4 Digital Marketing Data Insights and What They Mean for Your Growing Business

Author
Jon Leighton
Director | Land Digital
12th November 2019

Photo by Lukas Blazek on Unsplash

As the owner of a startup in the relatively early stages of your company’s life, watching older, larger businesses from afar - with their sizeable marketing budgets, huge teams and sophisticated suites of reporting software - can be an unflattering comparison. Fear not, though: while that level of growth will have to come with time, the crucial thing to remember is that there are numerous ways to learn from the mistakes and benefit from the achievements of the many startups that came before you.

In this post from our friends over at Land Digital, they share some data-backed secrets to getting your digital marketing right the first time. Here, you’ll find a handful of revealing statistics from the last year in digital - lovingly curated by HubSpot - with the power to inspire a successful next round of online marketing activity.

50% of search queries are four words or longer. (IMPACT, 2019)

While this may seem like a fairly trivial stat at first sight, there’s a roadmap to organic search success hidden therein. When embarking upon your initial keyword research for your brand, the temptation is, of course, to focus on the big, juicy umbrella terms that encapsulate your industry as a whole and are searched many thousands of times each month. In truth, this spells the start of a gruelling uphill battle - with great search comes great competition.

Identifying your brand’s unique selling points, and the more niche (and therefore targeted) keywords that relate to those strengths, is the first vital step towards finding the raft of ‘long-tail’ search queries that couldn’t be more relevant to the product or service you offer and, better yet, demonstrate clear intent to convert. Naturally, search volumes fall off a proverbial cliff the more targeted the query becomes - but with the above stat in mind, it’s clear there’s plenty of collective, relevant search up for grabs when you take the road less travelled in your organic search efforts.

86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps. (Junto, 2019)

We wouldn’t expect this stat to be much of a surprise, as you’ll likely be a part of the 86% yourself. If ever you’re looking to visit a brick-and-mortar store, plan your route to an event venue or navigate your way to a bar or restaurant, Google Maps will probably be your first port of call. As Google My Business becomes an ever more powerful and necessary tool for businesses, particularly those with (or aspiring to have) a local presence, helping users know who and where you are becomes more and more worthwhile.

Of course, if users are searching your brand name in Google, there’s a fair chance they already know what you’re about and whether they’re prepared to spend with you - but for all those users searching your name out of sheer curiosity or hitting ‘enter’ on a local search query your business was launched to resolve, there are certainly ways to maximise your visibility and, crucially, your appeal.

Start by creating your Google My Business listing, populating this listing with all essential location and contact information, then take your profile one step further with an optimised business description, relevant business categories, detailed service information and targeted company attributes (to name just a handful of the possible optimisations available to you). After that, you’ll need scores of Google reviews from satisfied customers or clients to put the cherry on top of your business listing.

63% of people said they’d click on a Google ad. (Search Engine Land, 2019)

If you’re a newbie to the world of paid digital advertising, you’ll love and hate getting to grips with Google Ads, with all its challenges and complexities made worthwhile, thanks to the huge profit potential that comes with this highly sophisticated yet intuitive advertising platform. Years ago, it was believed by many that paid search results were generally ignored by the average user in favour of the traditional organic results - much to the dismay of brands paying big for impressions rather than clicks. However, this stat shows this is certainly not the case in 2019.

The good news is getting started with Google Ads is easy. With courses galore available online - including Google’s own collection of tutorials which lead to coveted certification - you can get to know all the necessary tools, tactics and concepts from the comfort of your sofa. The best advice we can give to absolute beginners is to start small - testing variations of keyword targeting, ad copy, calls-to-action and landing pages with a modest daily budget so that you can iron out the creases and work towards a formula that converts before throwing money at your campaign.

91% of shoppers want to hear from companies they do business with via email. (Sleeknote, 2019)

Last but by no means least, let’s not forget the power of targeted email marketing - especially for ecommerce businesses looking to build mutually beneficial relationships with their customers. From exclusive members’ discounts and new product tip-offs to advanced warnings of flash sales and stock status updates on popular products, there are so many ways for your brand to reel in loyal repeat customers with treats and rewards that are genuinely worth having.

What this powerful stat shows is that, while there’s undeniably something in it for you when it comes to dangling these deals via email, the happy truth is that your customers welcome these emails with open arms. Once you’ve got a healthy-looking mailing list under your belt, to harness the power of email marketing for good, sit down and take stock of the various perks and rewards you’d be willing and able to offer your customers or clients - these will form the basis for your next slew of campaigns. With your campaign strategy laid out, it’s back to you to craft some magnetic email marketing copy that will leave your customers helpless to resist.

 

Photo by Franki Chamaki on Unsplash

With any luck, these digital marketing data insights will have demonstrated that the world’s your oyster when it comes to attracting and retaining customers online as a growing business. Thankfully, data analysts the world over are constantly compiling new stats just like these to show you where to go next and illustrate the rewards you’ll be able to reap when you get there.

Author bio:

Jon Leighton is the Director of Land Digital, a full-service digital agency providing made-to-measure marketing, design and development solutions to help businesses in the UK solve their commercial problems.

 

Do you want to join the conversation?

Sign up here
  • Join the Chamber

    Connect, share & grow - raise your business profile locally & nationally through the largest membership organisation in the South West.