Chart of the Week: 57% of people in the UK spend most of their time on social media or messenger apps, but Facebook is no longer the favourite app.

Facebook is no longer as indispensable as it once was, with an increasing number of people saying it is the app they most consider quitting. Throughout the last two years, it has fallen from being the most important app in the majority of markets to one that is failing to keep its audience. As well as people getting rid of their accounts as part of a digital detox, younger audiences are turning to new social media platforms rather than Facebook. Although this means more people opting for Facebook-owned apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, it shows just how volatile the world of social media and apps currently is. [si_blog_banner_cta] We’ve taken a look at AudienceProject’s new app and…

Chart of the Week: 60% of marketers say personalization is a key strategy for improving the quality of leads being generated

Lead generation is an important part of marketing, especially now that many companies are getting rid of the internal silos and sales and marketing are working more closely together. However, it isn’t just the number of leads you need to consider when measuring success; you also need to take lead generation quality into account. The quality of your leads essentially tells you how likely they are to become customers, with high-quality leads being the most sought after. But exactly how do you attract leads that are more likely to convert? [si_guide_block id="116978" title="Download our Business Resource – Lead scoring and profiling guide" description="This guide will introduce you to the different ways you can score your leads and how you can classify them against your ideal buyer profiles."/] While there are a huge number…

Chart of the Week: 43% of organizations are "holding steady" when it comes to the effectiveness of their email marketing

Email remains to be one of the most popular marketing channels, helping marketers to reach a wide audience, convert leads and re-engage existing customers. However, the fact that it is so heavily used by marketers means that it comes with a number of challenges, which are resulting in variations in terms of the results that marketers get. When it comes to marketers’ email marketing effectiveness, 43% reported that their effectiveness is holding steady. Demand Metric and Validity’s the State of Email Marketing 2019 report revealed that more marketers are “holding steady” compared to 2018’s 37%, however, this seems to be because fewer respondents are reporting an increase in the effectiveness of their email marketing. [caption id="attachment_146623" align="aligncenter" width="939"] [Email marketing…

Chart of the Week: 86% of B2B marketers have used content marketing to achieve brand awareness goals in the last year

B2B marketers are successfully using content marketing to achieve top-of-the-funnel goals, with 86% saying they have used it to achieve their brand awareness goals in the last 12 months. New research from the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) has revealed that content marketing is helping 79% of marketers to educate their audiences while 75% are successfully using it to build credibility and/or trust. However, fewer marketers are managing to make the most of content marketing when it comes to actions deeper in the funnel. According to the 2020 B2B Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report, just 63% are managing to use content marketing to build loyalty with existing clients or customers, suggesting they could be missing out on a…

Chart of the Week: 71% of consumers in the UK and US will unfollow an influencer if it was revealed that they had bought followers, showing how easy it is to lose trust in the industry.

Influencers can help to make or break a brand. When you work well with influencers, they can raise brand awareness, get more people engaging with your company and increase conversion. However, if your campaign isn’t handled properly, it could result in a lack of trust and your audience going elsewhere. This is why it is vital to understand what you should and shouldn’t do when dealing with influencers. After all, one wrong move could cause damage that takes years to repair. According to Takumi’s latest research into the realities of influencer marketing, there are a lot of aspects of influencer marketing that can turn consumers off. [si_guide_block id="27934" title="Download our Individual Member Resource…

Chart of the Week: Only 57% of personal emails are now being opened by recipients and just 37% are viewed as being useful

People are now spending less time checking their emails, according to research from Adobe. Personal emails have seen the biggest drop since 2016, in terms of minutes spent checking them, following a small increase in 2018. When it comes to business emails, while they are checked less than in 2016, they have seen an increase in minutes being spent looking at them compared to 2017 and 2018.

Personal versus work emails

In terms of open rates, people are a lot more likely to open work emails than personal emails. Around 80% of work emails are opened on average, with 59% of work emails being deemed useful by recipients. In fact, people spent three hours or…

Chart of the Week: 34% of customers are frustrated at not being able to find answers to simple questions. Could updated customer service channels help?

As it becomes easier to find information and make purchases, customers are becoming increasingly impatient. Brands need to ensure they are reducing this frustration by offering the highest possible level of service. However, now that there are so many channels that customers can interact with you, this is more difficult than ever. Brands need to ensure they are making the purchase journey simple and engaging, providing all the relevant information in an easy-to-find way and communicating with customers across all the channels their audience uses. [si_guide_block id="70611" title="Download our Free Resource – Essential digital marketing tools" description="This guide gives Free members a preview of the 30 categories of digital marketing tools you should be using for your marketing."/] Failing on any one of these fronts can mean you lose customers,…

Chart of the Week: 64% of consumers are now belief-driven buyers who want brands to deliver on societal issues, as well as products

We all know that trusting a brand increases the chances of a customer buying from it. Building trust turns customers into advocates, providing priceless word-of-mouth marketing. On top of this, brand trust means customers keep coming back, which is hugely beneficial considering the fact that customer retention is cheaper than acquisition. But exactly what does brand trust mean to customers and how can it impact their decision making? Today, brand trust is everything to customers, meaning that once you’ve lost it, you’ve likely lost them. [si_guide_block id="50995" title="Download our Business Resource – Brand storytelling guide" description="This guide helps you explore the fundamentals of developing powerful authentic brand stories."/] In fact, according to Edelman’s latest research, businesses are trusted even more than governments, showing…

Chart of the Week: Almost a third of marketers would spend extra budget on data, analytics and marketing tech to meet the growing requirement for personalization

With the world of digital marketing moving at a faster pace than ever, it is growing increasingly important to assign budget to those areas that could provide the biggest benefits. Arguably, this means investment in areas such as personalization and automation, especially as personalization is being seen as key to improving the quality of leads being generated. [si_guide_block id="87688" title="Download our Business Resource –Marketing technology selection guide" description="This guide will help you harness the power of the available digital tools."/] According to Merkle’s latest Customer Engagement Report, data, technology and analytics are deemed to be the most important areas at the moment, coming ahead of areas like digital (16%), paid media (10%) and search (10%). …

Chart of the Week: 42% of email senders have a good reputation score but is that enough to get emails into inboxes?

Email marketing can help convert leads into customers, re-engage existing customers and provide a high level of ROI – if you get your campaign right. Your emails aren’t just about engaging images or CTAs being in the right place, first and foremost, your campaign needs to be about getting emails into inboxes, which is where many people fail. According to Return Path’s 2019 Sender Score Benchmark Report, 2018 saw more than 600 billion emails sent by spammers, which ultimately means that email providers get stricter with protocols designed to stop spammers. While these protocols are meant to protect people from potentially harmful emails, legitimate senders can be affected. [si_guide_block id="134223" title="Access our Quick Win – Getting emails into the inbox" description="Better understand email marketing deliverability, how to…