November 8, 2016
As marketers, there is nothing we like more than to sink our teeth into some meaty stats in an effort to satiate our appetite for evaluation, understanding and improvement.
Also, they make us sound smart. And like we know what we are talking about which, in an industry that is undergoing relentless, exponential change, is never a bad thing 😉
In my never-ending pursuit of knowledge (ie. trawling the web for something to blog about), I came across one of those ubiquitously titled “Ultimate List of Marketing Stats” posts that the internet is riddled with.
However, this one was written by the content marketing masterminds at Hubspot, who have a knack for publishing industry-leading content.
The list is broken down into SEO, Content Marketing, Social Media, Video Marketing, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Advertising, Marketing Technology and Sales stats.
Which is the long way of saying don’t let the click-batey title fool you, this list does exactly what it says on the tin.
Some of the data that immediately spoke to me included graphs like this one where proving ROI took a backseat to the serious business of lead generation:
And this one, which shows that the main distribution channel marketers are adding next year (by a country mile) is YouTube:
On the content marketing side (specifically blogging) what really stood out were the stats supporting the impact VOLUME has on results.
Namely that companies blogging 11+ times a month have almost 3X more traffic and 4X as many leads as those blogging only 4-5 times per month.
What’s also interesting to note is that only 30% of B2B marketers say their organisations are effective at content marketing, down 38% from last year.
Add the fact that 55% of B2B marketers say they are unclear on what content marketing success or effectiveness looks like and what starts to become apparent is that agencies that have a clear strategy and are delivering the goods in B2B marketing (*cough) are like hen’s teeth.
Looking at social-specific stats, the following immediately jumped out:
There were a few other gems in there that immediately caught my eye.
As of 2015, 35% of all those 65 and older reported using social media, compared with just 2% in 2005.
When it comes to young adults, in 2015 90% of young adults reported using social media, compared with 12% in 2005. (Pew Research Center, 2015).
We all know it to be true, but the stats on the effectiveness of visual content included in this post are perfect fodder for persuading the C-suite to release more design budget.
For example, visual content is 40X more likely to get shared on social, coloured visuals increase a person’s willingness to read an article by 80% and infographics are liked and shared on social media 3X more than any other type of content.
Put simply, Hubspot has done us all a massive favour by neatly collating these stats and you’d do well to bookmark this link the next time you have to persuade anyone of the effectiveness of everything from Social Media and Content Marketing to Video Marketing and SEO.