Even this early on in the year, some statistics on retail sales and digital marketing have already come out from a few reliable sources (Fortune, Lumoa, HubSpot, etc.), and they can offer us some critical insights. If you’re in the retail sector, it’s never a bad idea to keep your eye on reports coming out from places like eMarketer, Statista, and a few other researchers. Often, websites will do a helpful breakdown of all the best numbers and most helpful info.
Among those various reports, I picked the figures I found to be the most important or game-changing. Keep these six new statistics in mind before engaging in your next digital marketing campaign.
Retail sales were down 1.2% over the recent holidays—the biggest drop since 2009.
A general fall in retail numbers on this scale can’t be attributed to marketing alone, but I can guarantee you bad marketing played a major role. When consumers are annoyed by ads they block brands out, and the same goes for major entities like influential public agencies, international companies, and universities. When they all start blocking you, you lose their in-house audiences. On the other hand, if your brand earns their attention with authentic story and proper strategy, then consumers pay attention and buy more. It’s pretty simple. Recently, I presented on this topic at YPO, discussing the future of retail and the major problems they face. If retailers can get a handle on just five major challenges, they could easily invert the trend.
The top priority of 55% of companies is to improve or personalize customer experience.
We talk about customer experience a lot at TopRight. It’s an affirmation of our work and our approach to the market that more and more businesses now acknowledging the critical role customer experience now plays in branding. With the success that companies like Vineyard Vines have had using retail personalization software like Bluecore, and with cosmetics companies like Sephora and Lolli and Pops rolling out some major hi-tech customer-centered initiatives, the idea is only becoming more central every day. And the great thing? Maximizing personalization is something that works whether you’re in retail or not.
Product videos increase purchases by 144%.
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Most companies on Facebook still use too many links to convey information. Research shows that links mostly get ignored, while video not only gets more views but conveys more information more quickly. In response to this new need, Videolicious created a new platform that caters to companies looking to integrate affordable, well-made short films into their sales process. It’s a great tool that we will be hearing more about. But regardless of whether your brand makes use of such a platform, preparing quality, on-brand videos with a strong story is always the right move to make.
Search engines drive 300% more traffic to websites than social media.
Social media is oversaturated! And overrated, I might add. The search engine is where you can make real headway in gaining traction for your brand and upping conversion rates. Additionally, sources tell us two more important stats: more than 75% of people don’t read past the first page of search engine results, and even fewer pay any attention to those first few paid ads at the very top. So the sweet spot is the “authentic zone” in the middle of the first page. Figuring out how to land there through SEO and inbound marketing techniques will be more profitable than anything you can do on social media.
Blogs of 1500 or more words get 22.6% more attention than shorter pieces.
Turns out people prefer bogs of over 1500 words, and posts with headlines of 6-13 words get the most clicks. Who knew both things could be true—that consumers prefer video yet also like longer articles and blogs? I know our culture tends to believe that people don’t read anymore, but when I hear people say that I often ask “What’s the context?” Are they reading something they can use, that’s interesting and useful? If they are, they want to read more of it. It’s only logical. What matters in the end is that your content, whether long or short, is quality.
More than 78% of consumers say they’ve unsubscribed because they were receiving too many emails from a brand.
We’ve written about the effectiveness of email strategy before. The practice is still pretty solid and productive—when done correctly. The major takeaway here is that a lot of companies are still annoying consumers with tons of unwanted email. Just don’t do that, no matter how tempted you are, don’t do it, not ever. Do the hard grunt work first—your data analytics and your A/B testing and try out Bluecore before you do anything at all. Segment your audience too. Never just batch-and-blast your current and future customers into oblivion. It’s lazy, and you will regret it!