As the Internet and how people use it evolves, so does the way you are marketing. And while a machine learning consultant can help with the more sophisticated parts of marketing, you can also make huge improvements by changing your content marketing efforts. The new stats of 2017 will help you see exactly what you need to do to up your content marketing game.

How often should you post?

The stats are in, and there is definitely a correlation between a blogger who posts more content on a regular basis and the positive results they want. Interestingly, reports show that while a couple of years ago businesses would post at least once a day on their blog, now it is more common to post closer to once a week or a few times a month. However, the bloggers who are professionals are still posting more than once a day and are getting fabulous results. The key here is that your content needs to be high-quality, and if that means you can only post a couple of times a month, then leave it at that. But if you can produce multiple posts a day that are all high quality, then do it. You will yield better results for high quality content.

A note on quality content

About 49% of bloggers who said they spent 6+ hours on an article reported strong results from that particular article. It is important to note that spending quality time on an article has become more common as the average amount spent on an article has increased from about 2 hours to 3 and a half hours.

How to market the content

So, you’ve written an amazing article that people need to see, and you know once they see it, they’ll be hooked. Now how do you get that information to them? Here are the most effective ways of marketing the content and how many bloggers reported using them:

• Social media (95.9%): If you are not on social media, get on it. It is an extremely effective way to get customers practically for free and to stay in close contact with them.
• Influencers (25.4%): While fewer bloggers are actually using this method of marketing, those who do are producing very strong results. It works, and you should focus on it.
• Paid services (20.6%): Bloggers are also reporting very strong results from paid services, and it is expected that this number will increase significantly in the coming years.

Check your results

Only 32.2% of bloggers are always checking their analytics reports to determine how effective their marketing is. They are also the same bloggers who are getting strong marketing results. If you aren’t checking your analytics, how are you supposed to know if your efforts are effective? If you don’t have analytics set up at all yet (5.5%), it’s time to get started and checking it all the time to determine what you need to change and what you are already doing right. It will go a long way in helping steer your efforts for your specific audience.

Ultimately, content marketing is still an extremely effective way of reaching current and new customers, though you need to focus on providing high-quality posts. If your blog is something people want to read, then you’ll have more effective marketing.