Tag Archives: Infographic

22 Content Marketing Facts And Stats You Need To Know

content-is-king-gThis post from Renee Warren is a bit dated now but it is a perfect walk through of the power of content marketing.

Content isn’t just king. It’s the entire monarchy. Let’s be honest: it takes an entire palace to build the relationships required for your startup to thrive in a competitive market made up of smarmy sales tactics and reluctant consumers.

Relationships rely on honest, relevant, and respectful communication. The content you create and curate as part of your content marketing strategy is your first line of communication. Providing and parlaying valuable information about your product or industry in a way that respects your consumers’ preferences for consumption is the way into their hearts.

Don’t just take it from us. On average, 76 percent of shoppers felt closer and more positive about a company after reading their custom content. Consumers have effectively kiboshed traditional marketing as they have become smarter and more cautious about their buying decisions. Wary of banner ads and spam emails, consumers are opting for and expecting a more personalized buying experience.

Millennials, the bread-and-butter consumers of the tech world and up-and-coming goldmine for retailers, are especially difficult to win over. Not surprisingly, “Millennials are willing to share good advertising, but dislike when advertising feels deceptive.”

More than ever, content marketing is taking its place as the key to building the relationships that connect with and convert your consumers.

So, what does the content marketing landscape look like today? Here’s 22 facts and stats you need to know to gain your competitive edge in the world of content domination, conveniently broken up into four chapters:

The Broad Scope of Content Marketing:

content-is-kingIf you doubt that creating stellar content can really help in your industry, consider this thought from expert Jay Baer: “What matters is that big companies are embracing big content, and in so doing they are changing the expectations of YOUR customers.” Why not lead the charge in your industry? Let’s get an overview of what content marketing is really all about:

  1. Marketers are Spending BILLIONS

Marketing teams were forecasted to spend 135 billion dollars on new digital marketing content this year. [Jeff Bullas]

  1. The More Tactics, The Merrier

B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics — from social media to e-newsletters and video to blogs — with 70 percent currently working on creating more engaging and higher quality content. [Content Marketing Institute]

  1. Email, dead? Hardly!

Every minute users send 204 million email messages, making it the most popular way to share content. [Domo]

  1. Two Words for Traditional Marketing: Slow and Expensive

Content marketing costs 62 percent less and generates roughly three times as many leads as traditional marketing. [DemandMetric]

  1. SEM is the King of Paid Distribution

If you’re looking to spend a few dollars, B2B and B2C marketers rate search engine marketing as their most effective paid method to promote and distribute content. [Content Marketing Institute]

Marketing Trends:

Content Marketing Facts & StatsIt doesn’t take much convincing before startups and small businesses realize that content marketing is a strategy they need to have. Now, where to start in developing the tactics to implement? Let’s take a look at some of the trends readers and prospects have proven true:

  1. We All Live in a Very Social World

There will be an estimated 2.13 billion social network users around the globe by 2016. [Statista]

  1. Marketers Prefer Content Creation

On average, content marketers are dividing their content into three areas: (61%) created, (27%) curated, (12%) syndicated. [Curata]

  1. An Infographic is Worth a Thousand Words

Infographic usage amongst B2B marketers increased from 51 percent last year to 62 percent this year. Here’s why: humans are highly visual learners. Engagement increases by at least 37 percent when copy is accompanied by graphics. [Business 2 Community]

  1. LinkedIn and Facebook Lead in Content Distribution

94 percent of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content, making it the social media platform used most often, while 58 percent of B2C marketers rated Facebook as the most effective marketing platform overall.[Content Marketing Institute]

  1. Social Media is Still On the Rise

All social media platforms experienced some level of increase in usage this year, with Instagram and Google+ gaining the most (raising approximately 17 and 13 percent, respectively). LinkedIn, while still very popular, did not increase. [Content Marketing Institute]

  1. Embrace the Blog

Companies with an active blog generate 67 percent more leads per month.[InsideView]

  1. Inbound Marketing Generates Leads

Inbound marketing delivers 54 percent more leads than traditional outbound marketing. [Jeff Bullas]

Marketing Hurdles:

Customers should not be a roadblockAcknowledging your organization’s biggest challenges can determine the tactics that will work best in your content marketing success just as much, if not more, than knowing its strengths. Here are some of the hurdles being faced in the world of content marketing:

  1. B2B Requires Brand Awareness

84 percent of B2B marketers listed brand awareness as the key content marketing goal for their business, with “lead generation” coming in as a close second. [Content Marketing Institute]

  1. Sad, But True: The Majority of Created Content is Wasted

Approximately 60 – 70 percent of B2B content that is created is never used because the topic is irrelevant to the target audience. [Inbound Writer]

  1. Webpage Views Amount to Mere Seconds

17 percent of pageviews last less than 4 seconds, and a mere 4 percent of pageviews hold a reader’s attention for 10 minutes or more. [Statistic Brain]

  1. Content Marketing Professionals are in Demand

More B2B marketers say they are challenged with finding trained content marketing professionals this year (32%) than last year (10%). [Content Marketing Institute]

  1. More Content Does NOT Equal More Web Traffic

Less than 20 percent of a company’s website content drives 90 percent of its traffic, and only 0.5 percent of a website’s content drives more than 50 percent of its traffic. [InboundWriter]

  1. ROI is Tough to Track

Most marketers have a tough time tracking ROI, with only 21 percent of B2B marketers and 23 percent of B2C marketers listing that they are successful at tracking the return on investment (ROI) of their content marketing program. [Content Marketing Institute]

Measurable Content:

Content and the Sales FunnelSpeaking of ROI… measuring the effectiveness of your content is essential in determining if your marketing and business goals are being met. Easier said than done, but when over 25 percent of an organization’s marketing budget is spent on content marketing on average, measurement is worth a shot. Here’s what’s marketers are doing currently:

  1. Web Traffic as an Indicator of Success

60 percent of B2B marketers use web traffic to measure their success.[DemandMetric]

  1. Marketers Measuring Pageviews Over Duration

69 percent of marketers are using pageviews/unique visitors to measure the success of their content, while less than half are examining the time the user actually spends on the site. [Contently]

  1. Effectiveness Depends on Documented Strategies

60 percent of B2B marketers that have a documented content marketing strategy rate themselves as highly effective, compared to the 32 percent with a verbal strategy. [Content Marketing Institute]

  1. Testimonials = The Bee’s Knees in Content Marketing

Customer testimonials yield an 89 percent effectiveness rating for content marketing. [Jeff Bullas]

Capitalize on Content

Listening to the FutureThis is no bandwagon you need to jump on; no passing fad. Business success depends on successful relationships, and relationships require communication. Content marketing is your in with your customers.

Content marketing has usurped the traditional world of marketing. The most effective content marketers are using the latest statistics to target a clearly defined audience with relevant and consistent content.

Good Selling!

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Share Visual Stories On SlideShare

On SlideShare, millions of people upload professional presentations aimed at engaging more visually-minded thinkers. Sales teams can use SlideShare to drum up interest from their pitch decks. Best of all, SlideShare can be used for free and allows users to easily link to and share live presentations.

Furthermore, instead of sending large PowerPoint files over email, salespeople can link to a SlideShare presentation. This method makes it easier for prospects to circulate the presentation within their team and with other decision makers at their firm. Presentations with high view counts offer an added bonus of social authority, which readers may see as a positive signal about your brand.

Market Your Brand on SlideShare

To successfully market your brand on SlideShare, communications expert Leyl Black outlines five steps.

  1. Provide readers with information they need to do their job better.
  2. Tell a linear and logical story.
  3. Use featured images and compelling visuals to complement your message.
  4. Add a call-to-action, such as a link to related content or a lead generation form.
  5. Promote your presentations.

Good selling!

No Matter How Good You Think Your Customer Service Is, It Could Be Better

No matter what industry you’re in, most companies are constantly looking for a competitive advantage. There is one very powerful tool that most of them overlook. That tool is customer service.

Here’s why customer service is such an opportunity

Better customer service means better salesIn today’s real-time economy, customers have high customer service expectations. Excellent customer service starts with offering a speedy and seamless experience across your support channels. How will your company keep up with demand and deliver great omni-channel support?

This infographic will show you best practices for boosting your customer service on your phone and social media.

Executives and Customer Experience

  • 93% of executives say that improving the customer experience is one of their organization’s top priorities.
  • 91% of executives want to be considered a customer experience leader in their industry.
  • In reality, only 37% of executives have a formal customer experience plan.
  • 20% of executives consider the state of their customer service experience to be advanced.

What Support Channels Are Your Customers Using?

  • 36% phone.
  • 33% live chat.
  • 25% email.
  • 5% online support portal.
  • 2% social media.

What Frustrates Customers Most?

  • Upset customers equals bad business22% being passed between agents.
  • 21% having to contact a brand or organization multiple times for the same issue.
  • 18% not being able to reach a live person.
  • 17% not being able to resolve an issue or find enough helpful information online.
  • 13% impolite customer service agents.
  • 9% being kept waiting on hold.

The Most Important Aspects of an Excellent Customer Service Experience

  • 34% getting the issue resolved fast.
  • 29% resolving the problem on first contact, no matter how long it takes.
  • 27% a friendly, knowledgeable agent.
  • 10% finding the information without help.

Social Media’s Role in Excellent Customer Service

  • Customers who engage with companies over social media are more loyal. They spend up to 40% more with those companies than other customers.
  • When customers reach out to companies on social media, they expect a response:
    • 15% in less than an hour.
    • 46% in 24 hours or less.
    • 14% in 48 hours or less.
    • 25% never.
  • To improve your response times on social media, use tools like Google Alerts and Mention to track social mentions of your company online. You can also manage multiple social media accounts simultaneously from one dashboard so nothing falls through the cracks. Consider tools like Buffer and Hootsuite.

When Customers Call Your Business They Expect:

  • To have their issue handled quickly and effectively.
  • To speak to a person without jumping through hoops.
  • To deal with professional and courteous agents.
  • To have their problem solved correctly the first time.

Common Customer Service Complaints Over the Phone:

Customer service is an opportunity for differentiationProblem #1 – “I keep getting transferred from person to person.” 56% of customers have to re-explain the problem. Here’s how to solve it:

  • Try to answer the question where it was asked: don’t shuffle customers around by telling them to contact you another way. Frustrated customers or those with more complex problems should be helped over the phone or email.
  • Instead of cold transfers, use call center software to conference in a colleague rather than transfer the call. If a transfer is still necessary, use a warm transfer.

Problem #2 – “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” 50% of the time customer service fails to answer customers’ questions. Here’s how to solve it:

  • Address recurring questions or comments with a more thorough response: add the answer to the FAQ section of your website. Write a blog post customers can reference. Chronic problems mays need to be addressed with in-house changes.
  • Use call center software that integrates with your other databases: always know the customer’s entire interaction history.

Problem #3 – “You were impatient and nasty to me.” 70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated. 82% of customers experience bad customer service and were most frustrated by unfriendly or impolite agents. Here’s how to solve it:

  • Show you care: use phrases like “I hear you” or “I’m sorry” when communicating online. Make it personal by allowing the rep to use his or her name in the response. “Don’t just listen; understand.”
  • Engage in active listening: allows for better understanding of the customers’ needs and shows a willingness to help. You can actively listen by allowing the customer to talk without interruption, reflect back their main question or concern and ask clarifying questions when necessary.
  • Ensure the customer is aware you understand them.

Upset customers are bad for businessSocial media is a valuable tool for customer service teams, but it can’t be the only one. Use it in conjunction with solid phone support to deliver excellent customer service, boost customer loyalty and increase your bottom line.

While everyone else is using traditional and expected solutions in an effort gain a competitive advantage, you should explore becoming the customer service leader to grow your sales.

Better Customer Service = More Sales

Best Practices to Boost Your Customer Service Across Channels

Good Selling!

Infographic created by talkdesk.com