Does that photo resonate with you, deep within your soul? Then you are most certainly a digital marketer. Benjamin Franklin said, “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” But with recent surveys finding that the average adult spends about 2 hours a day worrying about issues such as money, growing old, job security and relationships… it’s easier said than done, Ben, easier said than done.
Digital marketers are definitely on the higher end of the scale when it comes to Worry Warts, with our compulsive metric checking, frantic link-building tactics and wait… what is Google doing with the not provided provision? Digital marketers tend to resemble a nervous chef in the kitchen checking our endangered soufflé much, much too often.
(Even taking the time to read this blog is making you nervous isn’t it? Because you simply have too much to do!)
For all the Nervous Nellies out there, don’t worry, I won’t waste your time. Here are 15 digital marketing statistics that are going to mold the future of digital marketing in 2014.
1. Everything is going mobile, so mobile compatibility for websites and emails is a must. The rate of emails being opened on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has risen 80% over the last 6 months. (Source: Social media today)
2. The blogger, once shunned and ridiculed as a wannabe journalist, has won over the public’s trust. (Move over Walter Cronkite, blogs are now the most trusted in the nation). 63% of readers are more likely to be influenced by blogs than magazines when deciding on a purchase. (Source: Marketing Query)
3. Using videos on website landing pages can increase conversions by…wait for it… 86%. And videos get 267% more likes than normal posts. What is that smell? Oh, it’s the future. Sources.
4. 20% of people will read text while 80% of people will watch a video displaying that exact same content. Sorry blogger-can you get up and let the videographer sit there? Source.
5. An online shopper is 144% more likely to purchase a product after they have watched a video than a shopper who did not watch a video. 2012 was the first year that online shopping spending beat out physical stores. (Sources: Stacks And Stacks and Huffington Post)
6. 67% of consumers state that the quality of a product image is paramount when selecting and purchasing products online. (Sources: National Retail Federation)
7. Recipients of email marketing campaigns purchase 28% more often than those who do not and their orders are 44% larger. (Source: Small Business Yahoo)
READY? HERE COMES SOME MORE NUMBERS….
8. The average content length is 2,000 words for web pages that get ranked in the top 10 results for any keywords.(Source: Active Internet Marketing)
9. In many countries, consumers use mobile devices as their primary access point for social networks. In fact, mobile traffic accounts for almost 1/5 of all web traffic. You snooze, you lose USA, better catch up! (Source: Unified Social and information Week)
10. Users are 3 times more likely to share Pinterest pins, 66% more likely to re and 39% more likely to engage on Facebook while using a mobile device. (Source: Social media today)
11. 67% of B2B marketers will use social media in 2013. (Source: Top Rank Blog)
12. Companies recognize that SEO is important to their success and longevity. 6 out of 10 organizations plan to increase SEO spending this year. (Source: imforza)
13. 3 quick Pinterest facts:
80% of Pinterest users are women
50% of users are parents
80% of pins are repins
(Souce: Social Media Today)
14. LinkedIn is at the top of the list when it comes to content distribution. 83% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. (Source: Top Rank Blog)
15. 70% of marketers say that content marketing has increased their brand awareness. (The remaining 30% were all plagiarists or bad writers;) (Source: Social Media Today)
Does that help a little? Are your wheels turning with ideas for 2014 and your stress levels going down? I hope so- you know stress is a killer. If you keep this up you are going to have a heart attack and then what will happen to your website traffic, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages account, not to mention your Klout score?
Stats give great direction, but practical application is also necessary. The numbers above point to several areas that digital marketers must turn their attention to in 2014:
Content Creation
Email Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Social Media
1. Content Creation-Don’t Sell, Help:
Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert told Swartzdesk.com “customers are more curious and more suspicious than ever. The only way to succeed in that environment is to tilt the marketing objective from selling to helping.” Digital marketers have already started to help instead of sell through their guest blogging initiatives. Creating links and generating traffic for their clients by providing engaging and quality information through guest blogs is one of these tactics. This free information helps to build trust, establish your brand and position you as a thought leader in your industry. Online readers and wandering customers appreciate industry insight and free information.
Companies are going to make more money by informing and building a relationship than by pushing sales. In 2014, focus on building your company’s reputation in your industry through your content creation and learn to value quality content over quantity. Don’t worry so much about the numbers, focus more on the quality.
2014 Content Creation Do’s and Don’ts:
Do provide free engaging content and news
Do continue to write guest blogs and quality content
Do build relationships through relieving the pain points of your clients
Don’t focus as much on the numbers as on the quality
Don’t stop promoting yourself and your clients as thought leaders
Don’t come off like a used-cars salesman
2. Email Marketing-Spam vs. Surprise
You know what is surprising? Receiving an email from a company that you actually want to read. Email marketing is still a very inexpensive and effective way to grow a business. For every $1 spent on email marketing, $44.25 is the average return on your investment. Email marketing is something that will be important in 2014 and beyond.
The way to turn email from corporate spam into something interesting is to make the message tailored. Matt Blumber, Co-Founder and CEO of Return Path said in an Exact Target article “as consumers rediscover email’s coolness and manage more of their lives from the inbox, they’ll offer marketers an opportunity to truly engage them.”
Email marketing will be prevalent and even more successful in 2014 because marketers are learning how to properly aggregate their databases, segment those databases and send out tailored and specific messages based on recipients’ interests.
Having an overall message that is interesting to the receiver and sending it to them in bite-sized pieces over time is a perfect way to lead an interested buyer down the sales funnel and turn them into a customer (and repeat customer). By following this type of process you won’t have to worry so much about being lost in the spam folder.
2014 Email Marketing Do’s and a Don’ts:
Do spend your digital marketing energy on email marketing
Do segment your database
Do send your database tailored and specific messages
Don’t overlook getting to know your target market
Don’t be a pest
Don’t forget to clean and organize your database from time to time
3. Mobile Marketing-Mobile Addiction
Forget Breaking Bad—yes, meth and television addictions are prevalent, but what people are really addicted to are their phones. It is an epidemic that isn’t just spreading across the U.S. but the entire world. There is no tonic for this addiction, so digital marketers need to just feed the frenzy. Every custom website must be compatible with mobile devices. It needs to be easily shareable, have an excellent look on mobile feeds and a fast load time.
According to internet marketing agency imFORZA, 77% of mobile users use their smartphones and tablets for social networking and surfing the internet. Brent HieggeIke, CMO of Urban Airship, said in an Exact Target article “It is probably time for us to just agree that this is the decade of mobile. The fact is that mobile changes things more than anything we’ve ever seen.”
Mobile marketing and social media marketing go great together since much of your social media messages will be seen on a mobile device. Creative mobile marketing campaigns are going to be increasingly popular in the future. In fact, according to eMarketer, 82% of marketers asked in 2013 planned on increasing their focus on mobile media; that focus will grow in 2014. Turn your eyes away from your computer for a moment and pick up your phone. You can worry a little less now, because you know where the future is going. You are holding it in your hands.
2014 Mobile Marketing Do’s and a Don’t:
Do increase your mobile marketing efforts in 2014
Do create campaigns that are compatible with mobile devices
Do remember that mobile marketing is the future
Don’t forget about how your website looks on mobile devices
Don’t forget about your load speed
Don’t forget that most social media interactions happen on mobile devices
4. Social Media-Be an Extrovert or Die!
As a business, you cannot afford to be an introvert. You have to get out there and make a scene on the social media stage. One of the newest ways that Google and other search engines are ranking pages on the internet is through interaction and social engagement, so social media is now a large part of SEO and will continue to be a staple of digital marketing going into 2014.
With new social media venues popping up all of the time, make sure that you don’t overlook a new budding social media star that might be perfect for showcasing your company (remember, there was a time when no one knew what Facebook was).
Also, social media should be looked at like a financial portfolio, where diversifying isn’t just smart but safe. The more you spread your brands out through different social media venues, the more recognizable your brand will be. Read more regarding this in Forbes article, “The Top 7 Online Marketing Trends That Will Dominate in 2014” by Jayson Demers.
Two elements to infuse into your social media in 2014 are:
Quality over quantity
Make it personal
Before, social media was all about quantity, quantity, quantity spreading as many fingers as possible out across the internet. But now it is about quality and what types of people are following you on Twitter, not simply that you have 56k followers.
Successful social media marketing campaigns in 2014 will have to learn how to make their corporate social media more personal. No matter how virtual our world gets, you are still dealing with people and people will always crave community and feelings of connection. Marcus Nelson, Senior Director of Addvocate, said in an Exact Target article “Ask any person whether they’d rather talk to a logo or a real person on social media.” The answer of course is a real person. Like content creation, when it comes to your online community and your social shares, worry less about the quantity and more about the quality.
2014 Social Media Do’s and a Don’ts:
Do focus on the quality of your social media
Do make your campaigns personal by highlighting your culture and your employees
Do research what is currently popular on social media
Don’t just share your information, interact!
Don’t forget that social media is about giving and taking
Don’t simply focus on just the numbers
RECAP (get it?):
Content Creation-Don’t Sell, Help: Provide internet users with valuable information that they are actually looking for that is reliable and accurate. This builds trust in your brand.
Email Marketing-Spam vs. Surprise: By creating tailored marketing campaigns instead of just blasting someone with a cookie-cutter message, you are showing people that you value their time and have taken steps to get to know their needs. This builds trust in your brand.
Mobile Marketing-Mobile Addiction: Being accessible on mobile devices tells your clients and consumers two things: One, you are accessible and open to hearing their ideas, praise and complaints and two, you have nothing to hide. This builds trust in your brand and sets your potential customers’ minds at ease.
Social Media-Be an Extrovert or Die!: By creating more personal social media campaigns yourself, your business becomes a community built and run by a lot of different faces. By humanizing your company, it also reveals your company as one that understands all those numbers that make up the bottom line are actually people too. This builds trust in your brand.
One Last Thing:
These paragraphs apply to all of the above 2014 digital marketing trend predictions and advice.
Marketing isn’t about swindling and tricking consumers
into a purchase or a contract.
It is about building relationships and providing valuable content and information that users are honestly searching for because they have a problem or need a service. As a marketer, it is your job to get into the heads of your customers and figure out where their pain-points are so that you can relieve them.
Your digital marketing strategy should be founded on providing solutions; this is how you will attract attention and be remembered.
Google and search engines are changing as well, which is making quality content and building relationships even more important. With Google indicating it is expanding its not provided provision, digital marketers are losing the ability to see what key phrases are popular and important to their clients. By Google increasing the not provided provision, digital marketers and content writers are going to have to be even more in tune with the real life pain points of their customers and focus their attention on building relationships.
All of the digital marketing trends in 2014 point to getting to know and interacting with your target market. Gimmicks and tricks are so 2013. People are sick and tired of the run around and they will gravitate toward companies that take the time to get to know them and their needs and then provide solutions. Being a thought leader in today’s business world means you must hit your: content creation, email marketing, mobile marketing and social media hard. In doing so, you will attract the right type of customers who you can truly help; gaining credibility by providing a needed service that relieves customers of their pain points. Knowledge is power and now you have a little bit more power in your pocket, so take a chill pill, worry less and try to relax.
Image Sources: http://goo.gl/PybcMj (Jitendra Jain), http://goo.gl/ONWBZn (Kenny Teo), http://goo.gl/hIJsIO (Sean McEntree), http://goo.gl/AJhoHx (epSos.de), http://goo.gl/45t0NX (Irita Kirsbluma), http://goo.gl/AH8m9v (Lee Traupel), http://goo.gl/NX9iEL (Leagueofjedi), http://goo.gl/Hsq7e8 (Emmaporium)
Stephanie Drescher is a content writer and professional blogger for Solutions 8. She is obsessed with equality, hiking, coffee, wine, and reading. Her most important job is being an aunt to her 9 nieces and nephews. Follow her on Twitter @stephdrescher or read more of her work on their blog.