As we come towards the end of another busy year in marketing it’s a good idea to review the recent data and statistics so that you can strengthen your marketing plans now and into the new year. Because of that, this week we’ve put together these ten eye-opening marketing statistics and what we can learn from them…
1. Instagram has been the most popular social media platform used by businesses. (Not Another State of Marketing Report, Hubspot)
Perhaps pretty unsurprisingly, Instagram has been the number one choice for businesses to promote their products or services in 2021. In this time, Instagram have also added a whole host of features that make the app more suitable for business including expanded data tracking insights and ads testing in the shopping tab. Surprisingly however, teams reported seeing the largest ROI from Facebook!
2. 23% of agencies said that they would no longer have an office, with 9% saying they would go flexible. (Benchmark Report For Agencies Under $1m, Mailchimp)
Since 2020, we’ve all seen the benefit of more flexible working arrangements and this is reflected in the amount of agencies changing how they operate. Pre-pandemic, office perks like ping pong tables and fancy coffee machines were enough to attract more talent to your agency but now? Flexible working is almost expected as a perk, and so looking for ways to offer that might help you expand your team with the best talent faster.
3. In 2021, 69% of marketers invested in SEO. (Not Another State of Marketing Report, Hubspot)
Search Engine Optimisation continues to be a priority for marketers across the UK. Now more than ever, it’s completely vital to create a tailored experience throughout every touch point for your website users.
4. 67% of C-suite respondents surveyed reported communicating with customers through an increased social media presence through the pandemic. (Deloitte)
The power of social media for communicating with your audience is incredible. In 2021, we saw businesses communicating with their audience effectively through social media to notify them about new processes needed to meet Covid-19 requirements. What have we learnt? It’s important to make sure that you create content that engages not just prospective clients on social media, but also your existing loyal customer base. It also helps us to see the value of investing in high quality content creation that reflects your brand well in amongst a very busy landscape.
5. As of January 2021, Pinterest has 459 million global active users every month. (Hubspot)
According to the Not Another State of Marketing survey, Pinterest was the 7th most popular social media being used by businesses with only around 20% of those in the survey reporting that they use the platform. But interestingly, the social media platform has 459 million global active users. That means a relatively low competition rate with a huge potential audience. Could this mean it’s worth testing some graphics on Pinterest to strengthen your content marketing distribution strategy for the end of the year?
6. More than half (53%) of marketers say webinars is the top-of-the-funnel format that generates the most high-quality leads. (Demand Gen Report, 2021, Source)
If you’re on LinkedIn, we’re pretty certain you’ll have noticed the wealth of webinars available at any given time. This isn’t by chance though, as more than half of marketers are reporting their highest quality TOFU leads as being sourced through them. It makes sense though, right? If you’ve got a person who’s willing to sit through a longer discussion about a subject related to your business, that person has given some clear indicators that they are ready to look at your product or service as a solution. If you haven’t already, now might be the time to start looking at creating some eye-catching paid ads to promote your webinars as the format gains even more popularity.
7. Around 49% of B2B marketers do outsource some content marketing activities, but 69% of those outsourcing said their biggest challenge was finding partners with adequate topic expertise. (Content Marketing Institute)
Are you finding it difficult to find a partner for your business with topic expertise you trust? The agency you’re looking at using might be saying all the right things, but how can you know for sure that they are the best team to help you? Remember to take your time to do the research, understand how the workflow will be managed and to set realistic expectations on the ROI you expect to see from your outsourcing partners. Another tip – try to get to know the people you’d be working with. After all, can you think of any strong team that didn’t really know much about each other? Even though they might not be members of your in-house team, it’s never a bad thing to build a relationship with your outsourcing partners so you can better understand how to effectively communicate with them.
8. Among those who outsource, content creation is the activity most outsourced by far. (Content Marketing Institute)
If you’re finding that a large portion of your marketing team’s time that could otherwise be spent on other crucial tasks that further your marketing strategy is being spent on creating content, it’s time to look for support. Leaving non-designers to create your content is like trusting your restaurant bar staff to cook a meal instead of a chef. The results won’t be great, and it’ll take a lot longer to complete the task. On top of that – the queue at your bar would be pretty long. In other words, your marketing tasks won’t be getting the attention they need and the content created won’t be enough to really strengthen your content marketing strategy or to impress your clients. We’ve written a blog on our top tips to successfully outsource graphic design here.
9. 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. (Hubspot)
How does your business make best use of email marketing? If you haven’t already begun creating email workflows that help to nurture new customers and newsletters that engage your existing audience, there’s no time like today to start! Learn more about how to create lead nurturing emails here.
10. 54% of marketing leaders said their biggest cause of delays in creative production is due to having a bigger volume of projects/requests than their team can handle. (2020 Ziflow Creative Production Benchmark Survey)
This statistic from Ziflow puts into numbers a pattern that we see in lots of the teams that begin to use Design Cloud. A really common bottleneck that stifles productivity as well as lowers overall morale is the fact that the team cannot support the amount of creative projects and requests that are needed to see a campaign or a rebrand be successful. That goes for teams with existing graphic designers as well as those who are using non-designers alongside free online design software. For some real-life examples of teams in this position, check out our case study page.
With over half of the surveyed marketing leaders reporting this, we’d really recommend starting this conversation with your team and asking whether they feel they need additional support in creative production.
In this article we’ve discussed 10 marketing statistics that will help us to make more informed decisions about the direction we’re taking our marketing strategy in now and into the future. We can only expect to see more companies placing emphasis on powerful content, email marketing, hosting webinars and investment into SEO into the future years so now is the time to make sure you get these areas as optimised as possible.
