50 Mind Blowing Facts Most Digital Marketers Don’t Know

Marc Howard lives and breathes digital growth strategies and shows other digital entrepreneurs and small-medium sized business owners how to grow their online business, generate more traffic and turn visitors into leads. He shares the strategy and the mindset at http://whenyouliveinthenow.com. He published this insightful post about a year ago but it remains timeless.

50 Mind Blowing Facts Most Digital Marketers Don’t Know

Do you consider yourself to be one of those in-the-know digital marketers? Are you just starting as a freelancer or entrepreneur that’s looking for a bit of insight or do you consider yourself already an expert?

Well some of the facts below may be a major awakening. No matter what your area of expertise you may be amazed by some of the stats below.

The one thing that you will notice however in each of these facts is that they are full of opportunity to either improve your existing marketing strategy or seek out a new channel (hint: using a video to promote your product or service is on the rise this year like never before).

The Power of Video for Content Marketing

  1. The average human attention span is 8 seconds. The average attention span of a goldfish is 9 seconds. Source: Wikipedia
  2. Our brains process images 60x faster than text. Change-up your text-to-image ratios and choose images that tell your story. Source:3M Corporation
  3. 80% of your online visitors will watch a video while 20% will actually read content. Source: Digital Sherpa
  4. 75% Of Users Visit The Marketer’s Website After Viewing A Video. Source: Digital Sherpa
  5. 45% Of Viewers Will Stop Watching A Video After 1 Minute & 60% By 2 Minutes. Source: Insivia
  6. Videos Increase People’s Understanding Of Your Product Or Service by 74%. Source: Digital Sherpa
  7. Using video on landing pages can increase conversions by 86%. Source: Unbounce.com
  8. Up to 60% of all email recipients regularly turn off images. Source: MarketingLand.com
  9. Your Website Is 50 Times More Likely To Appear On The First Page Of A Search Engine Results Page If It Includes Video. Source: Digital Sherpa
  10. Adding video to your email campaigns can increase click rate by 300%. Host your video online and create a thumbnail play button for your email. Source: Wistia
  11. Website visitors are 64% more likely to buy a product on an online retail site after watching a video. Source: Digital Sherpa

How To Leverage Social Media

  1. Facebook post with photos get 53% more likes, 104% more comments, and 84% more click-throughs. Source: KISSMetrics
  2. Facebook posts with questions get 100% more comments. Source: KISSMetrics
  3. Tweets that specifically ask followers to “retweet” receive 12x more retweet rates than those who do not. Source: BufferApp
  4. 16% of marketers plan to increase efforts on Pinterest in 2015. Source: Business2Community.com
  5. Twitter users follow a median of 6 brands on Twitter, looking for things like interesting and fun content, news and updates, discounts and promos and more. Source: BufferApp
  6. Content that is greater than 1500 words on average receives 68.1% more tweets. Source: QuickSprout
  7. By using just 3 hashtags, brands can gain a 110% increase in likes on their Instagram posts. Source: Pigora
  8. By using just 3 hashtags, brands can gain a 180% increase in likes on their Instagram posts. Source: Pigora

A Blog Is No Longer a “Nice to Have”

  1. Blogs give sites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. Source: NewsCred.com
  2. Companies that blog 15+ times per month get 5x more traffic than companies that don’t blog. Source: Hubspot
  3. Companies with an active blog report 97% more leads. Source: Content+
  4. 70% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles over ads. Source: Content+
  5. Articles with images get 94% more views than those without.Source: Content+
  6. 57% of companies have acquired customers via their blog. Source: Content+
  7. Content creation ranked as the single most effective SEO tactic by 53%. Source: MarketingSherpa
  8. 33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. Source: convinceandconvert.com

If You’re Not Doing Mobile You Will Be Left Behind

  1. 71% of global users access social media through mobile devices. Source: Search Engine Journal
  2. 92% of mobile shopping app users want to be alerted if retailers are having sales. Source: Latitude Research
  3. About 60 percent of all Internet activity in the U.S. originates from mobile devices, and about half of total Internet traffic flows through mobile apps. Source: Internet Marketing Association
  4. Mobile revenue is projected to reach $700 billion by 2017, increasing by more than 300%. Source: VentureBeat
  5. By 2017, mobile devices will make up 87 percent of the total sales of Internet-enabled technology. Source: LanderApp

It Pays to Do Email Marketing–Literally

  1. The average open rate for welcome emails is a whopping 50% making them 86% more effective than email newsletters. (An automated welcome is a no brainer.) Source: Marketing Sherpa
  2. 51% of email is opened on a mobile device. (Design for the smallest screen first then you responsive design templates to ensure emails look great on any screen size.) Source: Litmus
  3. Nurtured leads make 47% more purchases than non-nurtured leads. (Create an automated series that delivers content to your subscriber over time and it will pay off.) Source: The Annuitas Group
  4. 58% of adults check email first thing in the morning. (Try sending your emails early in the day–you might see an uptick of opens). Source: Ezanga
  5. People check their email up to 150x a day. Make sure your call-to-action is clear. Source: kpcb.com
  6. Eye tracking data shows that viewers look to the same part of the screen where images of people are looking. That’s exactly where to want to put your call-to-action. Source: The Brain Lady Blog
  7. Email is nearly 40x better than Facebook or Twitter at acquiring customers. Source: McKinsey & Company
  8. You have just 3-4 seconds to grab your reader’s attention and interest them enough to open and read your email. Source: Litmus
  9. 64% of decision makers read emails via mobile device. Source: EmailExpert.org
  10. Using marketing automation can increase conversion rates by up to 50%. Source: Aberdeen Group
  11. If an email doesn’t display correctly, 71.2% will delete it immediately.Source: BlueHornet

Now That We “Google” Everything Search Engine Marketing Is Taking Over

  1. In 2015, search engine marketing (SEM) will continue to capture the largest share of online spend at 47%, or about 14% of the firm’s total marketing budget 2014. Source: Business2Community.com
  2. Mobile search ads will be $12.85 billion in 2015, over 50% of the search market. Source: Heidi Cohen
  3. 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. Source: Imforza
  4. Search is the No. 1 driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by more than 300 percent. Source: Search Engine Journal
  5. The average content length for a web page that ranks in the top 10 results for any keyword on Google has at least 2,000 words. The higher up you go on the search listings page, the more content each web page has. Source: QuickSprout
  6. 60% of all organic clicks go to the organic top 3 search results. Source: Business2Community.com
  7. 50% of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results, and 61% of those searches result in a purchase. Source: Search Engine Watch

Of the tips above which one stood out the most and how might you tweak your digital marketing strategy based on it? Or do you have one even more mind blowing?

Good Selling!

 

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6 B2B Marketing Trends To Outperform The Competition In 2015

With 2014 nearly over, it’s time to get out the crystal ball and share what will be the big trends for B2B marketing in 2015.

There’s no end to posts predicting the next big thing in 2015. And we all know those predictions are usually wrong – let’s make some, anyway!

Seeing marketing through the customer’s eyes

Seeing through the customer’s eyesMarketing and sales are starting to focus on adopting buyers’ perspectives with regards to selling. This “customer-based selling” is not selling in the traditional sense but more about helping customers to buy – a subtle but distinctive shift in mindset – and content is absolutely key to the success of this. Moving into 2015, content will become even more critical in the customer-based selling process, as marketing and salespeople look to share insights and engage customers based on what they need to make it easier for them to buy.

Content marketing is here to stay

Content marketing is here to stayContent, which is here to stay because brand building is storytelling and marketing is teaching, will continue to improve in quality instead of just quantity. The most successful content will be relevant, entertaining and informative based on where the customer is during their purchase journey. Content should build on itself, be aligned to your sales funnel and move with your customers in their purchase journey.

A picture is worth 1000 words

A picture is worth 1000 wordsVisual content is critical for brands to reach and engage their audiences. Infographics (especially with interactive graphics and embedded video) will continue to grow in popularity because of their value in education and thought leadership, all delivered in understandable sound bites. Expect short, graphically powerful slideshows to also gain popularity in delivering sales messaging.

Show and sell with video content

Show and sell with video contentWith Youtube’s popularity showing no signs of slowing down, video content will become the go to content resource for marketers. There may also be a shift from longer, consumable content like YouTube videos to shorter, snackable content like Instagram 15-second videos and Vine 6-second videos in B2B marketing.

Data will drive personalization

Data will drive personalizationIn 2015, data will play a larger role in content marketing. Beyond just producing great content, marketers need to reach and engage the right audience. Marketers will use data to personalize and deliver content to their highly connected, always-on users helping to create a more informed decision that reduces the risk of being overlooked and increases purchase confidence.

Fostering brand advocates

Are You Your Customers Biggest Fan?Marketers have always known that users who love their products buy more. We’ll see B2B marketers using creative and varied tactics on multiple social media platforms to build sales and win more users by sharing that are visual, compelling buyer testimonials.

Trends are both threats and opportunities for B2B marketers

6 Trends in B2B MarketingCompanies that see social media as something for teenagers will miss the opportunity to connect and educate their customers in a compelling way. Ultimately, they risk becoming irrelevant.

Marketers who move forward with these trends have the opportunity to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, be seen as innovators and improve their odds of outperforming the competition.

What trends do you see for B2B marketers in 2015?

Good Selling in 2015!