As 2021 draws to a close, many business leaders are finalizing their digital marketing strategies for 2022. The last couple of years have seen significant economic and cultural upheavals, to the extent that any five-year plans in place at the beginning of 2020 definitely need to be revisited.
It has become paramount for all businesses to have a digital marketing strategy. As internet users have become more selective about the types of marketing content they engage with, companies need to be more careful about how they deploy their digital marketing budgets in order to reach their goals.
Developing a plan — be it for one year or five — requires plenty of research and understanding. Here are some statistics business leaders might benefit from when developing the details of their digital marketing plan for next year.
Your Page Needs to Load in 5 Seconds or Less
Long gone are the days when internet users would contentedly wait minutes or more for a web page to load; that patience disappeared with dial-up. These days, if a company website doesn’t load fully in less than five seconds, they are likely to see their bounce rate skyrocket. What’s more, conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42 percent with every second of load time beyond five.
It is easy to focus one’s efforts on the more exciting elements of digital marketing, like graphic design, content development or social media engagement, but the truth is that so much of digital marketing success hinges on these small, technical details. Business leaders might find it helpful to pursue an online digital marketing programme that covers digital strategies, tools, and best practices to deliver organizational value through integrated digital marketing.
More Than Half of Website Traffic Comes From Mobile Devices
The first smartphone was released in 2006, and in just over a decade, mobile devices have overtaken desktop computers as the dominant source of web traffic. Since 2017, mobile devices including laptops and tablets have consistently claimed more than half of all traffic, and since 2019, smartphones alone have surpassed non-mobile tech in the traffic they generate.
Business leaders who have not prioritized mobile-friendliness in their digital marketing strategy should use these statistics as a wake-up call. It is more important than ever that a business website is optimized for mobile use; otherwise, more than half of all web traffic is likely to bounce away from a business’s site and onto their mobile-capable competitors.
Mobile Local Search Has Grown 200 Percent
According to Think with Google, users are finally using their mobile devices to discover the world around them. Local searches are web searches using terms like “near me” or “open now,” which allow users to find businesses geographically close to them — not eCommerce sites or companies halfway across the country. These days, users are deploying their mobile devices to make local searches, which indicates that they are on the go and poised to visit whichever businesses they find in their search.
Local search marketing is a relatively new branch of search engine optimization that helps businesses connect with consumers. Strategies to capitalize on local search involve leveraging local keywords, integrating location pages into the company website, and claiming the Google My Business page to manage business information and reviews.
SEO Is 1000 Percent More Useful Than Social Media
Despite the fact that social media has been around for the better part of two decades, social media marketing still feels new and cutting edge, with ample digital marketing resources devoted to helping business leaders excel on social sites. Yet, while effective social media can undoubtedly contribute positively to a business’s digital marketing efforts, it pales in comparison to the effect of good SEO. According to BrightEdge Research, SEO drives more than 1000 percent more traffic than organic social media, which is a good indication of where businesses should spend their digital marketing dollars.
Social media is fun, but SEO does the work. Even in the next decade of the 21st century, business leaders need to ensure that their website and content are appropriately optimized for search, as SEO can make or break a digital marketing strategy.
It is no longer enough for a business to have a website and a handful of social media pages. As the digital landscape develops, users are migrating toward tools and services that offer the utmost convenience, which means fast-loading, first-appearing, and mobile-friendly. Business leaders need to take a proactive approach to their digital marketing, which involves learning more about digital marketing trends, tech and data, and deploying an informed strategy for the coming years.