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Blogging Stats: What We Learned in 2017 And How Blogs Will Change in the Future
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NOVEMBER 2017
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Can you believe it? It’s almost 2018! 2017 proved to be a year filled with changes both in politics and in the virtual world. Content marketers faced new challenges as myriad social media platforms added a host of new features and shoppers demanded better visuals to accompany text.
Although other forms of content are rising in popularity, blogging is still the preferred choice for businesses.
So, how was blogging in 2017? What trends can be incorporated in your strategy for content marketing for 2018? Well, thanks to statistics published in Vertical Measures, we’ve rounded a list of four key findings and interesting statistics that made head waves in 2017:
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Bloggers Spend More Time Creating a Blog Post
In 2014, bloggers typically spent two and a half hours creating a blog post. In 2017, the average time rose to three hours and 20 minutes. Translation: Writers are spending more time crafting high-quality blogs.
Also an interesting trend that emerged from collating this data was that there was a significant rise in the number of bloggers who spent more than six hours crafting content. And the same bloggers reported better results for their efforts.
Takeaway: Quality always wins. Spend time in your content marketing for 2018 creating each blog post rather than rushing to create three mediocre posts. The more time you spend on creating content, the better results it will have. Moreover, add ample visuals, videos, illustrations, graphics, social media embeds and smaller chunks of text. This is the best way to garner organic traffic to your website.
Consistency is Key
Okay if you’re spending more time crafting high-quality blog posts, what do you think this will directly affect? The frequency of your posts. That’s right: The more time you take to create valuable content, the less frequent your posts will be.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Publishing several blogs a month is the way to go. Not several blogs a day or only once a month. In 2017, most scribes published a couple of blogs every week. Specifically, on an average, 2-6 posts per week. The interesting statistic here isn’t that frequency is down. It’s that writers were consistent.
Takeaway: Your strategy for content marketing for 2018 should include publishing high-quality blogs consistently. A few times a week works best.
Paid Promotion is Rising
Fact: Every single content creator on the Internet is using social media platforms to promote their content and products. It’s a no-brainer now. You must use social media. What’s interesting is that paid promotion is rising in popularity amongst bloggers.
In fact, there was an almost 5 times increase in the use of paid promotion from 2014 to 2017.
Which form of paid promotion is most popular, you ask? The answer: Influencers.
Bloggers are increasingly collaborating with influencers and tapping into their loyal audience to sell their products. Influencer marketing is going to be big in 2018.
Influencers have already build an army of loyal and trusting followers so why should you spend money on building one from scratch? Just use their sphere of influence to get your products seen by potential customers. Also, influencers get to recommend tried and tested products to their fan-base. It’s a win-win.
Moreover, bloggers who used paid promotion also claimed to be happy with the results. That’s not surprising since paid promotion comes with measurable results and reports.
Takeaway: While making your plans for your content marketing for 2018, consider using paid promotion as a means to get your products and content noticed. Consider hiring an influencer to do this.
Measuring Blogs Improves Content Marketing Strategies
In the end, blogging is a part of a company’s marketing strategy and all marketing strategies must be measured for effectiveness. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that bloggers are increasingly accessing and checking analytics to see if their content is giving strong results.
Measuring the effectiveness of blogs ensures that you can tweak your content marketing strategies. The result is that bloggers who use analytics to alter their strategies reported producing better results in 2017.
Takeaway: If you haven’t started measuring the effectiveness of your content, now is the time to do it. You’ll know which blogs are performing better, what type of content ideas your audience likes to read and what you can improve on if you start using Google Analytics.
Use the above findings to shape your content marketing for 2018. As the year changes, so should your strategies and plans. What worked in 2017 may not work in 2018. It’s time to analyze what you did in the past, draft plans and formulate proven strategies to propel your business to loftier heights in 2018.
Goodbye 2017. Hello 2018!
If you’re looking for a dedicated content creation team to handle all your blogging needs, Iris Content is here to serve! We offer numerous writing and editing services that are guaranteed to align with your business needs. To make the most of our services, check out our super cool 2017 Holiday Packages.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”50px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”2″ padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding=”50px|||” custom_padding_tablet=”30px|||” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet”][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_2″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”groove” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on” /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Annie-Iankogg.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”right” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” border_style=”solid” _builder_version=”3.0.74″ show_bottom_space=”on” /][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_team_member name=”Annie Ianko” position=”Chief Content Officer” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https://www.facebook.com/IrisWebContent/” twitter_url=”https://twitter.com/Iris_Content” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,.1);||” _builder_version=”3.0.74″]
Annie has 20 years of experience as an editor and content creator and manager. With work in television and written media, she has dedicated her past 10 years to learning the ropes of online content creation, from writing to editing, from SEO to content management.
If you need a professional to handle all your content during the hectic festive season, Iris Content is launching a few holiday packages that you can take advantage of. Reach out to us and we will help your business shine this holiday season!
Contact Annie to learn how you can take advantage of our holiday packages.
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