The Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics You Need to Know for 2016

As marketers, we all want to know the numbers. What is working, which strategies are driving conversions, and where can I get the most bang for my buck? Below is a list of 50 incredible marketing statistics that every marketer should know and live by in 2016.

Content Marketing

1. 76% of digital marketers will produce more content. (source)
2. 51% of digital marketers will increase their content marketing budget. (source)
3. In 2016, 67% more leads will be generated by companies with an active blog. (source)
4. 88% of B2B marketers currently use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy, yet only 32% have a documented content marketing strategy. (source)
5. 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn as part of their content strategy. Other popular platforms include Twitter (87%), Facebook (84%), YouTube (74%) and Google+ (62%). (source)
6. B2C marketers use infographics more than any other content strategy. 62% report using infographics, and 63% from this group said they were effective. (source)
7. The most popular social media platform among B2C businesses is Facebook, with 94% reporting its usage. Other popular platforms are Twitter (82%), YouTube (77%) and LinkedIn (76%). (source)
8. The #1 content marketing goal for B2C businesses in 2016 is sales (83%), followed by customer retention and loyalty (81%) and engagement (81%). (source)
9. Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI on their efforts. (source)
10. Just over half (51%) of business owners report that content management is “very important” or “absolutely critical” to creating a cohesive customer journey. (source)

Email Marketing

11. Segmentation and personalization is a top priority for marketers in 2016. Econsultancy and Adestra’s Email Marketing Industry Census report says 78% of their respondents believe that in the next five years all email communication will be personalized. (source)
12. Email is 40 times more effective at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter. (source)
13. In the third quarter of 2015, 54 percent of all email opens occurred on mobile devices or tablets. (source)
14. Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. (source)
15. Transactional e-mails produce an average open rate of 72% and a click-through rate of 30%—well above the averages for non-transactional emails, which have an average open rate of 40.8% and an average click-through rate of 9%. (source)

16. Email marketing ranks highest on ROI compared to other marketing strategies. (source)
17. 78% of consumers rank email as the most preferred communication platform. (source)
18. Mobile matters: as of 2015, 53% of emails are opened on mobile. (source)
19. Emails that include social sharing buttons have a higher CTR of 158% than those that don’t include share links. (source)
20. Deliverability is a big issue: 17% of all emails never see the inside of a recipient’s inbox. This is due to defunct emails and SPAM traps. (source)

Digital Marketing

21. Total spending on Internet advertising is predicted to grow 12.9% next year. The Internet will become the largest medium for advertising in 2016 (ahead of TV). (source)
22. By 2019 mobile advertising will represent 72% of all US digital ad spending. (source)
23. One-third of marketers say they don’t which digital marketing tactic has the biggest positive impact on revenue. 26% of respondents say email is the digital marketing channel with the greatest positive impact on revenue; SEO is second (17%), followed by paid search (15%), social media (5%), and online display advertising (5%). (source)
24. The top four channels for increases in digital marketing spend last year were email marketing (61% of marketers increasing spending on this channel), social media (49%), mobile marketing (40%), and SEO/PPC (38%). (source)
25. Programmatic advertising currently represents nearly two-thirds (62%) of the digital display advertising marketplace (online, social and mobile) and will grow to 82% by 2018. The size of the programmatic marketing is expected to more than double over the next three years. (source)
26. 54% of users don’t click banner ads because they don’t trust them. (source)
27. 88% of businesses say that video is an important part of their digital marketing strategy. (source)
28. 64% of businesses who use video believe that it has directly led to increased sales. (source)
29. 91% of businesses say they plan to increase or maintain their spending on video in 2016. (source)
30. Gartner’s 2015-2016 CMO report shows that 98% of marketers believe that digital and offline marketing are merging and marketing strategies will need to reflect this. (source)

Social Media Marketing

31. Social media now plays almost as large a role in purchasing decisions as does TV, and 57% of consumers say they’re influenced to think more highly of business after seeing positive comments or praise online. (source)
32. 90% of young adults—ages 18 to 29—use social media (compared to just 35% of those over age 65). Fully a third of millennials say social media is one of their preferred channels for communicating with businesses. (source)
33. 46% of B2B marketers say they’re not sure whether any social channels have generated revenue for their businesses. Only 13% believe they’ve proved the impact quantitatively—though that may be because just 14% tie social media marketing activities to sales levels. (source)
34. 84% of CEOs and VPs say they use social media to help make purchasing decisions. (source)
35. The share of overall marketing budgets devoted to social media marketing is expected to increase from about 10% on average today to nearly 25% within the next five years. (source)
36. 60% of marketers identify “measuring ROI” as one of their top three social media marketing challenges. These are followed by closely related challenges “tying social activities to business outcomes” (50%) and “devloping our social media strategy” (48%). (source)
37. “Engagement” (such as likes, shares, etc.) is considered the most important metric for evaluating social media marketing success, with 80% of marketers identifying it as one of the top three metrics. Audience size (61%) and website traffic (56%) round out the top three. (source)
38. The tools most commonly used to measure social media marketing results are the native analytics provided by the social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) themselves, at 65%. These are followed by social media management platforms like HootSuite (62%) and web analytics (e.g., Google Analytics) at 59%. Just 22% of businesses use dedicated social media measurement platforms. (source)
39. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest drive the most social media referral traffic back to websites. But YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn drive the most engaged traffic. (source)
40. 58% of marketers say original written content is their most important form of social content. 19% say the same about original visual content (e.g., infographics). 10% say curation of others’ content (like this post) is most important. (source)

Mobile Marketing

41. 48% of consumers start mobile research with a search engine and 33% of consumers start mobile research with a branded website. (source)
42. Tablet devices account for the highest add-to-cart rates on e-commerce websites at 8.58%. (source)
43. 68% of companies have integrated mobile marketing into their overall marketing strategy. (source)
44. Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead. (source)
45. Pinterest is the most mobile social network and 64% of its referred traffic comes from either smartphones or tablet devices. (source)
46. By 2019, mobile advertising will represent 72% of all US digital ad spending. (source)
47. Mobile email opens have grown by 180% in the last three years. (source)
48. 83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important. (source)
49. Average smartphone conversion rates are up 64% compared to the average desktop conversion rates. (source)
50. 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site. (source)

Now that you know the facts, check out our Data-Driven Marketing eBook to learn how to implement the right strategies to drive your own marketing success.