Monthly Archives: August 2024

Do you find yourself reading and watching content about your next potential purchase before actually buying it? This is just one of the many ways content marketing has shaped our daily lives. From social media and podcasts to SEO and video marketing, content marketing is a quickly changing landscape. Even after years of being in the game, there’s always something new for us to learn, and at times, this can feel overwhelming. But at the end of the day, our goal is to stay ahead of the curve so that our content is easy to find and useful for our audience. If you’re wondering how to do the same, we’ve compiled the latest content marketing trends, stats, and facts to help you navigate this dynamic field. We will not only share the data but also show you how to take these insights and apply them to your own content strategy. Top Content Marketing Trends and Stats to Watch We’ve broken down the most important trends and statistics into easy-to-navigate sections. Just use the links below to jump to the topics that matter most to your content marketing strategy: General Content Marketing Trends: What’s Happening in the Industry Content marketing is changing fast. Let’s look at what’s new and important to stay updated about the industry. 1. About 47% of buyers look at 3 to 5 pieces of content before talking to a salesperson. In other words, your possible customers are looking for information before they buy. By sharing helpful content, you can get their attention and make them trust you. This is why companies are spending more money on content marketing. Content can be many things like WordPress blog posts, videos, social media posts, emails, or even fun quizzes. If you find content creation intimidating and expensive, well, it doesn’t have to be. When our founder, Syed Balkhi, started WPBeginner, he simply focused on what he knew best: sharing knowledge with fellow WordPress users and small business owners. A simple blog was all it took to get started. Over time, this grew into the largest free WordPress resource site. Maybe you’re great at explaining things in writing – then a blog could be perfect for you. Or, if you enjoy talking to people, you might want to try making videos or starting a podcast. The key is to start small and focus on sharing what you know best. 2. 47% of marketers say that knowing your audience is the most important part of successful content marketing. You don’t want to be making content that no one wants in the first place. That’s why audience research is a step you cannot skip. There are many ways to do this. Talk to your potential customers, ask them questions, and listen to their struggles. You can also look at comments on your social media posts or blog or even send out surveys. If you already have a website, then a tool like MonsterInsights can help with this. You can connect your WordPress site with Google Analytics and track your customer journey and user engagement to see which pages are most popular, how long people stay on your site, and what content they interact with most. This information helps you make content that your customers will like and find useful at every step of their buying journey. You can learn more about the platform in our MonsterInsights review. 3. The top 3 content challenges for marketers are attracting quality leads (45%), creating content faster (38%), and coming up with content ideas (35%). Thankfully, there are a lot of tools you can invest in to overcome these issues. To attract quality leads, OptinMonster is your best option. It’s a tool for running marketing campaigns that can help you turn visitors into leads. OptinMonster has smart features that show your popups at the right time, in the right place, and to the right people. This can help you get more leads from your content. For faster content creation and generating ideas, many people are also turning to artificial intelligence (AI). You can use platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, or ContentShake AI to help you write content and come up with new ideas quickly. To speed up your content creation even more, consider using SEOBoost. It’s a tool that helps you write SEO-friendly content all in one place. You can use it to optimize your existing content based on data-based suggestions and see what your competitors are doing on SERPs. This way, you’re not just guessing what content to create. 4. The top three content performance tracking metrics are website traffic (83%), email engagement (81%), and website engagement (81%). What’s interesting is that metrics focusing on quality and cost are lower on the list. For example, lead quality (44%) and the cost to acquire a lead, subscriber, and/or customer (37%) are near the bottom. This might suggest that not many businesses are tracking their return on investment (ROI) closely. This gap offers a chance to outperform your competitors. Focusing on lead quality and acquisition costs can help you identify which content truly drives value and attracts your ideal customers.  If you want to learn more about how to set this up, check out our beginner’s guide to WordPress conversion tracking. More General Content Marketing Statistics 90% of organizations have a content marketing strategy. The number one goal of content marketing is to raise brand awareness. 54% of companies measure their content marketing ROI. 51% of content consumption comes from organic search. 60% of organizations are focusing on owned media for their content marketing like blogs, newsletters, and websites. 57.2% of businesses report their content marketing strategy as mildly or very successful. The content marketing industry is expected to be worth $600 billion by the end of 2024. Content Marketing Tech Trends: From AI and VR to Voice Search Here are some of the latest marketing statistics that are changing how businesses create and share content. 5. 58% of US marketers said generative AI has boosted their content

Workers who leave the head office to buy a cup of coffee are costing an Australian mining firm too much money, according to its boss. Managing director of Mineral Resources Chris Ellison said during a financial results presentation on Wednesday he wants to “hold staff captive all day long”. “I don’t want them leaving the building,” he said. The head office in Perth has a restaurant, nine staff psychologists, a gym, and other facilities designed to encourage staff to stay in the office. “We have a lot of different benefits that we have brought on,” said Mr Ellison, whose company has a strict “no work from home policy”. “Why have I done that? Because when I get them first thing in the morning, I want to hold them captive all day long. I don’t want them leaving the building. “I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that costs.” He said the rest of the mining industry should “get on board” with his thinking on the benefits of working in the office rather than at home. “The industry cannot afford it. We can’t have people working three days a week and picking up five days a week pay – or four days.” The company culture at Mining Resources also extends to Mr Ellison’s views on parents, with the company building a day-care centre on site big enough for 105 children. “Another reason for them to come in and enjoy work,” he said. “Drop their little tykes off next door. We have doctors on board and nurses who are going to feed them, but mum and dad will be working in our office.” Mr Ellison is not the only boss to enforce a no work from home policy. Last week, the head of London-based smartphone maker Nothing sent an all-staff email to announce the end of hybrid working and a move to fully office-based work. “I know this is a controversial decision that may not be a fit for everyone, and there are definitely companies out there that thrive in remote or hybrid setups,” he wrote in the email. “But that’s not right for our type of business, and won’t help us fully realize our potential as a company.” source

Full-time workers could be given the right to ask their employers to work a four-day week under government plans to increase flexible working. Employees would still have to work their full hours to receive their full pay but could request to compress their contracted hours into a shorter working week, according to plans first reported by the Daily Telegraph. Conservative shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake claimed businesses were “petrified” about the plans. However, ministers insist they will not impose the change on staff or businesses. “Any changes to employment legislation will be consulted on, working in partnership with business,” said a spokesperson at the Department for Business and Trade. They added that the plan for more flexible working was instead designed to increase productivity and help get more people back into work. Currently, employees have the right to request flexible working but employers are only required to deal with requests in a “reasonable manner”. Earlier this year, Morrisons scrapped four-day working weeks for its head office staff following feedback. In order to make the four-day week work, staff had to work some Saturdays, which resulted in complaints and dissatisfaction. In July, Asda shelved a four-day week trial after staff complained that their longer shifts were too demanding. Labour came to power earlier this year promising to make flexible working the default from day one for all workers, except where it was not feasible. Details are expected in the autumn when a law to create a new package of workers’ rights is expected to begin its journey through Parliament. Labour has pledged to repeal some anti-trade union laws, restrict the use of zero-hours contracts and expand flexible working arrangements. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calls the proposals “the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation” and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner argues they will be “good for the economy”. But the Conservative opposition claims the approach would damage business and lead to reduced productivity. “Despite warning after warning from industry, Angela Rayner is pressing ahead with her French-style union laws that will make doing business more expensive in the UK,” Mr Hollinrake said. In 2022, several UK companies took place in a six-month trial to test a four-day working week, which saw workers receive full pay for working fewer hours. Tyler Grange, an environmental consultancy, took part in the trial and in 2023 told the BBC it was sticking with the working pattern. Simon Ursell, its managing director, said the first month of the trial had been “a bit white knuckle”. But the firm said it found the extra day off boosted staff happiness and even resulted in more people applying to work there. However, the experiment did not work for Mark Roderick’s engineering and industrial supplies company Allcap. “As opposed to 10 normal workdays, we found that employees would have nine extreme ones – once they got to their scheduled day off they were exhausted,” he said last year. “Once we factored in holidays, sickness and caring responsibilities, we also struggled to find cover for an employee on their rest day,” he said. source

The total cost of compensation is expected to run into billions of pounds. The amounts are being judged under five criteria – harm caused, social impact from stigma and isolation, impact on autonomy and private life, care costs and financial loss. The first payments will be made to those who were infected, the Labour government has said. Family members and loved ones of those infected will also be entitled to compensation from next year. Outlining the compensation scheme in May, following the public inquiry, the then-Conservative government set out the amounts people could expect to receive., external It said these would be exempt from tax, and would not affect benefits. A person infected with HIV, for example, could expect to receive compensation of between £2.2m and £2.6m. These are average ranges rather than upper and lower limits. Those with a chronic hepatitis C infection, defined as lasting more than six months, could expect to receive between £665,000 and £810,000. Examples of compensation awards for the family members of those infected were also given. The partner of someone infected with HIV who is still alive today, for example, could expect to receive about £110,000, while a child could get £55,000. If their loved one has died and they were financially dependent on them, annual payments would be available. In cases where people who would be entitled to compensation have died, the money will go to their estate. The Conservative government was criticised for waiting until after the publication of the final report to announce the compensation plans. Bereaved families heckled then-prime minister Rishi Sunak in July 2023 when he told the inquiry that the government would act as “quickly as possible”. In late 2022, following advice from the inquiry, the government made interim payments of £100,000 each to about 4,000 surviving victims and some bereaved partners. source

Shares in Nvidia have fallen despite the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant comfortably beating expectations after more than doubling its sales. Nvidia announced record revenues of $30bn (£24.7bn) over a three-month period. The company has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the AI boom, with its stock market value soaring to more than $3 trillion. But while analysts have grown used to Nvidia producing “spectacular” sales growth, the latest results indicate “that rate of growth was starting to slow,” said Simon French, head of research at Panmure Liberum. Analysts had forecast sales growth of $28.7bn for the three months to 28 July. Nvidia surpassed this with revenues increasing by 122% compared to the same period last year. But following the release of the results, Nvidia’s share price fell by 6% in after-hours trading in New York on Wednesday. On Thursday, its shares were down about 2% in early trading, but its stock remains about 150% up so far in 2024, making it one of the big winners in the US market. “It’s less about just beating estimates now,” said Matt Britzman, senior equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown. “Markets expect them to be shattered and it’s the scale of the beat today that looks to have disappointed a touch.” Announcing the latest results, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said: “Generative AI will revolutionise every industry.” But Mr French told the BBC: “If you’re going to raise expectations that high then you’ve got to keep growing at spectacular rates.” He added that while its current AI chip – called Hopper – is selling well, the next generation Blackwell chip “has faced some production delays and that perhaps is one of the reasons why Wall Street after hours sold off the stock”. Nvidia’s results have become a quarterly event which sends Wall Street into a frenzy of buying and selling shares. A “watch party” had been planned in Manhattan, according to the Wall Street Journal, while Mr Huang, famed for his signature leather jacket, has been dubbed the “Taylor Swift of tech”. Alvin Nguyen, senior analyst at Forrester, told the BBC both Nvidia and Mr Huang have become the “face of AI”. This has helped the company so far, but it could also hurt its valuation if AI fails to deliver after firms have invested billions of dollars in the technology, Mr Nguyen said. “A thousand use cases for AI is not enough. You need a million.” Mr Nguyen also said Nvidia’s first-mover advantage means it has market-leading products, which its customers have spent decades using and has a “software ecosystem”. He said that rivals, such as Intel, could “chip away” at Nvidia’s market share if they developed a better product, though he said this would take time. source

Tips and Resources to Help Patients Live a Healthy Lifestyle – Blog – NIDDK  National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)source