Here is the latest on blogging and blogging results from a survey conducted by Orbit Media, Chicago.
Key Finding about the Blogging Study:
Eighty percent of surveyed bloggers report that their blogs deliver “some results” or “strong results.” The study reported that this was left vague for a reason.
The reason is that the results of a blogging program can vary depending on an organization’s goal. Typically results include increased traffic to a website or a LinkedIn post. It can also refer to more trust building, leads, and sales.
Other Findings include the Following:
What is a blog: Blogs are informational content posted on an organization’s website or on social media. Blogging became popular in the 1990s. As informational content, a blog can be words, videos, interviews, graphics, and images.
Holding Strong: The effectiveness of content marketing, of which blogging is the foundation, has remained strong and steady since 2016.
Time to Write a Blog: The average time to write a blog is four hours and ten minutes. This is 74 percent more time than in 2014. This is because blogs written today are much more SEO focused and are often much longer.
Average Wordcount: While 600 words are still considered a sweet spot for blogging wordcount, today, the average blog is 1376 words long.
Blogging Frequency: In 2016, twenty-five percent of bloggers posted daily. Today, that number is closer to 14 percent. “Bloggers are making quality over quantity decisions,” according to Orbit Media.
What Blogging Content Works:
- How-to-Articles, 76 percent
- Lists and Statistics, 55 percent
- Guides and eBooks, 43 percent
- News and Trends, 43 percent
- Opinions, 38 percent
- Interviews/Interview marketing, 34 percent
Power of Gated Blogs: These blogs require someone to sign in or provide contact information to read the blog. Thirty-five percent in the survey say these are the most powerful blogs in getting results.
Influencers: One hundred percent of bloggers who collaborate with influencers – well-known people in an industry, for example – say they get strong results.
How Bloggers Drive Traffic to a Website: Using social media platforms, improved SEO techniques, email marketing, and paid services or advertising generate the most results from blogging.
Power of Evergreen Content: Evergreen content is long-form content, 2,000 words or more. It is content that stays in style and has proven powerful over time because it has “sticking power.” One hundred percent of bloggers say long-form content gets results.
Recycled Blogs: Seventy-three percent of the bloggers say they recycle their old blogs, updating as necessary and search engine optimizing them.
Original Research: Bloggers who conduct and publish original research are 41 percent more likely to report strong results.
Videos. Bloggers that add videos to their articles get strong results; however, not as many are doing them. The reason cited for this is that videos can be very time-consuming.
The Takeaway: Blogging is effective, but it is getting more challenging. Effective blogging takes more time to create, publish, and promote than in years past.
Source: Orbit Media, Chicago. Based on responses from 1016 active blogging professionals.
Methodology and Data:
- No one was incentivized to take the survey in any way.
- The dataset includes members of Orbit Media’s network, which skews toward LinkedIn users, B2B marketers, and people in the US active in business blogging.
- Responses were gathered in August and September of 2022.
- This is a survey of bloggers (individuals), not companies or brands (groups).
- “Strong results” is deliberately left vague since the respondents and their goals are diverse.
- Data was captured using a simple one-page survey of twenty questions.
Robert Kravitz is president of AlturaSolutions, Which Provides Content Marketing Strategies for the Professional Cleaning Industry. He can be reached at: solutions@alturasolutions.com
