Chart of the Day: Digital Marketing statistics - Converting leads to customers remains a top marketing priority over the next 12 months - part 1 of 10
It is important to know how sales and marketing are evolving, and how/ when this will affect your business. There are various marketing and sales priorities to think about when outlining your business strategy and initial planning but it is also important to know its challenges and how to face these.
Marketers are making the leap into visual content creation while salespeople are slowly shifting from the hard-seller stereotype to a more trusted advisor.
- Brian Halligan CEO HubSpot
In this chart series, I will breakdown the HubSpot 'State of Inbound 2017' report for all your sales and marketing needs - taking you through section by section and breaking down its results.
The 10 areas that will be covered are:
Top business priorities
Inbound marketing priorities and challenges
Sales priorities and challenges
…
Chart of the day: Research shows the power of email marketing to encourage return visits
Much of the insight about how our audiences interact with us online relates to acquisition channels and conversion to sale. So, I was interested to see this research from Ecommerce personalisation platform provider Monetate which shows returning visitor behaviour related to channels.
It prompts us to evaluate returning visitor rates and their impact on sales and how we can influence them through communications using different channels. This curve shows an interesting behavioural trait where most visitors return within a short period of a week or so (if they are going to return), but others do return.
What are the implications? Monetate conclude with this takeaway:
While outreach tactics, such as targeted emails, should be concentrated within that one-week window, there’s plenty of opportunity to re-engage shoppers after that one-week window: Nearly…
Chart of the Day: The State of Email Workflows in 2017 (Production Cycle) - Part 2 of 6
We are now in the second instalment of our six-week series on email workflow. Last week we discussed content planning and how correct planning isn't just advantageous to you but your clients.
This week we are focusing on production cycles and how long email marketers spend on tasks.
When this article was published on 26th July 2017, I asked you "for each email that your company sends, which task tasks you the longest?"
The results are in the chart below. We had 43 responses and the results are very interesting. We see that 32.56% of you find that copywriting takes the longest. This is really encouraging that copywriting is in first place. It means that more thought is being focused on the content,…
Chart of the day: A recent study has shown that customers want better customer service from your brand.
It's no surprise that a good customer support service is topping the list of what customers want most from a brand. Having a good communication with your customers is vital in conversion and retention. How else is a customer going to tell you if something is wrong? You need to address these issues as quickly, efficiently and professionally as possible to keep a quality brand and product reputation.
This being said, is it a shock that customers favor always on, automated service options the least? No. Customers do not want brands with a detached automated service. It is clear that over half (52%) of respondents want a fast response to their issues, something that can be hard to achieve with…
Chart of the day: People skip video ads because the content doesn't resonate with them
It's a familiar sight now, when watching online videos there is either a video ad before or during. Research carried out by MarketingSherpa found what we'd expect: people just want to watch videos without interruption. But in a world where we need advertising to fund content, there has to be a balance. The next highest answer was that the content doesn't resonate. We've talked before in our guides and blogs about personalisation and how the more personalized the content the more it resonates with customers. Perhaps video ads should be relevant to the specific video content?
The research shows people don't want their videos to be interrupted. Facebook recently changed their video advertising to show ads throughout the videos. This research suggests that it may cause more frustration. Respondents…
Chart of the Day: Brand Personality on Social Media can influence a customer's decision to purchase a product online.
The use of Social Media in marketing strategies has become increasingly visible. It is important now more than ever to create a positive brand personality online since consumers spend 30% of their time on social media. First, ask yourself why you use Social Media - to raise brand awareness? To resolve customer service issues?
Reasons to use social media marketing:
To raise brand awareness and the company's reputation
To resolve customer service issues
Improve your organic search ranking and drive traffic to your site
To engage with your customers and hear their feedback
Or, do you have something else in mind?
Consumers want an honest brand personality on Social Media
In a recent study by Sprout Social (Q2 2017), they found that consumers preferred a more authentic and honest brand personality (86%) over snarky comments or…
Chart of the Day: How email marketers plan email marketing campaigns (Email Workflow) - Part 1 of 6
What process do you use to send your emails? What is your workflow? Well, I'm here to tell you about best practices from start to finish.
Planning
Time spent on tasks
Technology
Quality assurance
Approvals
Sending
For today's chart, I'm starting at the beginning of the email journey - the planning. I have mentioned before that planning is one of the most important tasks to complete before work should begin. I know sometimes it isn't possible because of demanding senior leadership, clients etc. But it's something we should all strive for.
So let's stop procrastinating and get on with our planning.
Calendar
We all need a calendar for scheduling email dispatches. How you use that calendar depends on your…
Chart of the day: Most customers have to contact companies twice to get a resolution to a customer service problem
Research by maru/edr has found that almost 8 in 10 customers contact companies by one method (such as online chat) and then by another (such as by phone) - customers feel they need to use multiple channels to get a resolution.
The research also found that (as expected) email is the easiest method of contact, but phone contact led to a more immediate resolution. Live chat also led to a slightly higher number of resolutions than email. Social media was found to resolve issues the least and the most difficult method for contact, which is surprising - especially with the wider use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. We have seen that more and more companies are investing time to integrate social media into their…
Chart of the day: UK users spend almost 2 hours per day online via mobile
Mobile takes center stage today as we focus in on the UK, taking a look at the increasingly important role mobiles have to play in online behaviors. According to recent research, internet users are spending on average 1 hour and 42 minutes per day on their mobiles. This is an hour more compared to 2012.
This time is mainly consumed by those in the 16-24 bracket and spend an average of 3 hours 16 minutes on their mobile per day. This number will only increase as we become more dependant on our mobile and tablet devices.
What does this mean for marketers? As time spent online on mobile increases, marketers will need to migrate all their online activity to mobile. The increase in ownership…
Chart of the Day: Consumers prefer to compare and switch on desktop
The need for businesses of all industries to perfect their mobile experience has never been more important than it is in 2017. Google promoting Accelerated Mobile Pages and their announcement of a Mobile First Index mean that we need to optimise our websites for mobile and desktop to remain relevant in the coming years.
As marketers, it is vitally important that we create a great online experience for our customers and potential customers no matter which device they choose to use. To help deliver the best experiences across the purchasing funnel, you need to have actionable data to guide you in the right direction for each of the marketing channels including Search, Social, Email, Display etc.
This is where recent research from Hitwise will come in useful. It shows the distinction between an industry pushing towards mobile and a consumer still using…
