Data Driven Insights into Content Marketing

May 2016www.buzzsumo.com

3XE Digital

Steve Rayson@steverayson

steve@buzzsumo.com

Data Insights ToCreate Better Content

What content goes viral?What is everyone reading?Right now…

Elements of Viral Content

1. Surprise People(938,000 shares)

2. Leverage A Trend

1.5m shares & 400,000 comments

3) Inspire people1.4m shares

4) Picture List Posts522,000 shares

5) Exploit Cute Animals & Babies

683,000 shares

6) Be Amusing

1.4m Shares

7) Be Controversial

8) Quizzes3.9m shares

9) Tell Them The Secrets Of Success127,000 shares

Viral Headlines

Elements of Viral Content

B2B Content

B2B Content Shares

Content Median Shares

Top 5 Marketing & Technology Sites(Incl Moz, SME, Techcrunch)

803

95 Popular Marketing and Technology Sites(Incl Hubspot, Buffer, Search Engine Land)

106

Hubspot B2B Customer sites (127,000 articles)

22

1m Random articles 8

Distribution of B2B Content Shares (100 top sites)

Only 4% (4,500 of 114,000 posts) got more than 3,000 shares.

Social Networks

B2B Shares By Network (100 top sites)

Short Form v Long Form

However…..

45 of top 50 most shared posts less than 1,000 words

81 of top 100 most shared posts less than 1,000 words

Big opportunity for quality, short form content

IFL Science

Short posts using a single image, chart or video to get a concept across.

What Formats Work?

List Posts

30% of all B2B posts with more than 3,000 shares.

List posts beginning with 10 averaged 6,398 shares List posts beginning with 5 averaged 5,214 shares.

‘How To” posts

‘How To’ Posts

15% of top posts were “how”, “how to” or “ways to”

Be The Best Answer

Over 1,000 links from over 640 domains

Forbes “What is content marketing?” 50 links

What works on Facebook?

Lessons from 1 Billion Facebook Posts

Thank you.

BuzzSumo.com@steverayson