The State of Digital Marketing in 2015: Infographic

Once again the internet has produced a handy dandy infographic on digital marketing facts and strategy! This gem is courtesy of Smart Insights and TFM&A. 

This infographic gives great high level facts on the general market for digital content, the devices that are being used, and the most effective forms of marketing from SEO to display. 

Interestingly, according to this graphic, almost 70% of companies in the survey either had no plans for a digital marketing strategy or were only beginning to role out their strategy in the coming 12 months. This suggests there is still a very large opportunity for digital marketers to ply their trades for new businesses. It also means there is likely a huge opportunity for education on digital marketing and its rewards. 

Email is King

According to an infographic shared by AdWeek courtesy of Smart Insights, email remains the best tool for improving customer communications and loyalty (appropriate timing given the topic of last class).

Personally, I pay attention to well worded, timely emails, more so than reports or white papers I have to find and download, or social media engagement.  If you can catch me on the train in the morning with something that I perceive as valuable, then there's a good likelihood I'll read the entire email.  Content based marketing is key and email is still the best way to deliver this message.  This infographic seems to support my conclusion, with email checking in with the highest rated digital channel at 51%, vs. SEO at 45% and paid search at 34%.

The article also outlines 3 key steps for managing digital marketing:

1. You need a digital strategy and plan, preferably integrated into the broader marketing strategy
2. You need to manage integration of digital activities through a transformation program
3. You need to invest in optimization

"The State of Digital Marketing in 2015" also shows a couple of additional interesting statistics:

• the growth rate of internet usage (3 billion people, 40% of world population)
• 91% of search is done through PCs, with 80% (and growing) through smartphones
• Smart TVs are the leading "emerging" device, at 34%
• Smartphones had the lowest sales conversion rate, followed by tablets and desktops

Content is key for marketers: Infographic

Captora recently released a slick infographic describing the benefits and breakdown of content marketing. Some of the interesting facts below include:

• 61% of consumers are more likely to buy from companies that create custom content. 
• Blog posts require very low time investment and have a high ROI. 
• 60 characters is the optimal character length for content titles.
• The majority of content shares occur on Saturday (18%).

The graphic is an interesting reference and reinforces what we already know.... content is key in marketing. Check it out below!

World Cup Trends Powered by Google

Google has launched a World Cup microsite that analyses how each country is feeling about their upcoming teams based on search terms and gives it to you in the form of smart  soundbites (great for dropping into conversations pre game?) and fun infographics. .

The World Cup trends page compares the search habits of two countries that will soon meet on the field, then uses a "newsroom" of engineers, analysts and writers to find interesting facts for the website. 

Today, for instance, we learn that as Brazilians gear up for the match against Mexico, fans are more concerned with Googling pictures of Neymar’s yellow hair than his yellow card, and that following glory for Germany against Portugal, there were 3 X more searches for Muller’s hat trick than Pepe’s head butt. 

The page also lists standard trends for each of the matches happening in the tournament, which team is more popular worldwide, and the top World Cup-related questions on each side. Other information bites that compare World Cup search trends against other sports are also included (for instance: “Even with the NBA finals in progress, World Cup search terms are 10 X more prevalent").

URL: http://www.google.com/trends/worldcup#/en-us/