15 Top Marketing Charts for 2016 You Don’t want to Miss
With 2016 coming to a close, let’s take a look back at some of the most interesting marketing charts that best summarize the year and where we are headed in 2017. Content is becoming more and more visual, so what better way than to visualize the data behind the trends.
1) Marketing Spend for 2016
Email marketing, social media, online display advertising, and mobile marketing are the top channels in which marketers are focusing their time and attention. Email remains the strongest focus area for marketers, as shown in research by Selligent and StrongView which reported that 6 in 10 respondents reported planning to increase their email marketing spending this year,
2) Email Marketer’s Top Initiatives
Email marketers are focused on increasing subscriber engagement than they are on growing their list, per results from a Strongview survey. Improving segmentation and targeting ranks as the second-most important initiative for the email marketers surveyed.
3) Mobile Internet Ad Spending is on the Rise
Mobile ad spend is projected to surpass desktop ad spend by the end of 2016, when it is expected to balloon to almost $105 billion. By 2019 mobile ad spend should reach $198.
4) The Mobile Shopping Experience
Mobile usage has overtaken desktops, and consumers are flocking to their smartphones for socializing, researching, and shopping. Because the mobile shopping experience is so crucial is determining whether you close the sale or not, it’s important to know what consumers expect in the mobile shopping experience. According to research by Nielsen, the top factors include the ability to see product pictures, using the mobile-friendly version of the website, having product descriptions, and being able to read product reviews.
5) The Future of Data-Driven Marketing
With the deluge of new data being created on a daily basis, marketers have access to a treasure trove of consumer insights to optimize their marketing strategies. Data-driven marketing is becoming more sophisticated and will continue to bring new opportunities and competitive advantage. According to Econsultancy and Adobe, the most exciting opportunities according to survey respondents include optimizing the customer experience, creating compelling content for digital experiences, and data-driven marketing that focuses on the individual.
6) Increased Emphasis on Marketing Automation Technologies
Marketers this year have increased their adoption of marketing automation technologies. In a 2015 Marketo & Ascend2 study 91% of the most successful users agreed that marketing automation was “very important” to the overall success of their marketing across channels. According to research by Aberdeen, companies also saw higher average website conversion rates (6.7% versus 4.7%), higher conversion rates from raw lead to marketing-qualified lead (36% versus 18%) and a greater number of marketing-generated leads accepted by sales (53% versus 27%). The top goals of a marketing automation strategy for marketers include increasing lead generation, improving lead nurturing and increasing sales revenue (Ascend2).
7) What Does It Take to Get the Customer Experience Right?
The customer experience has become the holy grail that all marketers are striving for. A great customer experience can boost sales, enhance customer loyalty, maximize customer value, and attract new customers to your business.
In a survey by CMO Council and SAP Hybris, marketers named the most important attributes of the customer experience. The top attributes included fast response times to issues, needs or complaints; consistency of experience across channels, knowledgeable staff ready to assist wherever and whenever the customer needs, and clear, consistent messaging and information across channels.
8) Actions Taken to Improve the Customer Experience
In 2016, marketers focused on several key areas to improve the customer experience, including developing/improving digital channels, developing/improving traditional channels, improving analytics capabilities to improve customer insights, and concentrating on efforts to create more valuable content for customers (Accenture Interactive & Forrester Consulting).
9) The Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic
Who can forget Scott Brinker’s supergraphic detailing the marketing technology landscape. Acording to Scott, “As mind-boggling as it is, the marketing technology landscape grew even bigger. I’ve fit 3,874 marketing technology solutions on to a single 16×9 slide — almost twice as many as last year.” Technology is constantly evolving and this graphic shows the huge influence that technology has on successful marketing strategies.
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10) Companies Using Social Networks for Marketing
Social media plays a large role in purchasing decisions for many consumers, with 57% of consumers stating that they’re influenced to think more highly of business after seeing positive comments or praise online. (source) Social marketing is also a great way to connect with younger generations. 90% of young adults—ages 18 to 29—use social media (compared to just 35% of those over age 65). Fully a third of millennials say social media is one of their preferred channels for communicating with businesses. (source)
According to eMarketer, the top three platforms are currently Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
11) Most Effective – and Difficult – Personalization Tactics
The most important goal of a data-driven marketing strategy is to personalize the customer experience, according to the latest study from Ascend2 and its Research Partners. The most effective data-driven personalization tactic is email message personalization, cited by 47%. Beyond email, marketers also consider targeted landing pages (43%) and contact data segmentation (38%) to be effective forms of personalization.
12) How Millennials and Boomers Discover New Products
Wondering how to get discovered by your target audience? MarketingSherpa conducted a survey to discover how different generations and age groups discover new products. To sum up the report finding, millennial women tend to prefer to learn about new products they would potentially like to buy from social media accounts of their friends and customer reviews on company websites. Millennial men, on the other hand, favor online advertising. Baby Boomer women and men prefer in-store browsing and articles in print magazines/newspapers.
13) Video Marketing Strategy
Cisco estimates that by 2018, 79% of all global internet traffic will be video. Video makes people more likely to buy: “Viewers are anywhere from 64-85% more likely to buy after watching a product video,” according to KissMetrics. Video gets people to buy more: “Sites with video on the majority of product pages had a 68% higher average order value than sites with video on only a few product pages.” From Invodo’s 2016 Video Statistics report.
According to research by Ascend2, marketers ranked brand awareness, online engagement, customer education and increasing leads as their most important objectives of an effective video marketing strategy.
14) B2B Content Usage
The most popular types of content used by B2B marketers this year include social media content at 93%, case studies at 82%, and blogs, newsletters, and in-person events, all at 81%.(Content Marketing Institute / Marketing Prof)
15) B2C Content Usage
90% of B2C marketers currently use social media content. The tactics that increased the most this year include infographics (45% last year vs. 62% this year), and illustrations/photos (75% last year and 87% this year). (Content Marketing Institute / Marketing Prof)
2017 promises to be a year full of new marketing opportunities, data-driven strategies, and continual transformation in the marketing technology landscape. And of course, a whole new of charts to visualize the data behind the trends. in the meantime, take a break with our Data-Driven Marketing eBook - you don't want to miss it!
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