One of the things we love most about digital advertising and the internet is that they can change so fast. Of course, we track those changes every step of the way—we love data!
Since we’re always keeping an eye out for new reports and industry learnings, we thought we’d share some of the most interesting stats we’ve come across in 2017.
Just 17% of new leads convert.
The main culprit cited here: sales and marketing teams are struggling to see eye to eye.
A recent study by Dun & Bradstreet reports the huge disconnect between sales and marketing teams, resulting in a lag in conversions. For example, 57 percent of marketers report problems with understanding their audience; citing the inability to find solid data as the crux of the issue.
And then from a sales perspective, 24 percent just don’t have time to deal with leads, and 35 percent are just bursting from pressure to add value in the age of digital marketing.
Conversions—and just managing your time—is a constant struggle.
Personalization is critical to email open rates.
Big time. It leads to 50% more emails opened than if you hadn’t personalized the email.
This report points out that brands just aren’t using personalization like they should, despite the evidence that it helps. Messages with personalization in the subject line get receive a 58 percent click to open than regular ‘ole personalization-less emails.
U.S. Marketing Budgets will hit Nearly $120 Billion by 2021.
Forrester has been keeping a close eye on digital spend for several decades now…and they’ve just watched it climb, and climb and climb.
The latest change now is that marketers are shifting from a
“We have to do it!” mode to a “Let’s do it WELL!” mode
They’re going to throw more budget to paid search, display advertising, social media and online video advertising.
They’ll be relying on data, more than ever, to make smart decisions about what is and is not working for them. This leap in spend is being driven by Millennials, many now in their 30s and spending a heck of a lot more money, buying homes and having kids.
81% of people research before they buy.
We love this statistic because it drives home the point that everything originates from online in today’s world where people are all about “give me the information—now”.
People are online looking for advice (now), looking for directions (now), looking for answers on everything from hot restaurants to eat at, to diagnosing their toddler’s mystery rash (okay, we took it too far…but they still want that information now!).
But the point is, this online focal point is changing the way businesses think about marketing, content and building trust with their customers. And it hit a peak in 2017.
93% of online activity starts with a search engine.
Search engines are where people start their days, their searches and their daily activity online.
People spend a lot of time there (and a lot of money!). This is more resounding support for why SEO is not a nice to have, it’s should be a fundamental piece of your online strategy.
Mobile searches drive 300% more website traffic than social media.
For brick and mortar businesses, the importance of mobile can’t be overstated.
When people are looking for products or businesses from their phones, they’re motivated. They may not even admit it themselves, but they are usually intent on buying. And mobile searches account for 300% more traffic than social media searches.
The auto industry increased their digital ad spend by 22%
Marketers in the auto industry are getting serious about digital.
Spend on digital advertising has jumped 22 percent in the last year, evidence that auto marketers are paying attention to consumers’ habits of massive online research before they buy—or even walk into—a dealership.
Digital advertising allows auto dealers to reach far larger audiences, in a much more affordable way, than their traditional marketing channels.
6,586,013,574 searches are made a day, worldwide.
Yowza! Try to wrap your head around that one.
Google gets 4,465,000,000 searches and Bing is 873,964,000. And mobile searches continue to take over desktop by far, something that began a few years back.
82% of businesses have a digital marketing strategy.
The top industries seeing ROI from digital marketing include law, health, entertainment, auto and food.
These industries are abandoning their marketing efforts of in-person events and print media to capture the eyes (and clicks) of a far greater audience.
And the results are huge: most companies are experiencing $5 of revenue for every buck spent on digital. Not too shabby, eh?