Only 13.9% of content marketers report “strong marketing results” from their blog in 2026, according to Orbit Media’s 13th annual Blogging Statistics survey. That’s the lowest figure the report has recorded in 12 years of tracking. For over a decade the number held steady in a 20-30% range, and it just broke out of it.
2026 Blogging Statistics, Orbit Media Studios, September 2026 · n = 1,042
What it means
Orbit Media has asked marketers to self-report blog performance every year since 2014. For most of that run, the “strong results” figure barely moved, dipping and recovering inside the same 20-30% band through algorithm updates, platform shifts, and content trends. 2026 is the first year it dropped clear out of that range.
The timing lines up with the AI adoption curve: usage went from near-zero in 2022 to 92.4% of marketers using AI for blogging this year. But the report’s own data complicates the easy “AI killed blogging” read. Marketers who use AI and marketers who don’t report strong results at the same rate, 14% each. AI is now too common to separate winners from everyone else.
Alongside the drop in strong results, 18.9% of marketers say they don’t know whether their blog delivers results at all, and 14% call their results disappointing. A shrinking minority is confident their blog works, a similar-sized group is confident it doesn’t, and a widening middle in between simply isn’t sure anymore.
Why it matters for B2B marketers
A falling topline number is a reason to check inputs before cutting the channel. The same report finds marketers using six or more of eight tracked strategies (original research, formal editing, paid promotion, and similar) report strong results at nearly 3x the average rate. If your team’s “strong results” answer would be no, audit how many of the strategies that actually correlate with performance you’re still doing before adding more posts or more AI to the mix.