30 Fascinating Digital Media Stats Every Marketer Should Know in 2014

If you’re in sales and/or marketing in this digital age, we know it’s extremely hard to keep with the latest stats and trends on online media. There are just so many to keep up with. So we scoured the online world searching for the top, cream-of-the-crop stats about mobile, social, SEO, content marketing, and customer reviews. Here’s what we found:

Mobile Usage

48% of mobile users start with search engines to begin their brand research, 33% start on branded websites, and 26% start on branded apps (Google, Nov 2013)

70% of mobile searches lead to action on websites within 1 hour (iAcquire, April 2013) Tweet This Stat

40% of shoppers consult 3 or more channels before purchase, compared to 10% in 2002. (Tweet This Stat

57% of users won’t recommend companies with poor mobile sites (WebDAM, January 2014) Tweet This Stat 

Social Media

Facebook reports 1.19 billion monthly active users as of September 30, 2013 (Facebook, Jan 2014) Tweet This Stat

Facebook is aging. 45% of Internet users aged 65+ use Facebook (Pew Internet, Dec 2013) Tweet This Stat

Tumblr and Pinterest outperform Twitter and LinkedIn when it comes to share of time spent, in minutes (ComScore, 2013) Tweet This Stat

33% of consumers cite social networks as a way they discover new brands, products, and services (eMarketer, 2013) Tweet This Stat

Social is now the top Internet activity: Americans on average spend at least 37 minutes daily on social media, a higher time-spend than any other major activity, including email (Business Insider, March 2014)

93% of online research starts with a search engine, and 68% of consumers check out companies on social networking sites before buying. (Brandpoint, 2013) Tweet This Stat

69% of brands now have a presence on Pinterest, up from 10% in the fourth quarter of 2012. (Social Media Today, 2013) Tweet This Stat

B2B Social Media

Almost 60% of all social media-referred traffic to B2B websites comes from just three networks: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. (Eloqua, August 2013) Tweet This Stat

74% of B2B marketing companies use Twitter to distribute content. (Content Marketing Institute) Tweet This Stat

However, Twitter’s not the only dependable site. The top five social networks used by B2B marketers to distribute content are LinkedIn (83%), Twitter (80%), Facebook (80%), YouTube (61%) and Google+ (39%). (Social Media Today)

87% of B2B companies view social media (other than blogs) as a highly successful element of their marketing mix. 83% say the same for articles on websites, 78% eNewsletters, and 77% blogs. (MyCustomer.com)

You’re not alone! In terms of difficulty of execution, nearly half (49%) of B2B marketers put social media marketing at the top, followed by content marketing (39%), SEO (26%) and mobile (25%). (eMarketer)

Small Business Social Media

78% of small businesses attract new customers through social media. (Relevanza, April 2013) Tweet This Stat

97% of all consumers search for local businesses online (Relevanza, April 2013) Tweet This Stat

The three tactics viewed as most effective for generating SMB B2B sales leads are company websites, email newsletters, and tradeshows. LinkedIn and Facebook were also cited as effective by more than half of marketers, coming in just ahead of direct mail. (MarketingProfs)

Search Engine Optimization

50% of consumers say they are more like to click on a search result if the brand appears multiple times on the results page. This is why web presence optimization is so important!! (leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal)

Organic or paid? No, both! Paid search supports organic SEO efforts: paid-search ads alongside organic listings in position two through five receive two out of every three clicks from the search engine results page (SERP). When organic results are well below the fold in positions six through 10, paid search is responsible for nine out of 10 clicks to the Web site. (MediaPost)

Content Marketing

77% of B2B marketers use a blog as part of their content marketing mix, and 70% use online video. (Social Media Today, Aug 2013) Tweet This Stat

92% of marketers believe that content creation is either “very” or “somewhat” effective for SEO. (leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal, June 2013) Tweet This Stat

Social media sites and blogs account for 23% of all time spent online. (Content Marketing Institute, Feb 2012) Tweet This Stat

78% of consumers believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships. Tweet This Stat

Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages. Tweet This Stat

Customer Reviews

70% of consumers say that online reviews are among the most trusted source for information (Nielsen), September 2013) Tweet This Stat

73% of consumers say positive customer reviews make them trust a business more, up from 58% in 2012 (SearchEngineLand, June 2013) Tweet This Stat

54% of consumers would definitely recommend a local business if they had a good offer or discount (BrightLocal, June 2013) Tweet This Stat

71% of consumers receiving a quick brand response on social media say they would likely recommend that brand to others (Forbes, Aug 2013) Tweet This Stat