2024 Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) statistics: Discover the latest search usage and adoption data to inform your search strategies

Statistics help us turn data into information, allowing us to make informed and rational decisions and that's exactly the purpose of this article. We're huge fans of search engine marketing, both search engine optimization and paid search marketing. But with behavior changing so quickly, it's vital to keep on top of search engine marketing statistics to inform your strategy. We have a wide range of tools and templates for marketers looking to make data-driven marketing decisions. Whether you're looking for channel excellence or marketing strategy advice, we've got resources to support your digital marketing optimization journey. [si_blog_banner_cta]

Search marketing data for 2024 - February update

This summary of search engine marketing statistics is aimed at helping you make better-informed decisions about the running of your search marketing. I'll start by reviewing…

Personalized marketing, as we know from our experiences as brand-lovers and as marketers, is the make or break of any e-commerce marketing strategy in a competitive environment

Personalized marketing is all about offering improved user experience (UX) by serving relevant content, or targeting key messages in the funnel, based on your customer’s e-commerce activities and behaviour. Personalized marketing unlocks tactics for retailers to form personal relationships with their customers during their online experience (CX), to nurture leads and drive more sales from digital marketing. During a global 2022 survey of consumers who purchased something online in the past six months, 62% stated that a brand would lose their loyalty if it delivered a non-personalized experience. This is no secret to marketers who have watched a growing trend of personalization customer expectations and e-commerce investment to match. In fact, the chart below shows current customer experience personalization and…

What is the difference and does it matter?!

Before Digital marketing became the de-facto term, I've been asked this question a lot across the years... does the difference in scope between these terms matter? So, as we enter 2023, I thought it was time for another quick look. Here is the latest comparison from Google Trends between 2004 and present Does the difference in these terms and their definitions matter? No, of course not, it's semantics! But it is interesting to see how the scope of Internet marketing vs Digital marketing has changed over time. In my books, when discussing alternative definitions, I explain that, no it doesn't really matter, but the scope and responsibility is important to make the most of managing the opportunities. So the scope of digital marketing activities should be agreed within a business and/or between a company and its agencies. The…

Marketing is crucial for businesses of all shapes and sizes, no matter your budget size. Read on to find out more about digital marketing for startups

Interested in digital marketing for startups? So you recently started a business. Or maybe you have a small business that you’re trying to get off the ground and running. Of course, now you need to start getting the word out about your start-up. The great news is, digital marketing is highly accessible to businesses of all shapes and sizes, no matter your budget size. But digital marketing is really wide. If you know nothing about it, you can easily get lost in the noise, which means you can waste your efforts and have little results to show for it. On the other hand, if you do digital marketing the right way, you can increase your customer base, survive, and even thrive as a business. To get the right results,…

“Plans and strategies are crucial.”

You hear this a lot in the marketing world but, it seems, many of us are failing to put our money where our mouth is - or finding it harder to do rather than just say. Partnering with Technology for Marketing, we recently surveyed our members to discover how they approached digital marketing optimization. What we found was a distinct shortfall in strategy and planning activities.  We asked our members to rank their digital marketing abilities at the initial “Plan” stage of the RACE Growth Framework on a scale of one to five. ‘One’ meant having no strategy and ‘five’ stretched to a significantly advanced level. 57% of our respondents rated themselves within the lowest stages - one or two.  [si_guide_block id="155497" title="Download…

Digital Marketing Optimization is transforming recession marketing strategies. These 5 tactics for managing customer experience will set you apart from your competitors

Surviving this recession is all about, you guessed it, your customers! As we have seen clearly in 2020, being able to anticipate and respond, fast, to changes in the market can mean the difference between make or break in a challenging environment. And, when it comes to managing customer experience, haven't we all seen some rapid changes? "Recessions inevitably lead to changes in consumer spending and demand for products and services." - Dr. Dave Chaffey As Dr. Dave Chaffey asserts in our recession-beating marketing tactics for growing your business guide, changes in consumer spending require marketers to 'prioritize marketing activities with the biggest potential'. After all, to survive this recession, marketers need to make strategic decisions to outpace their competitors and acquire and retain valuable customers. [si_guide_block id="151279" title="Download Free…

Chatbot increases conversions, not just dialog, which is why you need to understand how best to use chatbots

Live chatbot is not just for customer support anymore; it’s a proven engagement and revenue booster. Kayako.com shares some compelling statistics that show just how powerful live chat can be when it comes to engagement and conversion. Analytics and conversion expert Neil Patel also shares some conversion math related to chat. He asserts that, with chat available, 10-50% of your visitors will engage with you on your website. If implemented correctly, one-third of those visitors should go on to become buyers. Even using his conservative estimates, that means a conversion rate of 3.3% through the use of chat. That’s nothing to scoff at. For large-volume sites, these conversion rates and revenues add up quickly. Here are six tactics you…

Chart of the Day: How popular are Digital Transformation programmes?

Our Managing Digital Marketing research (a free download) reveals many challenges for how digital marketing is run by companies today. Problems included a lack of focus on integrated strategy, testing and optimization and structural issues, such as teams working in silos or lack of skills in integrated communications. To counter these types of problems and to make the most of the opportunities for growing a business through digital marketing, many businesses are now putting a digital transformation programme in place. The chart shows how many businesses are active in transformation. You can see that over a third (35%) of businesses already have a transformation programme in place, which is an increase from the 34% who last year had a programme set up. On top of this, 31% are looking to launch…

Stay calm, slow down and refocus your marketing priorities to tackle the current COVID-19 challenge

The world of marketing is a busy, hectic and uncertain one at the best of times. From the changing nature of consumer preferences to the evolution of new technologies and digital channels, over recent years marketers have had to adapt to changing circumstances and make the most of new opportunities. In addition to these micro-challenges, the last ten years since the financial crash of 2008 has posed several macro challenges, too. The nature of work itself has become very different, with a steady rise in contracting and freelancing, remote working and even changes to employment rights. All of these factors have meant that marketers have had to become more resilient and adaptable.

Enter COVID-19...

The recent coronavirus outbreak has tested workers across all sectors in new and unprecedented ways. At the time of writing, the…

Chart of the week: Discounts, receipts and advanced notice of products/sales are the top performers for email content according to customers, but marketers are not following suit in their email comms

The Data & Marketing Association (DMA) published its Marketer Email Tracker 2020 last week. Combining insights by marketers and customers alike, the report explores email’s multi-faceted role in communicating with consumers across all stages of the customer lifecycle – not just as a transactional channel, but one that can be used to inform and build long-lasting relationships.

Email is customers' top pick of the channels

Research by DMA found that email topped every channel when customers were asked their preference for receiving information, including appointments/reminders, customer service, new products, and tutorials. In this report, email outperformed all other channels listed below: Messenger Post Text Face-to-face Online Phone Social media Email This news is music to email marketers' ears, since this…