As a result of the scramble to make everything about Big Data, the Internet has become saturated with stats, stats and more stats. There are many kinds of stats: good stats, bad stats, short stats and tall; but sometimes, stats that aren't even stats at all. But seriously, have you ever looked at a big long fact sheet or a boring bullet-point list of stats and just thought: what the heck am I supposed to do with this information?
So we propose an alternative. We've sifted through stat upon stat and found a few nuggets of information that we believe you can use to shape and inform your digital marketing strategy in 2015. Even better, we've jazzed it up into an infographic to make the stats easier on the eyes. Here are 7 Digital Stats To Leave You Pondering:
If you read our year-in-review whitepaper (or are plugged into the industry in any way) you know how fast the digital marketing space evolved in 2014. Well, guess what? We're forecasting more of the same for the year ahead. That's just the reality of the Internet and the job we choose to do. But don't take our word for it, instead, listen to the handpicked stats and facts that we've gathered to help you navigate the complex waters of digital marketing.
For those of us within the industry, it's often difficult to view digital marketing from beyond our little bubble. But the fact is digital marketing is still so young. For some businesses, a website is a new thing. As marketers, most of us would scoff at a company that's just discovering digital marketing, but the real truth is they have every chance to succeed. The news that 71% of companies have planned to increase their digital marketing budgets for 2015 (by an average of 27%) isn't remotely surprising. It's almost an expected industry standard at this point. If you're a marketer, it means better pay, more job opportunities and endless possibilities. If you're a company that hasn't yet ratcheted up your digital marketing budget, there's no better time than the present to start considering it.
This sentence has been on our site for years: "If your business doesn’t have a digital presence in the form of a website, it’s changing people’s perception of your business (and not for the better)." So it's no surprise to us that almost half (46%) of survey respondents say that a website’s design is the number one criterion for determining the credibility of a company. There's no other way to say this: if your website's design, UX and content aren't top quality, you're losing customers. Period.
So you're doing some email - that's great! Email is still an extremely underrated digital marketing tactic (just make sure you're following all the rules). We recently came across a stat that might help you run email campaigns that are even more effective: adding social sharing buttons to email messages causes an increase of click-through rates by more than 150%. That's crazy (and well worth implementing to see if you can't achieve a similar boost)!
Everybody is doing content marketing, but not everybody is good at it (even by their own admission). We came across a stat that found 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing (but only 36% say they are effective at it). Do you know what that sound is? It's an opportunity. If you're a marketer, this means businesses need help with their content marketing efforts. And if you're a company looking for an edge, it means if you focus on high-quality content marketing, you'll get a jump on your competitors.
The world is an increasingly mobile place. We talked and wrote about the importance of mobile marketing a ton in 2014, and that's because we believe it's that important. Look no further than the ridiculous ten-fold increase in mobile commerce that we're in the midst of right now, from $3 billion way back in 2010 to 430 billion by the end of 2016. Yes, BILLIONS.
When it comes to marketing, knowing your audience is as critical as the material you're creating. This is one of the reasons we're so high on creating buyer personas. Women are more social than men, with 49% of adult women visiting social media sites at least a few times per day (versus only 34% of men). So the next time you create a message for social media - whether it's Facebook, Twitter or Instagram - do some research on your audience!
Being on the first page of Google's search engine results pages (SERPs) can be a huge boon to your business because 75% of searchers never even get to page 2. But the flip side of this statistic is that 25% of searchers do go beyond page 1, so it isn't just page 1 or bust (which is something AdaptiveSEO™ embraces, anyway). The long view is your friend when it comes to search marketing success.
That's all, folks! Here's the full infographic and an embed code (please use this code if you plan to use or infographic on your site): 
