aren’t quite convinced that content marketing is the way forward, here are 10 stats you can use to make your case!

Content marketing boosts SEO

Focusing on content — and specifically on blogging — creates a huge boost to your website’s search rankings. 

1. Websites with blogs have, on average, 434% more indexed pages than websites without. More indexed pages mean more ways to find your site, more keywords that your site can rank for, and more opportunities to provide valuable content.
2. Sites with blogs have an average of 97% more backlinks to their website. Backlinks build domain authority and indicate to Google’s algorithm that your content is helpful. If you provide a variety of content sources, you’ll increase the number of other sites who will link back to your content.
3. 69% of site visitors use internal links to tell them where to go next. Why is this important? Because the amount of time users spend on your website is a powerful ranking metric. If you have hundreds of pieces of content and a robust web of internal links, your visitors will spend more time following those links all over your site.
4. If the naysayers think that one post a week will be enough, hit ‘em with this one: one study showed that companies that posted to their blogs 16 or more times per month got over three times more site traffic than companies that only posted up to four times per month or less. 

Content Marketing increases lead generation

Getting customers further down your lead funnel is a constant struggle. A robust content marketing strategy is one of the best tools you can use to move prospects one step closer to becoming buyers. 

1. Content marketing can get 3x as many leads as paid search — for the same price. At first, the return will be very low. But with a dedicated and consistent content marketing strategy, the ROI for content marketing can out perform pay per click campaigns. And unlike paid ads, your content continues to draw in leads for you over time.
2. Companies with blogs get an average of 67% more leads per month than companies without. People are reading blogs like never before. In fact, blogs have been voted the 5th most trusted source of information online.
3. Once you get past 20 blog posts, you can expect up to 77% more lead generation than sites with fewer than 20 blogs posts.
4. Again, consistency is key. Companies that published 16 or more blog posts per month got an average of 4.5 times more leads than those who published 0 to 4. 

Content marketing increases conversions

It’s not only about traffic and leads — content marketing boost conversions, too.

1. 71% of B2B buyers read blog content before making a purchase — a 5% increase from 2018. They want to know who your company is and assess your authority in the marketplace before they buy. 
2. And finally, the big one — businesses that use content marketing see a 6x higher conversion rate than those who don’t. Does your team really want to leave that kind of growth on the table?

Content Is King…Get Your Team On Board!

Content marketing is only growing in impact and importance. The most successful marketers are already spending 40% of their budgets on content marketers. And 38% expect those budgets to increase over the next year.

You know that content marketing takes time to work. Since you can’t go back and start three years ago, the next best thing you can do is get everyone on board and start today.