From social media posts to paid search ads to organic SEO, digital marketing specialists have a lot to contend with. Throw AI and other new tools into the mix, and it can make your head spin.
But which aspect of content marketing deserves your undivided attention? I’m sure everyone has a different opinion, but from our perspective, the obvious answer is content.
Content impacts every aspect of digital marketing.
Are you into CRO? You need great content marketing that drives conversions.
Are you an SEO strategist? You need high-quality blog articles, great semantics, and authoritative backlinks.
Everything is content, from images and headlines to social media posts and videos. Even the absence of content is content. It’s no surprise that savvy digital marketing specialists keep content at the top of their to-do lists. But what kind of content gets the best results? To get to the bottom of this, we asked three questions to a group of respondents in the USA, ages 16 to 99, to find out what users actually think. The results may surprise you!
Survey Reveals 3 Insights on How To Create Content Your Audience Will Love, Share, and Convert
1. In your opinion which type of blog content keeps you most engaged?
- Storytelling – Content that draws you in with a narrative or personal journey
- Pedagogical – Structured, educational content that teaches you something step by step
- Experience-based – First-hand insights, case studies, or lessons learned from real situations
- Practical – Actionable tips, checklists, or how-to guides you can immediately apply
2. What motivates you to keep reading a blog post once you’ve started?
- A strong opening that hooks my attention
- Clear structure and easy-to-skim formatting
- Unique insights or expert opinions
- Helpful visuals (diagrams, images, charts)
- Relevant examples or real-life applications
3. What factor most influences your trust in a website’s content?
(Select the most important factor.)
- Author credentials or bylines
- Cited sources and data
- Professional design and layout
- Consistent publishing schedule
- Personal tone and transparency
- No obvious sales pitch or bias
The following insights are here to help you boost your own content strategy to write blogs that engage your audience, keep them reading, build trust, and above all convert visitors into customers. Skip to the bottom to view the complete results.
The Most Engaging Types of Blog Content
The rise of short-form video often makes me wonder if people read blogs anymore.
Our findings show that despite today’s interest in scrolling through reels, people still enjoy reading blogs.
Posts that feature strong storytelling are the most successful, according to 35.19% of respondents. Narratives or personal journeys draw readers into your brand and engage them, which strengthens your connection.
Our survey respondents also appreciate content that offers immediate value, such as actionable tips and how-to guides (31.48% prefer it). This content helps readers get answers to their specific questions while introducing them to your brand and establishing your domain authority.
Content offering social proof, such as case studies and first-hand insights, is most engaging to 18.52% of our survey respondents. Educational material, including step-by-step guides, interests 14.81% of those who responded.
Motivational Factors for Continued Reading
I know people read blogs, but what makes them stay? Most of our respondents like content with a clear organizational structure that’s easy to skim. About 35% of those who took our survey appreciate well-organized content they can understand at a glance.
A strong hook also draws readers, with 25.93% stating they are motivated to keep reading posts after seeing one. The same percentage of respondents are compelled to read a blog post that offers unique insights or expert opinions. So if you want to grab a reader’s attention and keep their interest throughout the post, start with a catchy hook and get down to the details with high-value analysis and thought leadership.
Although visual elements such as charts and examples help break up text and make your content digestible, they are less of a motivating factor that keeps a reader’s attention. Only 7.41% ranked helpful visuals as the main reason they keep reading content. And only 5.56% ranked relevant examples as their top motivator.
Trust Factors in Website Content
I’ve been writing content for a long time, and I understand how important it is to build trust with readers. It’s crucial to back up your claims with facts and stats, and our survey responses confirmed this. More than 33% say credible cited sources and data are the most important trust factors a brand can use in its content.
About 22% value a personal tone and transparency, so it’s still vital to add an authentic human touch in addition to hard data. Other factors that build trust with audiences include author credentials or bylines (16.67%) and professional design and layout (14.81%). Both of these factors communicate your professionalism and attention to detail before your readers dive into the blog.
Interestingly, our respondents aren’t driven away by obvious sales pitches and inconsistent posting. In fact, 11.11% and 1.85% cite these as the most important trust factors, respectively.
3 Insights Showcasing How Digital Marketing Specialists Create Compelling Blogs
As I reviewed these survey results, a few things really stood out to me:
- Storytelling has immense value in blog content. Customers like reading gripping stories that connect them to your brand. Always make sure your content is structured to keep readers engaged.
- Don’t skip the citations. It’s also important to back up your statements with credible sources to build trust with your audience.
- Tailor content to your audience’s preferences. Different messages resonate with specific audience groups. Segment your audience and learn what they value to create impactful content.
If your blogs haven’t been driving the engagement or conversions you need, follow these guidelines to make your content more insightful.
1. Emphasize Storytelling To Enhance Engagement
Effective storytelling draws readers to your brand and builds an emotional connection. People are more likely to remember stories that made them feel something. When you engage readers in a story that resonates with them, it makes a stronger impression.
By telling stories that are grounded in emotion, the best digital marketing specialists cut through the crowd of soulless corporate blogs to write content that connects.
Consider the difference between these pitches:
- “XYZ company offers 24/7 tech support with lower customer wait times.”
- “Before XYZ company, I wasted hours a week on hold for tech support when I could have been helping my customers.”
The second one touches on a pain point (who likes wasting time on hold?) and connects it to what the reader wants.
Integrate personal experiences or fictional scenarios that speak to a potential customer so they can easily visualize how your solution will meet their needs. Enhance engagement with actionable value by combining storytelling with practical advice. This way, you can have the best of both worlds: activate a potential customer’s emotions and their rationality in one piece of content.
2. Build Trust Through Credible Sources and Transparency
A story is good, but to establish yourself as the authority on a subject, you need to back up your claims with stats and facts. Citing credible sources through backlinks or footnotes strengthens your arguments. It can also boost your SEO by establishing your site as a quality search result, which is why digital marketing specialists focus on the T in E-E-A-T.
When you’re presenting facts in blog posts, look for credible studies, data, statistics, and expert opinions that reinforce your authority.
Write in a personal tone, and be honest about any biases or intentions to deepen your connection to your readers. From what I’ve seen, readers value you more for being authentic and open.
For example, clothing retailer Patagonia bucked marketing trends in 2011 when it ran an ad encouraging people not to buy its new jackets. The ad sparked online discussions about conscious consumption and helped solidify the brand’s reputation as eco-friendly.
3. Tailor Content to Audience Preferences
Throughout my career, I’ve learned that understanding your audience is the key to making impactful content.
Our survey highlights how audience preferences are diverse. Understanding your specific audience segments helps you create content that appeals to them based on demographics and psychographics.
Although respondents ranked visual examples lower in terms of what keeps them reading a blog, these tools help break up your text. They also appeal to visual learners and provide context for the blog’s text.
The Best Content Survey Results
Here are the complete results from Odyyc’s original survey in May 2025.
Get the Best Out of Your Blog Content with Odyyc
I hope our content survey has sparked some ideas on how you can make your own content more engaging for your audience.
If you want to use your blog content to build a unique customer journey, Odyyc can help. Our framework strategy models are flexible and adaptable to your audience. We help you enhance the customer journey with data-driven insights on how to distill your core message into compelling blogs.Let us help you incorporate the most successful types of blogs into your digital marketing strategy to create a cohesive user experience. Schedule a zoom today to start creating content that drives traffic.
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