In the fast paced world of internet marketing, it is often hard for business owners to keep up with the latest research and best practices. Worse still, the era of Twitter has a lot of people getting information in 140 characters without any context for the research or how it can be used. Johann Wolgang Goethe once said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” This post will help business owners apply the knowledge they gain by showing five new internet marketing statistics and how they can be used to increase profits in 2014.
According to a new report from Econsultancy and Adobe, customer experience, mobile and content marketing are among the three most important business opportunities in 2014.
This is a good statistics to start with because it illustrates how important internet marketing is to business owners and what tactics show the most promise for the near future. A key takeaway from this study is that an effective internet marketing strategy must cover the basics. Whatever tactic or internet marketing channel a business owner chooses to use, they need to make sure the customer enjoys their experience, that the content is good enough to share and to bring people back, and that the content is available on the mobile devices that a growing number of people are using to connect to the internet.Facebook saw a spike in quarter-on-quarter impressions and click-through rates on paid ads during the 4th quarter of 2013.
Marketing budgets aren’t limitless so it’s vital that marketers use their budgets in the most cost-effective way possible. Facebook Ads have always been a good bargain for business owners and it will continue to be for the foreseeable future. For businesses who need to reach a particular segment of the population, Facebook Ads makes it possible to get content shown to these users and can effectively be used to drive traffic to websites, specials, and more.A user survey by a B2B review site found that 42 percent of business software buyers use in-depth reviews before contacting vendors for demos, despite the fact that 90 percent of them are in an active purchase cycle.
The importance of reviews for business-to-consumer organization has been known for a while and that knowledge has been used to guide the design of websites and to convert more sales on ecommerce sites. This research shows that it’s not just consumers who trust reviews so much. Even business owners and entrepreneurs rely on customer reviews to decide who to buy from. Not only that, this research shows that even if the buyer has already initiated the sales process, they are still looking for reviews. Business-to-business retailers need to embrace this information by encouraging their current customers to leave feedback and reviews, and to make that information easy to find when people are researching the businesses products and services.Price, product range, and website issues are consumers’ top complaints when it comes to retail websites, according to new research from Qubit.
The research analysed 1.5 million pieces of feedback from the users of over 300 retail websites and found that in the end, the functionality and usability of a site are just as important as the product catalog. According to the report, the top five complaints were: Price; Product Range; Size; Site functionality; and Website speed. Among other things, this shows that the top complaints of consumers are things that most business owners have some control over. Business owners need to use the feedback they receive to fine tune their sites for the ultimate customer experience.According to Hubspot 34% of all leads generated in 2013 come from inbound marketing sources.
This statistic should be a wakeup call for businesses that have yet to embrace inbound marketing. Even with dedicated sales teams and advertising, one in three customers came to business from things like blogs, podcasts, video, eBooks, enewsletters, whitepapers, SEO, social media marketing, and other forms of content marketing. Businesses that aren’t using their websites to attract customers with content, or using social media to connect with consumers, are missing out on a lot of sales and profits.
Internet marketing and ecommerce change quickly and at times it may seem difficult to stay on the cutting edge of retail. While it may be challenging, research and statistics like those above help business owners keep their eye on the ball and see the trajectory of the future of retail. Knowing this information and, more importantly, how to use this information, gives business owner an advantage that can help them keep up with and overtake their competitors.