LOOKING FORWARD: Utilizing 2021's Marketing Statistics for Growth in 2020

Last month, at the end of 2021, we looked at the stats together. Which can make some of your collective head’s spin. So, for the first marketing article of 2022, we are going to take a look at those stats, and I will do my utmost to break them down into actionable tasks and usable information!?

This is a long article, so you do not need to blow through it all in one sitting! Instead, take it in sections and look at the examples I have given you. Imagine how you would implement them in your business. Which ones are applicable for your company, and which ones will promise the most ROI or increased visibility among your competitors? Obviously, you want to work on those first due to time or financial constraints.

Conversion Rate Optimization

Let’s start this analysis by looking at the first thing most perspective customers see, your landing page. “The first five seconds of page-load time have the highest impact on conversion rates. Website conversion rate drop by an average of 4.46% with each additional second of load time. (Portent, 2019)”

So, this has two important facets: primarily that your landing page needs to grab their attention in the first five seconds of loading. If, however, your landing page takes more than five seconds to load, then you will lose potential customers as they wait. The second facet of this stat that is worth discussing is what would cause a page to load slower. When we look at landing pages, we see that hosted videos as well as multiple images and alternating formats, can cause massive slowdown. Does this mean you should not use videos? No, it simply means that your page should be organized in such a way as to highlight only the most important features. So, one good video or an image or two would be fine. Where this really can become an issue is with over-crowded pages. I would also press upon you that an over-crowded page can also feel clustered and make gathering important information more tedious than it needs to be. As a rule of thumb, “keep it simple.” Include only the prevalent information.

“Landing pages, the least popular type of signup form, have the highest conversion rate (24%). On the other hand, popups, the most popular signup form, have the second-lowest conversion rate (4%). (Omnisend, 2019).” This stat should go without question to anyone who has been reading the first paragraph of information on a page, only to have a popup appear in front of the text you are reading asking for you to sign up for a newsletter or enter your email address to keep up-to-date on special deals.

As a way to deal with this issue, simply keep your signup forms in a sensible area of your webpage. Try and avoid any popups or aggressive requests asking for information. If people want the info, and it is easily accessible, they will find it.

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine. The key to getting more traffic lies in integrating content with search engine optimization and social media marketing" (Google)”

“Search engine optimization, or SEO, allows you to understand how consumers are searching for and finding information about your brand and your competitors online. By incorporating SEO strategies in your marketing efforts, you'll increase your website's visibility and rankings. (HubSpot, 2021)”

At this point we should extrapolate on some of these stats for SEO vs Organic. “About 64% of marketers actively invest time in search engine optimization (SEO). (HubSpot, 2020)” and “SEO Drives 1000%+ more traffic than organic social media. (BrightEdge, 2019)” For obvious reasons, working on your search engine optimization will increase your visibility online. Thus, your site will get more visibility which leads to more sales.

Another important aspect is the text that you include on your site and specifically on your landing page. “Text will always be the foundation of search so making sure the text around your website’s assets is descriptive will help them rank well in search. (HubSpot, 2020)” Keep in mind that AdWords and search terms are based on the text provided in the pages (“49% of users say they use Google to discover or find a new item product”).

That being said, including key terms and phrases that will help people find your page when searching in their preferred search engine is imperative. It is also worth noting that you should make sure in your SEO work that you have incorporated mobile and responsive text formatting in order to maximize your visibility on all devices.

This method, though time consuming, works! “More than half (50.33%) of searches on Google now end without a click on a result. (Jumpshot via Sparktoro, 2019)” and Google remains at the top of the search engine charts: “As of June 2019, 94% of internet searches happen on a Google property. (Jumpshot via Sparktoro, 2019)”

Ecommerce

Let’s talk about ecommerce, and how the stats break out on search to conversion paths. “According to a 2019 study, search traffic generated 65% of total ecommerce sessions, 33% was generated through organic search, and 32% was generated through paid search. (Statista, 2019)” Extrapolating on that: over half of people who are purchasing online are using search engines to get to that sale. More people are using organic searches (by a small margin) to make a purchase than through paid ads. Therefore, having a better set up webpage or landing page that uses AdWords and good text that identifies what they do as a company is more effective than paying for ads!

When asked how customers decide which brand or retailer to buy from almost 60% said that whether or not they had a mobile option was important. When searching for an item they planned on buying, “51% of shoppers surveyed say they use Google to research a purchase [first].”

Local SEO

When it comes to building out your social sites and webpages make sure to include location services! According to Think with Google, “Where to buy” and “near me” mobile queries have grown by over 200% in the past two years.

Including links to buy now (Ecommerce), Click to Call buttons, and your company address (Get Directions) are very important. Minimizing the amount of time between people deciding to buy or contact you and being able to do those things may be the difference of whether you get the sale or not. “60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results such as the “click to call” option. (Think with Google, 2019),” “Over a two-year period, there was a 250%+ growth in mobile searches for “store open near me” (Think with Google, 2019).

Keeping an up-to-date online inventory is also paramount! With “46% of shoppers surveyed confirm inventory online before going a store. (Think with Google, 2019)” those remaining inventory counts help seal the deal.

That doesn’t mean that brick and mortar businesses are not appreciated, “70% of shoppers surveyed say the ability to shop in-person/ in a store is important when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from. (Think with Google, 2019)” That experience alone can make all the difference. I know that personally, having individuals that can help you select the right purchase for me is as important as finding their information online. Expertise will never go out of style.

Mobile Search

To assess the importance of mobile access, one need not look any further than this following statistic from Statista, “As of 2019, mobile devices, excluding tablets, generated about half of all website traffic globally. Mobile web traffic has consistently accounted for about half of all global web traffic since the beginning of 2017.”

By now we all know that mobile technology is not just a passing phase like 3DTVs and Blueray Players but is instead an integral part of society now. “The average American has access to more than ten connected devices in their household. (Statista, 2021)”

The ease by which we can seamlessly transition from research to making a purchase is phenomenal; “60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results (e.g. “click to call” option). (Think with Google, 2019)” That being said, only one quarter of companies are invested in mobile optimization when as it relates to SEO.

Voice Search

In regards to the use of voice search, there is not a lot that you can utilize as the business owner or management and as such I will just be touching on the basic “over-head” view. When we look at the generational distributions, we see that 45% of Millennials use voice-assistance when shopping online and 52% of those that use Voice-Assistant tech say they use it several times as day or nearly every day (Statista, The Smart Audio Report). This really should come as no surprise. More interesting is that almost a quarter of Americans 18 years or older own a Smart Speaker and 62% (as of 2020) said they have used some kind of voice assistance technology (Edison Research, 2020).

Before moving on, one stat that is actually useable for business owners or those running the marketing for a business is “18% of Americans age 18+ own a car with an in-dash information and entertainment system. (Edison Research, 2020)” So, how can you use this information? There are a myriad of ways that you can use this data to enhance your visibility, most of which can be custom-tailored to your company. However, one great tip for brick-and-mortar establishments is to make sure that your first paragraph of information has some details of where your storefront is located. That way, when a perspective client voice searches Google for you company, they are read a quick mission statement and “located walking distance from the fountains on Main Street.” You can see the benefits of this.

Marketing Statistics

We are now on to the marketing stats for different mediums and methodologies. We will start by defining content marketing and discussing it’s benefits over traditional marketing.

Content marketing

“A type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.” (Google)

“The purpose of content marketing is to create and share relevant written, downloadable, and visual media so your target audience can learn about your brand, expertise, and products or services. Content marketing statistics inform your strategy and provide insight into the ways other content marketers are solving the pain points of their target audience and generating leads. This will allow you to determine which techniques will work best for your business, customers, and leads.” (HubSpot, 2021)

Blogging

As we at ARI would attest to, “Blogs are among the primary three forms of media used in content strategies today (HubSpot, 2020).” We use the blog format for two primary reasons. First, host a blog, as we do on LinkedIn, allows for an archive of content that we can send clients to specific topics that they have question on. Secondly, we get the analytics from LinkedIn as well as our digital mailing service; having a good amount of analytics is important for understanding how many people you are reaching and how often.

An interesting stat we found when looking at the end of year numbers that really stood out was that “83% of traffic to marketing blogs comes from desktops. (SEMrush, 2019)” This seems incredibly high, considering the numbers on mobile device usage. ?“86% of companies produce blog content compared to other formats.”

With the “top-performing articles [being] over 5,700 words in length” we know that simply having a blog is not enough, your articles should be in-depth and content driven. Going along those lines, “articles that are more than 3,000 words get 3x more traffic, and 4x more shares, and 3.5x more backlinks than shorter articles.” So, if you want to stay visible and have your content shared more often go for the longer and more in-depth pieces!

Video

We know that blogs are important for content marketing, but video is still king! “Video has become the most commonly used format in content marketing, overtaking blogs and infographics.” And of all videos, “promotional videos and brand storytelling are the most common video types created by marketers. (HubSpot, 2020)”

Video is undoubtedly effective! With “87% of video marketers saying that video has increased traffic to their website [and] 80% of video marketers claim that video has directly increased sales. (Wyzowl, 2020)”

Content Strategy

“Web traffic is among the top two most-common measurements of success for content marketing strategies. With 70% of marketers actively investing in content marketing. However, the most common measurement of success for content marketing programs is Total Sales. (HubSpot, 2020)”

This trend is only going to increase with 24% of marketers saying they plan on increasing their investment in content marketing. If you haven’t already moved to content marketing, then it is time to get onboard and with “Content Marketing Strategy” being the most searched query related to content marketing. (SEMrush, 2019)” you will be in good company!

?From a non-statistical perspective, receiving content marketing is far less abrasive than an ad telling you to “Buy, Buy, Buy!”?You want to offer value to the audience, something learned in return for time invested.

When it comes to distribution of content, some do blogs others direct mailers but “94% of marketers use social media for content distribution.” So, make sure you are using every avenue available to you, and posting regularly on your social media platforms!

Podcasts

This will be a bit of a smaller section, as many of you are not prepared to invest in the technology and time it takes to produce a podcast. However, if you do have the ability to create a podcast you may see a huge increase to your overall visibility, and you will be in good company! “As of April, 2020, there are over 30 million podcast episodes in existence. (Podcast Insights via iTunes, 2020)”

“As of 2020, Google’s search algorithms are trying to transcend text to images, voice / podcasts, and videos. (HubSpot, 2020)”

Though we may not all create it, “75% of Americans age 12+ (approximately 212 million people) are now familiar with podcasting. (Edison Research, 2020)”

The demographics for men and women listeners are almost even with, “39% of men and 36% of women age 12+ in the U.S. being monthly podcast listeners. (Edison Research, 2020)” and where are they listening to podcasts? “45% of those in the U.S. age 12+ have listened to audio in a car through a cell phone. (Edison Research, 2020)”

Social Media Statistics

“With billions of people on social media globally, understanding how to market on various social platforms has become an integral part of every business's success. These social media marketing statistics will help you learn how marketers today are successfully expanding their reach, boosting brand awareness, and promoting their products and services through these platforms so you can do the same.” (HubSpot, 2021)

Facebook

Let us talk about the Facebook. At this point, you would be hard pressed to find someone who is not aware of the social media giant, Facebook. “As of Q1 2020, there are 2.6 billion monthly active Facebook users. (Statista, 2020)”

“Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults report that they are Facebook users. (Pew Research Center, 2019)” So, when we say you should have a company Facebook page… we mean it!

Creating a company page is not all you can do. Facebook offers advertisement as well, and companies all over are jumping on it. “There are 8 million active advertisers on Facebook, the vast majority of which are small and medium-sized businesses. (Facebook Insights, 2020)”

Facebook stats are not just limited to the US and Canada when advertising. At this point there are “over 280 million Facebook users in India making it the top country in terms of Facebook audience size. (Statista, 2020)” So, if your business is international don’t forget about some of the most dense populations in the world!

As I have said since my first or second article back in 2014, if you don’t have a company Facebook page you are going to miss the bus! At this point, “Facebook is the primary content distribution channel for marketers today. (HubSpot, 2020)”

Company pages and advertisements are not the only avenues within Facebook you can pursue. I personally run 3 different groups on Facebook and have since 2015 and I am not alone.

“18% of marketers currently use Facebook Groups. (HubSpot, 2020)”

Some other very noteworthy statistics are, “roughly 36% of Americans get their news from Facebook regularly. (Pew Research Center, 2020)”

“In April 2020, over 98% of Facebook’s active user accounts worldwide accessed the social network via any kind of mobile phone. (Statista, 2020)” and “79% of video marketers use Facebook as a video marketing channel. (Wyzowl, 2019)”

Instagram

As I have mentioned in other articles the ideal companies for marketing on Instagram are ones that sell physical products of which they can take pictures or videos. That is not to say that you cannot promote a service-based business, you will just need to be creative when it comes to the marketing.

When looking at age demographics, “as of April 2020, 35% of global Instagram audiences were between the ages of 25 and 34” and “Over two-thirds of total Instagram audiences are 34-years old or younger, as of April of 2020. (Statista, 2020)”

“Instagram is the social channel with the second-highest ROI among marketers. (HubSpot, 2020)” So, the investment in time to set up an account and post some videos and pictures of your products is well worth it.

As Instagram grew from a photo-based platform, video began to take more of a place on the app, “IGTV, an app for long-form, vertical video on Instagram, allows users to share live video content between 15 and 16 minutes long. (Instagram, 2020)” “28% of video marketers plan to include Instagram TV in their 2020 video marketing strategy. (Wyzowl, 2019)”

“In 2018, there were 3.7 million brand-sponsored influencer posts on the social platform. (Statista, 2019)” If being a trend setter is a goal of your company you should look into pairing with an influencer in order to get more visibility.

Finally, the U.S. is the country with the most Instagram users, reaching “120 million users as of April 2020 and women accounted for 56.4% of Instagram users in the U.S. as of February 2020. (Statista, 2020)”

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the “big brother” of Facebook. Where Facebook is about statuses and big sales as well as giving a voice to your company, LinkedIn is the content marketing hub. Searching for a job, check out LinkedIn. Looking to post a resume or post a blog, LinkedIn is your go to. “As of April 2020, LinkedIn’s number of users in the U.S. reached 160 million, making it the country with the most users in the world. (Statista, 2020)”

In regard to gender breakdown, “according to a 2020 survey, 43% of LinkedIn’s audience members were female and 57% were male. (Statista, 2020)”

“In 2019, over 87% of video marketers on LinkedIn described the platform as an effective video marketing channel. 66% of video marketers in a 2019 survey said they would include LinkedIn in their 2020 video marketing strategy. (Wyzowl, 2019)”

If you are looking for a professional app that promote visibility LinkedIn is a great choice! “LinkedIn is the second-most popular social media platform used by B2B marketers, ranking only behind Facebook. (Statista, 2019)”

Youtube

As Google has become a term synonymous with “search,” so too has YouTube become synonymous with Search for a Video.” Whether you are looking up DIY home projects, a video review of a new product, a clip from the news this week, or the latest update to Covid… YouTube is where you go! And that is no surprise, “YouTube is the fourth most-used social media platform by marketers (HubSpot, 2020)” and “Over 2 billion logged-in users visit YouTube each month and everyday people watch over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views. (YouTube, 2020)”

“YouTube, on mobile alone, reaches more people in the 18-34 U.S. audience demographic than any TV network. (YouTube, 2020)” Just let that sink in!

People are watching longer videos too! When YouTube first came out when I was in college the longest videos on there were music videos and short interview clips, now you would have no trouble finding 3 hour long videos within the first page of results. “The average length of the top trending videos of the year was over 9.5X longer in 2019 than in 2010. (YouTube, 2019)”

If you are wondering how important content is when it comes to a YouTube video, you need look no further than this statistic, “when people are deciding what video to watch on YouTube, relating to their passions is 3X more important than whether or not the video has a famous actor, and 1.6X more important than whether the video has high-production quality. (Think with Google, 2019)” So, if you have a passion for a topic, are an expert in a field, or have some advice dealing with an industry – don’t worry about quality of video or if you have a famous talking head, people want to hear from you!

As I previously mentioned, YouTube is often used for product reviews and comparisons, “75% of shoppers say they have used a Google product (Search, Maps, YouTube) in the past week to help with their shopping. (Think with Google, 2019)”

Social Media Usage

Below we will be looking at overall social media usage statistics. This should give you a good idea of where things are heading over the next year or two.

“By 2023, the number of social network users in the U.S. is expected to reach 257.4 million. The number of global social media users is expected to reach almost 3.43 billion in 2023. (Statista, 2020)”

“In 2019, TikTok was the third most downloaded non-gaming app in the world with over 1.5 billion downloads. Almost a quarter of online U.S. adults say they have come across videos posted on TikTok. TikTok had approximately 37.2 million users in the U.S. in 2019. (Statista, 2020)

As we talked about in the previous section, “YouTube was the social media platform with the biggest reach among U.S. Gen Z and Millennial internet users in 2019, regardless of gender. (Statista, 2019)”

“Statista projects that close to 800 million Chinese internet users will access social networks in 2023, up from 673.5 million social network users in 2018. (Statista, 2019)”

Video Marketing Statistics

“Video marketing is highly effective strategy when trying to appeal to and convert your target audience. With impressive video capabilities on smartphones today, it's also an affordable and easy tactic to implement, no matter your business type or resources. These statistics offer insight into how other companies are using the medium to reach, educate, and nurture their audience.” (HubSpot, 2021)

Product Video

Video is still king! With “64% of businesses said in the last 12 months, a video on Facebook resulted in a new client. (Animoto, 2020)” It is king for a reason, it works!

“83% of video marketers say video has helped them generate leads. 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video.” Content is still the name of the game here! “95% of video marketers said they felt they’d increased understanding of their product or service using video. 93% of brands got a new customer because of a video on social media. (Wyzowl, 2020)”

Social Video

Videos also promote more discussion in the comments, which in-turn increase the visibility of that video. Are you sensing a pattern here? “In 2020, social engagement videos are among the top four most common types of video marketers are investing in today. (HubSpot, 2020)”

“Video is the second most-used content type on social media used to increase audience engagement. Live video is the third most-used social media marketing tactic. (HubSpot, 2020)”

“YouTube and Facebook are the most widely used platforms among video marketers — used by 85% and 79%, respectively. Only 11% of video marketers say they've used Snapchat as a video channel in 2020. (Wyzowl, 2020)” Therefore, if you only have time to create and manage two social media sites, make sure they are Facebook and YouTube.

Email Marketing Statistics

“Email marketing remains one of the most important and effective ways for your business to connect with customers and build lasting relationships with them. With email marketing statistics, you'll be able to discover the ways other businesses are using email to maximize their ROI and connect with customers.” (HubSpot, 2021)

Clickthrough Rate

Message Personalization is the number one tactic used by email marketers to improve performance. (HubSpot, 2020)

“35% of marketers choose to send three-to-five emails per week to their customers. (HubSpot, 2020)” This is, and has been, the goal for email marketing. You don’t want to become annoying to your clients but also want to be in front of their eyes enough that they can easily reach out to you whenever they need to. In regards to content marketing, it is also important to make sure that everything you send out has a level of quality content that can be used for it’s informative nature and not just to promote your own sales.

For those obsessed with analytics, it is good to know that “the industry average email click-through rate is 2.13%. (GetResponse, 2020) Hobbies have the highest click rate, at 5.01% (Mailchimp, 2019)”

For those wondering what the best day to send out emails in order to boost click-through rates: “Friday is typically the day with highest click-through rates potential, at 2.7%. (Campaign Monitor, 2020)”

Email Copy

Here I will list some quick stats on crafting your email copy. “Over 20% of marketers surveyed say that email design is improving their email engagement. (HubSpot, 2020)” So, how should you design your email? Let’s start at the subject line. “Email subject lines feature 43.85 characters on average, and out of 1,000 analyzed emails, only 6.9% incorporated an emoji in the subject line. (AWeber, 2019)”

This next one will be something we will be utilizing in this upcoming year. “Companies that A/B test every email see email marketing returns that are 37% higher than those of brands that never include A/B tests. (Litmus, 2019)”

“64% of small businesses say their email copy is effective or very effective. 45% of small businesses with effective or very effective email copy have average open rates of 26% or higher. (AWeber, 2020)”

Email Segmentation

Hopefully segmentation goes without saying! You must use separate campaigns for each type of mailer. For example, you need to have your Newsletter campaigns separate from one-up mailers about upcoming sales. “Marketers who use segmented campaigns note as much as a 760% increase in revenue. (Campaign Monitor, 2019)”

Segmenting by your audience is also very important so you do not over mail one particular group. If you host an annual chili cook off and people sign up to hear more about that or keep?up to date on when it will be hosted, they will not be interested in receiving your everyday mailers. In fact, not segmenting your audience may cause many of them to unsubscribe. “Almost 30% of marketers surveyed use audience segmentation tactics to improve email engagement. (HubSpot, 2020)”

Lead Generation Statistics

“Lead generation is how your business attracts and converts anyone interested in your brand, products, or services. It's an integral part of every consumer's journey to becoming a customer. With lead generation statistics, you'll discover how other marketers are using the process to reach their goals related to converting more prospects and leads into paying customers.” (HubSpot, 2021)

Marketing Automation

We use automated email marketing, as well as AI sending procedures. If you are not already using this technology, you should! “Email automation campaigns are among the top three tactics used by email marketers to improve performance. (HubSpot, 2020)” This is because it allows you to be in front of their eyes when they are reading their email and not a page and a half down the list.

“92% of marketing agencies are investing more time, resources, and budget into marketing automation integration. (MarketingProfs, 2019)”

“Of those who are automating marketing, 23% are automating their content delivery. (HubSpot, 2020)” Using AI to get your email out right when your audience is opening their mail is priceless!

WE DID IT!

That was a lot of analysis, and I am sure you need to give your brain a break! You don’t have to uproot and change everything all at once, instead after you have had a nice reprieve select three different points from this article and start implementing them. When those three have been implemented in your company, it is time to return to this article and grab another three more. Together we can make 2022 a great year for your business!

If you have any questions concerning how to interpret these statistics, please do not hesitate to Contact Us here at ARI or just let us know in the comment section!?