How Long Should It Take You to Write a Blog Post? [New Data]

It's no secret that if you want to drive traffic to your website, convert that traffic into leads, and establish thought leadership, you should be publishing blog posts on a regular basis. The more often you blog, the more opportunity you have to drive traffic and leads, right?

But ... when it comes to writing a new blog post, how much of a time commitment are we talking? How long should it take to write a typical blog post?

That's a totally fair question. After all, a lot of marketers are creating content with limited resources. Knowing how long other marketers are spending on a single post can help you benchmark your own blogging efforts.

To help answer this question, we pulled some blogging data from our State of Inbound 2015 report. The SOI report comprises research we collected from 4,000 marketers and salespeople around the globe. We asked how long it typically takes them -- or someone on their marketing team -- to write a 500-world blog post.

This is what we found.

How Long Should It Take You to Write a Blog Post?

According to our research, in every region of the world, most marketers spend 1-2 hours writing a 500-word blog post.

Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the only region where roughly an equal number of marketers are spending either 1-2 hours, 2-3 hours, or 4+ hours on a single blog post.

In Australia and New Zealand (ANZ): The majority of marketers (42%) spend 1-2 hours writing a typical blog post. In the same region, 27% of marketers spend 2-3 hours per post, 17% spend 4+ hours per post, and only 5% spend less than one hour per post.

In Asia-Pacific (APAC): 27% of marketers spend 1-2 writing a typical blog post -- but not far behind them are the 26% of marketers who spend 2-3 hours per post and another 26% who spend 4+ hours per post. Only 11% of folks in Asia-Pacific spend less than an hour writing a blog post.

In Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA): The majority of marketers (35%) spend 1-2 hours writing a typical blog post. In the same region, almost a quarter of marketers spend 2-3 hours per post, 17% spend 4+ hours per post, and 10% spend less than an hour per post.

In Latin America (LATAM): The majority of marketers (32%) spend 1-2 hours writing a typical blog post. In the same region, 21% of marketers spend 2-3 hours per post, 18% of marketers spend under an hour per post, and 12% spend 4+ hours per post. Latin America was the only region where more marketers reported spending under an hour per post than marketers who spent 4+ hours per post.

In North America (NORTHAM): The majority of marketers (38%) spend 1-2 hours writing a typical blog post. In the same region, 29% of marketers spend 2-3 hours writing a blog post, 29% spend 4+ hours per post, and only 8% spend less than an hour per post.

Does that mean 1-2 hours is the "right" amount of time to spend on a blog post?

The question of how long to spend writing a blog post is related to the question of how long your blog posts should be. The answer? As long as it needs to be.

Blog posts should be as long as they need to be to serve their purpose -- whether that's thought leadership, driving leads, explaining a new concept, etc.

Some quick posts could take under an hour to write; others might take several hours if they require you to go really in-depth. The time to write each individual blog posts can vary, but we've found that -- on average -- marketers are spending 1-2 hours per post.

(Want more in-depth blogging tips? Read this blog post for more on how to write a blog post -- complete with blog post templates.)

How long does do marketers on your team spend writing a 500-word blog post? How does that compare with the marketers who responded to our survey? Share with us in the comments.