Content Engagement Report

Transcription

1 Content Engagement Report Fourth Quarter, % 69 % 18 %

2 Executive Summary The Content Engagement Report is produced quarterly by the Data Science Team at LookBookHQ and is based on real-world content consumption behavior observed across a wealth of data records from our clients each quarter. For data-driven marketers, this report provides unique and valuable insights into the content engagement behavior and preferences of buyers across a broad range of industries. It is intended to be an up-to-date resource for marketers to inform their content marketing strategies, and align their content delivery tactics with the way prospects research and buy today. Modern marketers love data, but it can be difficult to find credible baselines for content engagement, or what happens after a buyer clicks on a content offer. If you re a marketer who believes that your content marketing and demand generation activities, spending and decisions need to be informed and guided by real data, we think you ll find the insights in this report incredibly useful and actionable. The Content Engagement Report is designed to answer the core questions marketers frequently ask, such as: What content types do prospects engage with most? How are prospects consuming content today, through which channels and on what devices? What kinds of content, and sequences of content assets, convert at a higher rate (e.g. earn marketers a form-fill)? How do prospects engage with ebooks relative to Infographics, or videos relative to case studies? Content Engagement Report Q

3 Summary of Key Findings Content Channels PDF Almost 50% of the marketer s content library is YOUR AD One of the most significant factors for comprised of Videos, Webpages and White Papers engagement is the context around how a visitor Prospect engagement by content type in the form of Attention Earned shows an interesting contrast to the types of content prospects prefer compared to those that marketers prefer engagement times with Infographics, for example, are 2X longer than White Papers. starts their content experience. Binge rates (consumption of multiple assets in a session) followed expectations in Q4, with channels like having a 6X larger binge rate than channels like Social where there tends to be a higher proportion of anonymous visitors versus known contacts. Visitors Engagement B2B is still largely a Desktop world, which accounts for about 50% of sessions. Mobile is on a very slow rise, though engagement on mobile devices can look distinctly different: Generally, Mobile experiences are about 1/3 as long as Desktop, though when content is optimized for mobile, engagement can be nearly the same or longer engagement times on average are 63% longer with video content on Mobile. So, for example, for a 5-minute video, this would mean an additional 3 minutes and 9 seconds of engagement on Mobile. Form conversion rates continue to be quite strong and the data shows that, to be most effective, consideration of Channel and where the prospect is in their journey is key. Social had a particularly strong quarter on Desktop for a second consecutive quarter with a 24% conversion rate. Bingeing continues to show increasing returns to scale engagement times for visitors who binge on 3 content assets is more than triple those who only view 1 content asset. Content Engagement Report Q

4 Content Type Analysis Content is at the core of everything marketers do to educate and inform buyers and accelerate purchase decisions, so let s start by looking at the composition of the marketer s content library. Video, Webpages, and White Papers continue to account for almost 50% of the marketer s content library. Content Engagement Report Q

5 Visitor Device Analysis Devices (1 of 2) In a multi-screen world, the device plays a key contextual role in content experiences, though business-tobusiness (B2B) is a unique segment relative to global trends. Both Mobile and Desktop continue to vie for dominance, having an equal share of about 47% in Q4. Tablet saw a minimal gain (+2 percentage points). Content Engagement Report Q

6 Visitor Device Analysis Browsers (2 of 2) Closely related to device type is the web browser used. Unlike device type, web browser stats in B2B more closely follow global trends. Google Chrome remains the dominant browser of B2B prospects (47%), though it has lost some share this quarter with Safari gaining some overall share (19%). Internet Explorer/Edge stands out as the exception, being used 4X more in the B2B space (21%) relative to its global share (5.5%). Source: Content Engagement Report Q

7 Visitor Engagement Analysis A key behavior of prospect engagement is content bingeing how much content a person engages with in a session. This engagement is also a significant indicator of sales readiness. Here, we take a snapshot of visitor engagement by looking at the high-level breakdown of content bingeing, by channel. Organic Search (35% binge rate) and (30% binge rate) continue to be the strongest channel for content bingeing: - Of those who binged on multiple assets, about ½ viewed two pieces of content, and ½ viewed more than two this is a robust stat that is consistent across channels. Reading from left to right highlights which channels are more likely to exhibit content bingeing behavior, and the data is in line with our expectations: a known channel like has a higher binge than a less known channel like Social. Content Bingers Content Engagement Report Q

8 Engagement Analysis by Device Type session duration: a measurement of the session by total time (minutes/seconds) Going further into the devices visitors used to engage with content, we look at the duration of prospect engagement between the fundamentally different mediums of desktop, tablet and mobile. Following expectations, the data shows that average time spent engaging with a content experience is shorter on mobile than on desktop (3X longer sessions on desktop). Content Engagement Report Q

9 Engagement Analysis by Inbound Channel For marketers, it s critical to deliver your content where your prospects are. Channels provide information of the context around how prospects launch into content experiences, or the doors they enter to engage with content. How do engagement times stack up across channels? It is interesting to compare this with content bingeing rates across channels. Social maintains its surge in engagement duration in Q4 with the longest average engagement times of all channels, and growth in the number of sessions (almost 2X the number of sessions than Q1-Q3 combined). Display did not continue the impressive engagement duration it had in Q3, though it still fared well compared to the first half of 2016 with 2X longer engagement duration compared to Q1. Content Engagement Report Q

10 Form Conversion Analysis Form Conversion Rate = # of sessions with forms submitted # of sessions with forms displayed x 100 Here, we look at form conversion rates (CR) across the dimensions of device and channel. Desktop strongly leads for form conversions, performing 4.5X better than mobile and tablet. Display sees many more forms relative to the first half of 2016 and also has strong conversion. Content Engagement Report Q

11 Binger Analysis by LookBookHQ Content Experience Type To better explore prospect behaviour, we look at baselines of engagement (time and views) for content bingers only. binge: a binge is viewing more than one content asset within a single session (2+ content views) More marketers are utilizing the Flow Content Experience, which is now the most popular LookBookHQ Content Experience in the second half of 2016 with more sessions in Q4 than both Q1 and Q2 combined. Grid Experience surges in bingeing content consumption, almost doubling Q1. The data shows that prospects spend more time in a Pyramid Content Experience but view less content. Content Engagement Report Q

12 Engagement Analysis by Content Type All content is certainly not equal when it comes to engagement. Understanding prospect engagement by content types is a primary data point to consider when developing or revising your content marketing strategy, measuring content ROI and aligning your content with the buyer s journey. To benchmark engagement by content type, we use the data to separate content types into buckets of Attention Earned, determined by the engagement times (the time prospects spend reading or watching) for the various content types. The average time spent with Blog Posts is 1.9X longer than White Papers. It is interesting to note the contrast between Attention Earned from a visitor with the Attention Demanded by a marketer: How long do we expect visitors to engage with an Infographic, and how long do they actually spend? Content Engagement Report Q

13 Engagement Analysis by Asset Type and Device Type Putting the findings of devices and content types together, we explicitly compare engagement with content types between mobile and desktop a mobile-optimized content type is one influential aspect, but it doesn t always explain the full picture. Videos are one of the content types that is most consistently optimized for mobile devices, and average engagement with videos on mobile is about 1.6X longer than desktop. Surprisingly, engagement time for e-books was 1.8X longer on mobile than desktop. Content Engagement Report Q

14 Engagement Analysis by Session Length session length: a measurement of the session by number of content assets viewed How do engagement times for content bingers compare to those who don t binge? How much more engagement time do we see for each additional content view? Content bingeing shows increasing returns to scale, which is to say the time spent with 3 content assets, for example, is more than triple the time spent with 1 content asset; content bingers don t just view more content, they often spend more time with content as well. Content Engagement Report Q

15 Retention Analysis by Sequence Position retention rate (RR): a metric (%), which is the complement of the exit rate (ER) RR = 1 - ER Here, we look at engagement, paying attention to the sequence of a content experience or the order in which different content assets are presented to a prospect. We compute a Retention Rate to uncover the likelihood that a visitor will view more content. The likelihood of a visitor continuing to engage in a content experience increases as they view more content. The Retention Rate of bingers is larger at each point relative to the average represented by the green curve which is the average from the first half of Content Engagement Report Q

16 Retention Analysis by Content Type Another angle on Retention Rate is: How does the propensity to binge on content look when we consider content types as opposed to sequence? On average, are prospects more or less likely to continue consuming more content based on the type of content they re viewing currently? The bars show the Retention Rate for the current quarter and the points show the annual Retention Rate. Based on the depth of information they re engaging with, prospects may continue to consume more content. - Of note is the inverse relationship between the average time spent for a content type and its retention rate. Content Engagement Report Q

17 LookBookHQ builds software that accelerates B2B purchase decisions. By delivering more of the content people need about you and your products or services whenever and wherever they click, the LookBookHQ Intelligent Content Platform helps marketing & sales organizations educate prospects and customers faster and more efficiently. With attention at a premium, we use Content Science to make it easier for the right people to get the right content when they need it so that you drive revenue. Make Every Moment Matter LookBookHQ Inc. All rights reserved. The LookBookHQ logo is a trademark of LookBookHQ Inc. All other product and company names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. LookBookHQ assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies in this document. LookBookHQ reserves the right to change, modify, transfer or otherwise revise this publication without notice.