344 social media managers confirm that social media positively influencers revenue and sales
Social media is everywhere and is vastly expanding - but what effect do the various social platforms have on a company's brand awareness, engagement, revenue, and sales?
Because of the range of platforms available it can be difficult to know where to start, what platforms your target audience is using, and what content to share to increase engagement.
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Smart Insights partnered up with Clutch, a service which helps businesses make B2B buying decisions, to find out what and how social media is being used in marketing and its effects on content distribution.
You can view the full free report here.
Over half of those surveyed (52%) said that social media has positively influenced revenue…
6 tips to get the most out of the highest-performing digital marketing channel
We see emails every day. But few manage to make an impact and imprint on our memory. It's not surprising, since running a successful email marketing campaign calls for both creativity and the analytical know-how to make sense of ever-growing amounts of data. That’s why even the savviest marketers can get stuck – especially if they only ever look at their own results.
To get fresh ideas and inspiration, it’s often worth taking a step back to see what others are doing. The new GetResponse Email Marketing Benchmarks report helps by providing plenty of insight into how successful companies create memorable, impactful email campaigns.
Here are five lessons from the report based on the latest email benchmark statistics, in the reports plus actionable tips to try in your own campaigns:
1. Email at the right time
If a billboard is placed…
Which are the technologies that are dominating the Marketing Automation space?
Did you know that when it comes to marketing automation, just six technologies hold more than half of the market share? Well, now you do – courtesy of competitive intelligence and lead generation company SimilarTech and inbound marketing agency Bold Digital Architects.
The two companies recently teamed up to create a report on the State of Marketing Automation in 2017 and managed to draw up a couple of interesting conclusions.
Before we go into further detail, here’s a short overview for your convenience:
Six biggest technologies hold a total of 57 per cent of the market share.
A total of 482,765 websites have been using marketing automation technology last year, representing an increase in usage.
With more than a fifth of market share (21 per cent), Hubspot has the single largest market share.
B2B companies are most inclined on using marketing…
The Instagram tactics of the top US companies
The Fortune 500 is, put simply, a list of the 500 most valuable US companies based on revenue. These are all enormous businesses, with trillions in combined revenue. It's a mix of all different kinds of businesses, so some will be digital leaders whilst others may be laggards. TrackMaven have analysed the official Instagram accounts of all the Fortune 500 companies which use the platform. By doing so, they've given us an insight into how top brands use Instagram, but also reveals some mistakes that they're making, so you can learn from their mistakes as well as their triumphs.
How many top US companies use Instagram?
Fortune 500 companies are ranked by revenue, and interestingly we see that the higher revenue companies are considerably more likely to use Instagram. It's also worth noting that even among the top 100 the adoption rates are still only slightly over…
New research from the DMA shows that only 48% of marketers agree that social media gives them any return on investment.
A report from the DMA on social media's place in marketing reveals some very interesting trends, but not all of them are positive. Although the vast majority (77%) of marketers are using at least one social network to promote their brand, that doesn't necessarily mean they are getting the most out of social or generating significant ROI from it. The research asked some 111 marketers from a mix of large B2B and B2C companies questions regarding their use of social media. We have also just undertaken our own research in 2017 with a much larger sample size (609) and found a big divide in how marketers view the effectiveness of social media marketing.
Which channels are used most for marketing?
As a rule of thumb, marketers will generally gravitate to the channels…
Demand remains strong for digital marketers though the supply of candidates will be tight
The proliferation of digital tools, social media, and mobile have created a world of two-way communication with buyers that’s here to stay. To keep up, companies are seeking out marketers with digital expertise at an increasing rate, according to a recent study from McKinley Marketing Partners.
The study, which surveyed over 300 marketers, reveals a healthy job market for the marketing industry overall, 19 percent growth over last year. Additionally, 44 percent of those surveyed plan to hire more marketers this year compared to only 28 percent last year.
Digital marketing continues to dominate with a projected 56 percent of hires requiring some degree of digital experience. Interestingly, 48 percent of requests for marketing talent received by McKinley Marketing Partners in 2016 required digital skills, and that figure is already on the rise this year. Creative services (35 percent)…
Facebook dominates social media by audience reach AND engagement
We all know Facebook is the most popular social network. Yet it's useful to be reminded how important it is since it helps us prioritise our marketing focus accordingly. This comScore 'Digital Future in Focus' report shows the importance of Facebook in an interesting format since it shows levels of audience engagement with the platform compared to reach.
By comparing Reach on the X-axis against Engagement on the Y-axis we can see how far ahead Facebook is compared to the other social networks. This data is for a younger US audience, but the report shows a similar pattern for an older audience and the 'Future in Focus' series covers other countries too. Note that this picture could be considered a little misleading if it was…
Report shows the key trends small and medium businesses need to utilise this year
Small businesses have more marketing options than they have ever had before. Low barriers to entry on marketing automation and social media platforms present massive opportunities for smaller businesses, yet it also means increased complexity and more channels to keep on top of. This can be a big problem for smaller marketing departments which can quickly become overwhelmed.
To give an idea of the scale of the problem, just last year the number of marketing technology companies doubled from around 2000 to 4000. In our infographic of digital marketing tools we identified 35 categories. That means way more options and loads of great new tools, but it also means there are twice the number of solutions to get your head around. How are you meant to know which tools you need and which are superfluous?
Understanding trends across…
Essential lessons from the top B2B brands across different verticals
Trackmaven analysed the social media content from 316 leading B2B brands on the 5 largest social networks over the past 12 months, so you can benchmark your own B2B social media efforts against some of the best in the industry. If you work in B2C rather than B2B you can read our write up on the B2C social media report instead.
B2C Social Media audience size by industry
There are big differences between industries when it comes to audience size, but in large part these are probably explained by how well the industries are suited to social media . Professional services does so well because although it's B2B it is offering a product (jobs) which a massive number of people are going to be interested in. There are always going to be more people wanting to look at jobs postings than…
