If you’re like most business owners out there, you probably spent a fair amount of time at the beginning of this year setting goals and targets, and creating a marketing strategy to help you get there.
Maybe you wanted to invest more time interacting with your audience on LinkedIn. Or perhaps you wanted to start pushing your products more through Facebook. It could even have been as simple as writing a monthly blog post to share on your website.
Well, we’re now nearly halfway through 2016 – so how’s the strategy looking now? Are you still writing those blogs and selling products through Facebook? Or has the humdrum of daily business captured your attention, leaving your Facebook profile and blog page dormant and neglected?
If you need a little motivation – a pick-me-up – to help get those wheels turning again, we’ve put together a list of important stats and figures that show just how important it is to keep up your marketing efforts.
64% of Internet users research products and services online.
If you’re not online, you really need to rethink your entire marketing strategy, because you’re missing out on a potential 64% of traffic and customers.
60% of all clicks go to the top 3 search results.
But just being online isn’t enough – people also need to be able to find you. Being on the first page of a Google search is essential, and ideally you want to be in the top 3, because that’s where people are clicking.
37% of consumers are more likely to purchase on a mobile-optimised site, and 27% will leave a site if it is not mobile-optimised.
Is your website mobile friendly? It needs to be! Google recently introduced mobile friendliness into it’s search algorithm, meaning a mobile friendly website is more likely to rank higher than a non-mobile websites.
50% of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results.
This means when people search on their mobiles, at least half the time they’re looking for products and services close to them. Optimising your website to appear for local searches, such as “Mortgage Broker Hamilton” or “Financial Advice Queenstown” is a great way to capture those searches.
90% of young adults (ages 18 to 29) are active on social media.
Those are your first-home buyers right there – and 90% of them are active on Social Media. What other advertising platform that you know of can put you in front of your target audience so easily?
If you’re not on social media, it’s time to rethink your marketing strategy!
93% of shoppers’ buying decisions are influenced by social media.
Again, social media is so important for referrals – it’s the digital version of word-of-mouth! If your company receives a negative or positive review or mention on social media, it has a 93% chance of influencing someone’s decision to use your company.
When discussing this statistic with a client recently, they told us they would rather stay of social media for fear of getting a bad review. Our response was that if someone’s got reason to give you a bad review, they’re going to put it on Facebook regardless of whether you’re there or not. At least being on Facebook gives you opportunity to respond to feedback and shape conversations about your brand.
Social content accompanied with visuals get 94% more views than those without.
Social media has become a very visual experience, and users will scroll through content at a high pace looking for something that’s going to capture their attention. If all you’re posting to Facebook is text, you’re going to struggle to get any meaningful engagement because no one is going to be seeing your content!
Instead, attach an appropriate image or video to the post, and you’ll notice a significant improvement in people’s interactions with your content.
35-50% of sales go to the vendor that responds first.
We know this isn’t an online marketing statistic, but it really is business 101. If you’re spending time and money marketing and promoting your business, you need to have a system in place to respond to enquiries.
If you get a message to your Facebook page, don’t wait until tomorrow or the afternoon to respond. Jump on and respond immediately, as this shows people you’re interested in gaining their business.
Also, if people are asking you questions about your services online, chances are they’re also asking your competitors. If you delay in answering, it’s likely your competitors will jump in and gain their business instead.
If you’d like to know more about how you could improve your online marketing, be that through web design, social media or Google, we’d be happy to help! Give us a call on 0800 932 101 or email seth@tailgunner.co.nz.