It's no secret that the marketing landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years as social and mobile technologies have gone from early-adopter novelties to mainstream essentials.
Still, there are plenty of traditional marketing stalwarts out there who aren't buying all of the social media hype or can't convince their boss or marketing team to experiment in the brave new world of inbound marketing.
So we've rounded up a dozen powerful stats that are sure to be eye-openers, if not total mind-changers.
That means your website stands a good chance of being a prospect's "first impression." That also means your new business card isn't a business card—it's Google.
2. In the past year, Web-based email usage dropped a staggering 59% among 12-17 year olds, who prefer to communicate via text, instant messaging, and social networks.
If 12-17 year olds aren't your primary customers, you may think, "So what? They're just kids." But web-based email usage has been on the decline among ALL Internet users under the age of 55. And by the way, today's kids are tomorrow's customers—and they're probably not going to be reading your email.
3. 78% of business people use their mobile device to check email.
So that means pretty much everybody that can check email on a mobile device, does. Is your email newsletter optimized for mobile devices?
4. 40% of US smartphone owners compare prices on their mobile device while in-store, shopping for an item.
Is your business website optimized for mobile devices? If not, you may be missing out on hundreds of sales opportunities.
5. 200 Million Americans have registered on the FTC's "Do Not Call" list.
That's 2/3 of the country's citizens. The other 1/3, I'm guessing, probably don't have a home phone anymore.
6. 91% of email users have unsubscribed from a company email they previously opted-in to.
We're getting savvier with technology and less patient with unwanted solicitations. And it's just so easy to hit 'delete'.
7. 84% of 25-34 year-olds have left a favorite website because of intrusive or irrelevant advertising.
Frankly, I'm surprised this stat doesn't read "100%" and apply to a much wider age range.
8. 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog.
Finally, some good news! Blogging is good. Intrusive ads are bad. See how simple it is?
9. 41% of B2B companies and 67% of B2C companies have acquired a customer through Facebook.
If this stat doesn't poke a hole in the "Facebook is not useful for B2B companies" myth, I don't know what will.
10. The number of marketers who say Facebook is “critical” or “important” to their business has increased 83% in just 2 years.
That's right—critical or important. When a channel generates not only leads, but real revenue, you can't call it "experimental" any longer.
11. Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic.
The more you blog, the more pages Google has to index, and the more inbound links you're likely to have. The more pages and inbound links you have, the higher you rank on search engines like Google—thus the greater amount of traffic to your website. Which is why we repeat: Blogging is good.
12. Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing.
That's right—62% less. The average outbound lead costs $373. The average inbound lead costs $143. And as we love to say around here, "if it don't make dollars, it don't make sense." Outbound marketing just don't make sense anymore.