I’ll go ahead and kick it off…
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Trends
Getting found online comes down to creating relevant, useful content.
Content that is keyword-rich and helpful enough to generate lots of shares and inbound links will rise to the top of search engine results, bringing you more traffic and more leads.
- 75% of all clicks go to organic results.
- 89% of US internet users search online before they make a purchase, even when the purchase is made at a local business.
- Companies that blog have 97% more inbound links than those that don’t. Creating great content is the key to getting inbound links.
- 60% of all organic clicks go to the top 3 organic search results.
- 75% of users never go further than the first page of search results.
- 46% of daily searches are for research on products or services. The more pages you have, the better chance you have of ranking high.
Social Media Trends
In 2017, social media helps grow – among many other growth metrics – your organic search presence. Google loves websites with lots of inbound links – think of them as “votes” for your website.
Social shares are similar.
The more people love your content, the more Google will want to return those results in the SERPs (search engine results pages). So investing in a social media strategy can actually get you a little SEO bang for your social media buck.
- B2B companies: 65% have acquired a customer from LinkedIn, 43% from Facebook, and 40% from Twitter.
- B2C companies: 77% have acquired a customer from Facebook, 55% from Twitter, and 51% from LinkedIn.
- Companies that use Twitter average 2x more leads per month than those that do not.
- 79% of US Twitter users are more likely to recommend the brands that they follow.
- Blog posts shared on Facebook and Twitter get 149% more inbound links than those not shared on social media at all.
- Email newsletters with social sharing buttons had 115% higher Click Through Rate. (Source: GetResponse)
- Facebook is now the most preferred way of sharing, second only to email.
- 57% of small businesses say social media is beneficial to their business.
- 20% of Facebook users have purchased something because of ads or comments they saw there. (Source: Ipsos)
- US Internet users spend 3X more time on blogs and social networks than on email.
- Nearly 2/3 of US internet users regularly use a social network.
Content Marketing Trends
Without a doubt, it’s become increasingly true that blogging is one of the most effective ways to increase your search rankings and generate more traffic to your site.
- Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic & 70% more leads than companies that don’t.
- 57% of companies have acquired a customer through their blog.
- B2C companies that blog get 88% more leads per month than those who don’t.
- B2B companies that blog get 67% more leads per month than those who don’t.
- Businesses that blog at least 20 times per month generate over 5X more traffic and 4X more leads than those that only blog a few times per month.
- Two-thirds of marketers say their company blog is “critical” or “important” to their business.
- Blogging can increase your Twitter reach by 75%.
- 71% of survey respondents say blogs affect their purchasing decisions.
- About 46% of daily Internet users read more than one blog every day.
- 65% of daily Internet users read a blog. It could be your blog if you make it easy for them to find.
Email Marketing / List Building Trends
When done correctly, email can be an incredibly efficient and powerful way to reach your leads – and is the best way to close a sale online.
But email is also easy to do incorrectly, wasting time, resources and the goodwill of your database.
An effective email marketing tool works in close concert with your marketing database, making it easy to deliver customized, context-rich email messages that your contacts love.
The key to getting the most out of your database is having an easy way to identify and pull highly targeted segments out to market to via email marketing campaigns.
- The click-through rate for triggered messages is 119% higher than it is for standard email messages.
- 59% of marketers say email is the most effective channel in generating revenue. (Source: BTOB Magazine)
- Your email database expires at a rate of 25% per year.
- 70% of email marketing companies rate email as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ for return on investment. (Source: Econsultancy)
- 61% of marketing companies plan to increase their efforts in email marketing in the next year. (Source: Experian)
- 49% of B2B marketers spend more time and resources on email than on other channels. (Source: BTOB Magazine)
- 88% of B2B marketers use email to promote their brand online. (Source: BTOB Magazine)
Landing Page Optimization Trends
Landing pages should be the command center for your online marketing campaigns.
Not only should they be easy to create and publish, but they are most effective when integrated with all of your marketing channels for promotion.
- Companies with 40 or more landing pages generate 12x more leads than those with only a few landing pages.
- Landing pages are effective for 94% of B2B and B2C companies.
- Only 40% of marketers are A-B testing their landing pages.
- 88% of marketers that use landing pages collect data for the purpose of increasing relevance.
- Yet only half of them use this data to create unique experiences for different visitor segments. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
Lead Management / Lead Nurturing Trends
Lead nurturing and marketing automation tools can help you provide personal attention in a scale-able way that guides your sales leads from interested to sales-ready.
A nurturing system that works in concert with your database can deliver the right content to your leads within the context of who they are, what they are interested in, and what stage of the buying cycle they are in.
- Lead nurturing emails get 4-10x the response rate of standalone email blasts.
- The average click through rate of a lead nurturing campaign email is nearly 3X that of a standard email.
- Nurtured leads have a 23% shorter sales cycle. (Source: Market2Lead)
- 66% of buyers indicate that “consistent and relevant communication provided by both sales and marketing organizations” is a key influence in choosing a solution provider. (Source: Genius.com)
- 79% of marketing leads never convert into sales. Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
- 57% of B2B organizations identify ‘converting qualified leads into paying customers’ as a top funnel priority.
- BUT: 65% of B2B marketers have not established lead nurturing.
- AND: 79% of B2B marketers have not established lead scoring. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
- In 2017, lead management campaigns integrating 4 or more digital channels will outperform single- or dual-channel campaigns by 300%. (Source: Gartner)
Mobile Trends
Consumers are increasingly reading for content and making purchasing decisions based on their mobile searches and emails they read on the go.
Ensure that your content – web pages, landing pages and emails – is optimized for mobile devices to make it easy for buyers to find you, research and convert.
- 74% of smartphone users have made a purchase from their smartphone.
- 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour. (Source: Mobile Marketer)
- 47% of marketing companies plan to increase their efforts in mobile apps in the next year. (Source: Experian)
- Email opens on smartphones and tablets have increased 80% over the last six months. (Source: Litmus)
- 86% of C-level executives use a smartphone.
- Mobile internet usage is projected to overtake desktop internet usage by end of 2017. (Source: Microsoft Tag)
- Mobile shoppers will reach 72.8 million in 2016
- Mobile buyers will reach 37.5 million in 2016
- 7.96% of all web traffic in the U.S. is mobile traffic. (Source: Pingdom)
- One half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices. (Source: Microsoft Tag)
- 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7. (Source: Morgan Stanley)
- 88% of adults in the US have a cell phone, 57% have a laptop, 19% own an e-reader, and 19% have a tablet. (Source: Pew Internet)
A Few Inbound Marketing Stats (in general)
- Leads generated via inbound marketing tactics like blogging & social media cost 62% less than those generated by outbound marketing tactics like direct mail and print ads.
- 78% of sales that start with a web inquiry get won by the company that responds first.
- 75% of leads buy within 18-24 months. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
- More than three-fourths of the total population will be online in 2017
- By 2017, more than half of the dollars spent in US retail will be influenced by the web. (Source: Forrester Research)
While this information is relevant to all businesses, it is even more critical to the smaller to mid-size businesses that need every tool available to compete against the large corporate and/or chain-store businesses that have large media presence. Local businesses have the opportunity to be more relevant with content because they are more attuned to the market they serve.
Thanks for commenting Kent, and completely agree! 🙂