Say you’re looking for statistics that show a direct return on investment from content marketing. They’re not easy to find. That’s why many marketers cite this Demand Metric stat:
“Content marketing generates approximately three times as many leads as traditional marketing.”
What’s the problem? Demand Metric sells marketing software and solutions. They have an interest in promoting this information. It benefits the company. Before using any statistics, ask yourself, “Are they biased? What did they omit? Do other reliable sources challenge their data?”
Moreover, here’s another issue with the Demand Metric statistic: It comes from an infographic. The infographic lists four sources at the bottom. Only two of the four source links work. None mention that content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing.
Where did the information come from? Who knows?
In addition, the infographic doesn’t include a date. There’s no way of knowing how old the statistic is. The Marketo blog post uses the same statistic from the infographic. Repeating groundless data perpetuates errors.