Audiences are engaging more with longer videos, and you shouldn’t think of all of the “bounces” that show up in your Google Analytics as bad visits. That’s according to two new studies on video and social traffic out today.

Audience tracker Parse.ly and social video builder Wochit both found that content that takes longer to digest is being welcomed by at least some parts of the audience — and Parse.ly noted that there might not be enough supply for the demand. The top 50 percent of visits to webpages tracked by Parse.ly, after excluding visits under 15 seconds, are between 1 and 7 minutes, with 2 percent of those visits greater than 5 minutes. (A visit that lasts past 7 minutes is still rarified air.) On the video side, Wochit found that videos longer than 90 seconds received nearly 80 percent more shares and views than videos of other lengths, in examining the content of hundreds of publishers on Facebook.

• "Thirty-two percent of U.S. tech marketing executives are now delivering new content at least daily if not hourly, according to a study from Dimensional Research and 10Fold Communications made available to Marketing Dive. Additionally, 75% plan on generating 3x more content in 2017 over last year and 42% will spend $250,000 or more on content over the next 12 months.
• Social media, video and webinars were cited as the best content types among all respondents; top execs preferred video as a content type. However, 44% cited lack of subject matter expertise as the main barrier to creating high-quality content.
• Breaking down where the content comes from, 99% of respondents use third parties to create at least 25% of their content; 83% report the third-party content is as at least above average in quality. Eighty percent use basic tools like Google Analytics to track and measure content's impact and 60% use marketing automation software."

A content upgrade is unique to a piece of content. It’s usually tied to a blog post. But there are other types of content you can uplevel with a free resource. Webinars, podcasts, and videos are examples. The point is to enhance the value of your content with this additional resource.

As you can imagine, there are several ways to achieve that.

You can create a resource that helps readers implement what you just discussed. An action sheet, workbook, or toolkit are excellent examples. You can give away something that saves them time, like templates or cheat sheets. The ultimate strategy is to create something that will help them delve deeper into the topic. This is where you give additional strategies, tutorials, case studies, etc.

This step-by-step infographic breaks down how to create a marketing case study into thirteen easy steps from ideation, to format, to measuring results.

Is there a type of content that I can create without investing too many resources but still delivers a memorable message?

A blog is only as effective as its posts. In this Whiteboard Friday, Rand offers six paths you can take to make sure your posts resonate with your audiences.

The biggest blind spot in your sales funnel is not what you think it is. Check out this sales funnel infographic from Prezi to find out exactly what it is.

Pablo

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Google Drive Research Tool

EpicBeat

Biteable

1. HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator

2. BuzzSumo

3. Alltop

4. UberSuggest

5. Google Trends

6. Portent’s Content Idea Generator

7. Content Row’s Link Bait Title Generator

Here are six keys to creating content packages that meet buyers’ time and information needs.

• Offer credible, neutral information. 
• Keep it short. 
• Provide research and benchmarks. 
• Make it practical. 
• Include stories from peers. 
• Ditch the pitch. 

Chart of the day: Case studies, best practice advice and how to guides are the most effective types of content. A recent survey of over 600 B2B marketing p. Marketing topic(s):B2B Content marketing. Advice by Robert Allen.

After analyzing hundreds of SERPs, Rand has identified and classified the 10 distinct content types that work best for SEO. In this Whiteboard Friday, he explains those types and how to use them effectively in your content marketing strategy.

1. Write short paragraphs

2. Keep your sentences short

3. Follow the four-syllable rule

4. Use subheaders

5. Use bullet points

6. Sprinkle in images

7. Add links to external sources

8. Create lists

From the single study, multiple pieces of content have been created, including:

1 report
1 infographic (multiple versions)
10 social-sharing visuals (breakouts from infographic)
2 blog posts
1 webinar
12 banners
It’s a rising-tide approach — leveraging the data into multiple formats lifts not only the findings of the study on interactive content but executes a multi-pronged content marketing strategy.

Discover the most popular types of demand generation content, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to best choose the right offer for your campaign.