As we have flipped the calendar to 2014 and closed the chapter of 2013. Marketers have started developing social media strategies for ‘The New Year’. This is the year where social media is no longer a luxury; it will become a must-have in the current marketing strategies. In 2014, marketers will use dynamic content to deliver targeted, highly-personalized experiences to the right audience at the right time. Below are the 20 amazing Marketing Statistics that will drive 2014.

What to expect

  • 78% of CMOs think that custom content is the future of marketing. Talking to everyone will be ineffective thus having a specific message for very select audiences will deliver bigger results.
  • Marketing teams will spend $135 billion on digital marketing collateral. There will be more money involved, more people involved, and more online players than ever before.
  • Internet advertising will account for 25% of the entire ad market by 2015. Wow right!
  • Social Media: Social media marketing budgets will double over the next 5 years.
  • Content: Nearly 50% of companies now have content marketing strategies. Content is the king and always be will be, thus there will always be need for organic content which will attract your audience’s attention.
  • Email: Email with social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by 158%. Creating email marketing campaigns with more shareable content and the ability to easily share will help increase your reach.
  • Events: 67% of B2B content marketers are finding events to be a very effective marketing tactic.
  • PR: 73% of reporters think press releases should include images. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words and 3/4th of the reporters agree with the same quote as well.
  • PPC: 72% of PPC marketers (those who use pay-per-click advertising) plan to increase their PPC budget in 2014.
  • SEO: SEO (search engine optimization) is vital — 33% of traffic from Google organic search results goes to the first item listed. Wow! If you’re not already active in Google +, you need to seriously consider how to add it in your online marketing strategy. Make certain you are optimizing all of the Google tools such as authorship markup, Google+ Local listings, Maps, etc. All of this will help towards your SEO.

What to consider for your digital audience

  • Inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads than traditional outbound marketing.
  • 52% of marketers have found a customer via Facebook in this year. Facebook prevails, but a very important point to remember. Facebook is not the only means of social media; integrate other mediums as well in your marketing strategies.
  • 43% of marketers have found a customer via LinkedIn in 2013.
  • B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t.
  • 55% of marketers increased their digital marketing budget this year.
  • Visual content is processed by the brain 60,000 times faster than text. Videos on landing pages increase conversion by 86%. 65% of people are visual learners, so there will be an industry-wide shift toward to employing visual content in marketing initiatives. All content: blogs, emails, Ebooks, PR announcements, social media posts, infographics, etc. – will need captivating visuals to stand out and draw people’s attention in.

Source: Web-based asset management company WebDAM has compiled this infographic highlighting 20 legit statistics and digital marketing predictions for this New Year.