Our recommendations of the best global online marketing consumer adoption and marketing benchmark statistics
Online marketers love statistics about digital marketing. We do too since they enable us to use a more data-driven approach to inform our future investments. They allow us to review the growth in customer adoption of the latest digital platforms and technologies, make the business case for investment in marketing and allow us to benchmark our growth and performance against competitors.
From reviewing thousands of stats sources over the years, I've found that there are a very small number of quality online marketing statistics sites and sources which are updated at least annually and have a representative sample size from different countries. Here we share our experience of ten of the best, most reliable free and paid sources we use to update our benchmarks. Everyone has their favourites, but I thought it would be…
An introduction and examples of using a planned approach to business digitalization with examples
In this article, you will learn what should be included in a digital strategy for a business and how to set goals and structure it. We will also explain the difference between a digital marketing strategy and cover some examples of digital strategy.
What is digital strategy?
A digital strategy defines an organization’s priority initiatives for future investment in digital technology to make a business more competitive by digitalization of its processes and review of its business model. It has a broad scope, covering how digital technology can support business goals across the business.
Technology analyst Gartner (2023) highlights this in their definition of digitalization where they emphasize a focus on improving business model rather than process. However, for me, digital strategy should consider both digitalization of both business processes and business model innovation.
Although ‘digital strategy’ usually focuses on…
Without setting clear marketing objectives, you’re basically directionless – and working to achieve vanity metrics that don’t necessarily help you achieve your overall business goals
Digital marketing objectives underpin all marketing strategies. After all, how do you know what you're working towards without clear, actionable, and achievable metrics? Setting marketing goals should always be the priority as they will be the basis of your entire strategy.
By achieving your digital marketing objectives, you’re also helping reach your overall business goals, whether that’s boosting your overall sales or improving awareness of your brand.
Setting marketing objectives is, on one hand, a great way to motivate yourself and your team and work towards achieving better results for your business.
On the other hand, objectives and KPI-setting is about much more than just saying “I want to achieve that and that” – it’s how you can develop a plan or strategy that will help support your vision…
Review your campaigns and learn how you can improve your digital media performance with our marketing campaign analysis tools
The process of setting up, brainstorming, planning, and ultimately delivering digital marketing campaigns is an exhausting, challenging, yet fun and extremely rewarding process.
Once the campaign goes live, you can witness the fruits of your labor. However, all digital marketing campaigns must at some point come to an end and there is always one final step in the process: campaign analysis.
Every company, brand, or agency will approach the end of a campaign differently, with some going into detail and others taking a much broader view. However whilst digital campaigns can be quite simple and straightforward, perhaps with maybe just one or two channels, others may be more complex and multifaceted.
I, therefore, believe it’s always best to err on the side of detail so that you can get a true picture of how different…
Examples of how SMEs can use Porter’s 5 Forces to assess marketplace viability
Right now, Porter's 5 Forces is the most useful tool for owners and managers to stay one step ahead of the competition in a challenging market. The Porter's 5 Forces model has always been popular with SMEs in particular, looking to invest for growth and manage risk to their limited resources.
Earmarked as the best marketing model to help small businesses analyze the competition in the marketplace, balancing these 5 forces is a must for your 2022 marketing action plan.
What are Porter’s 5 Forces?
Porter’s 5 Forces is an analytical model that helps marketers and business managers look at the ‘balance of power’ in a market between different organizations on a global level, and to analyze the attractiveness and potential profitability of an industry sector.
Competitive rivalry
Threat of substitute products
Bargaining power of buyers
Threat…
The Ansoff Model is a matrix that helps marketing leaders identify business growth opportunities for their marketing strategies in a challenging market
What is the Ansoff Model?
Also referred to as the Ansoff matrix, due to its grid format, the Ansoff Model helps marketers identify opportunities to grow revenue for a business through developing new products and services or "tapping into" new markets. So it's sometimes known as the ‘Product-Market Matrix’ instead of the ‘Ansoff Matrix’.
The Ansoff Model's focus on growth means that it's one of the most widely used marketing models. It is used to evaluate opportunities for companies to increase their sales through showing alternative combinations for new markets (i.e. customer segments and geographical locations) against products and services offering four strategies as shown.
How to use the Ansoff Matrix
Strategic questions that can be answered using the matrix include:
Market Penetration:…
Tap into your customers' evolving relationships with technology and the financial services industry and seize new opportunities to strengthen your financial services digital strategy
Globally, the financial sector is facing significant challenges as new online services are created and improved. As consumers' demands and expectations continue to increase, marketers and managers must adapt their financial services digital strategy to stay ahead of the competition.
In this blog, we explore the latest innovations in the finance sector and how they apply to both business- and consumer-facing markets, ranging from established financial services brands and new fintech startups to IFA intermediary markets. And, more importantly, what you can do about it.
Opportunity, Strategy, and Action for financial services
Our simple OSA model helps marketers, managers, and business owners identify challenges and opportunities in their current situation, inform their strategy, and take action. As we discuss the latest developments, it can be useful to refer back to…
Branding means fully integrating your customers' experiences of your brand. We'll recommend marketing tools and training to show you how, as well as taking an in-depth look into the definition of branding
What's the definition of branding? Across numerous terms and definitions, one thing that rings true for pretty much all of them is a heightened focus on your customers' experiences of your branded goods or services, compared to your competitors. But what is meant by brand definition today? And what can brand marketers learn from this?
We've all seen that, to succeed in today's competitive omnichannel environment, it's more important than ever that brands champion their key customers (both potential buyers and those with existing lifetime value) in all of their marketing activities. You need a data-driven, customer-focused approach to marketing to outpace your competitors.
As a result, we guarantee that all our marketing training is integrated across our tried and tested…
How do you summarise a business model canvas or marketing plan for online startups using a single sheet of A4? Our top business model frameworks for you
Defining a clear online business model framework is essential for a new startup online business to help create a sustainable business and communicate the features of their new business to partners and within the company.
Reviewing business models is also important for existing businesses thinking about options to refine their business model or add new services to their offerings in the light of new opportunities made possible by the Internet.
As you know, I'm a big fan of simple frameworks to help communicate strategy. In particular, I love the Business Model Canvas which is a valuable framework for summarizing strategy for online businesses. It was published as part of a co-creation creative commons project involving 470 practitioners from 45 countries.
We feature it as part of our…
As digital transformation continues to shape the new relationship between healthcare providers and their customers, upskill your pharma marketing team with the key digital skills and tools to improve performance
The question of the key digital skills and tools in the pharma industry is an ongoing challenge. Pharma marketing generalists plan and optimize marketing strategies, campaigns and product launches, requiring a T-shaped digital skillset and continuous professional development to oversee all marketing activity. Pharma digital specialists manage day-to-day optimization of key digital channels, the new front-line of customer engagement. Investment in tools and training for these staff is crucial for your company's growth. Of course, the breakdown of these channels will depend on your pharma company's positioning and target markets, which we will visit further on in the article.
Why invest in digital marketing for pharma?
Improved distribution of, and accessibility to, pharmaceutical data and information is accelerating customer-centric disruption…
