2014 Inbound Trends

2014 Inbound Trends
By: Kurtis Bohrnstedt

Outline
• Key Inbound Trends – Growth Continues
• SEO – Budgets on the Rise
• Content – Aggressive Growth into 2014 – Plenty of Room for Improvement
• Social – New Horizons
• Mobile – Strong Momentum
• Local – Opportunities Abound
• Email – Holding Steady

More SEOs took the Moz Industry Survey than any other group. Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Content,
and E-Commerce were also popular job titles of those who participated in the Moz Industry Survey.

Of those who took the Moz Industry Survey, Online Marketers spend the most amount of time doing
Analytics, Content Creation, Social Media Marketing, Keyword Research, and Site Audits.

Marketers reported that demand for Content Creation increased by 70.94% in 2013, falling in line with
most projections from early 2013. This trend is also expected to continue throughout 2014. Demand for
Analytics was the second most, having an increase of 64.46%.

Inbound Marketing is still considered a young industry -- one that also sees regular changes. With new
jobs being created and Google updates happening more frequently, keeping up on internet marketing
knowledge is key. But what are the most popular avenues to stay up to date on the latest industry
trends?

Blogs continue to be the source of choice for Marketers at 93.97% according to the 2013 end of year Industry
Survey from Moz. Social Media (74.01%) and Online Guides (73.37%) were rated as the next top sources.

45% of Marketers are spending more than 2 days each month researching SEO -- more than any other
area of digital marketing. Marketing Analytics came in second at 37%.1 Time spent researching SEO
likely won’t change throughout 2014, however, expect to see an increase in Marketing Analytics as data
is becoming more of an asset for companies.
1. Moz “2013 Industry Survey” (n = 3432)

24% of marketers are spending more than 2 days a month researching Mobile. This comes as a
surprise, as it is a young market with high potential for growth.

The top two priorities shared amongst online
marketers are fairly standard. ‘Driving increased
conversion rates’ and ‘Increasing and improving
brand awareness’ are basics marketers are
expected to deliver, though, very safe priorities
to choose.
‘Collecting, Measuring, and Using behavior
based data’, ranking 3rd out of the three listed,
stands out the most due to the actionable use of
data. Quick iterations in response to known
issues is a powerful position to be in that will
ultimately create a positive effect on the bottom
line. Source: ExactTarget “2014 State of Marketing” (p.3) n=2500

Digital Marketers will have increased budgets if projections for 2014 stand correct.

Marketing Automation tops the list for where most Marketers plan to increase budgets in 2014,
according to ExactTarget. SEO/SEM, SMS Messaging, and Display/Banner Ads were also among the
top categories Marketers are planning on spending their cash monies.

Among those surveyed, the
mobile channels are the least
integrated across the board
out of all marketing channels.
38% of Online Marketers say
SEO is a very integrated
Marketing channel, 46% say it
is quite integrated, and 16%
say it not integrated. This
clearly indicates there is still
opportunity for growth.
Source: Econsultancy "http://econsultancy.com/blog/63350-50-of-businesses-believe-that-social-offers-greatest-marketing-opportunities-over-next-year" (p.) n=363

Marketers are changing where they are allocating their time. This is a strong indicator of where the
industry is headed. 81% of marketers are currently using Data & Analytics, an additional 13% plan to
use Data & Analytics in 2014 and 6% are not planning to use at all.2
Data can be a big asset that, if used efficiently, can have a significant impact on the bottom line.
Research done by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT illustrates
“the more companies characterize themselves as data-driven, the better they performed on
objective measures of financial and operational results. In particular, companies in the top 3rd of
their industry in the use of data-driven decision making were, on average, 5% more productive
and 6% more profitable than their competitors.” 3
2. ExactTarget “ 2014 State of Marketing” (p.6) n=2,331
3. Harvard Business Review: “Big Data: The Management Revolution”, by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, October 2012

SEO/SEM (73%) and Content Management (71%) are among the top channels being used today.
The current and projected
similarities between the two are
across the board, due to the fact
that both go hand in hand with
one another, though Content is
projected to grow slightly more
than SEO/SEM in 2014.

Lean approaches with new techniques & technologies helps move companies and society forward.
Those who are not experimental with their online marketing will, inevitably, be left behind.

Among the top channels offering the greatest opportunities in 2014, Social Media, Email, Website,
SEO, and Mobile Web are projected to be the best performers.

49.5% of Marketers do not have a documented content strategy, making it difficult to gauge success
and limiting the ability to implement successful changes that will most benefit performance.
B2B marketers who have a documented content strategy are creating more content than they did one
year ago, compared with those who do not have a documented strategy (80% vs. 66%).
Source: CMI “2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends—North America” (p.6) n= 1217

Small B2B organizations are leading the charge in having documented content strategies, in addition to
plans to increase their Content Marketing budgets over the next 12 months to support their strategy.

Content Marketing and Community Engagement are the top two uses for Social Media.
B2B content marketers use an average of 6 social media platforms, up from 5 last year.
After LinkedIn, large companies (1,000+ employees) consider YouTube to be second most
effective, whereas small companies (10-99 employees) say SlideShare and Twitter are second
most effective.

B2B Marketers spend 39% of their budgets on Content Marketing, 23% more than their peers. Of the
Marketers who said their efforts weren’t very effective, 61% say they are challenged with producing
engaging content -- only 11% of those Marketers have a documented Content strategy.
Source: CMI "http://www.iab.net/media/file/B2BResearch2014.pdf" p.5 (n=1,217)

48% of organizations plan to increase
Content Marketing spending.
Between 10-49% of total Marketing
budgets are allocated towards Content
Marketing.

66% of smaller companies tend to keep content creation in-house, whereas 72% of larger companies
tend to use both in-house and outsourced content creation.

Writing and Design are
the top two functions that
B2B Marketers outsource
the most. 65% tailor
content for Industry
trends.

69% of Content Marketers
are challenged with a lack of
time. Given the breadth of
requirements in their jobs,
this is completely
understandable.
Producing enough and
producing engaging content
are the other highest
challenges Marketers face.

22% of Marketers curate or
share content quarterly or
less frequently from 3rd party
sources.
20% curate or share on a
weekly basis, and 18% on a
monthly basis.

Social is the most used channel for sharing content. Blogs are the second most used channel for
sharing content.

Out of all social networks, LinkedIn is the number one go-to for B2B Marketers for distributing content.
Not surprising, Twitter and Facebook are the other top networks used for sharing content.

Consumers with smartphones outnumber Search Marketers using Pinterest, Instagram and
Foursquare. These are growing Social Channels that should not be ignored -- especially if more
and more consumers are starting to use them.

Facebook and YouTube dominate when it comes to the number of active users for Social Networks.
Source: Digital Marketing Ramblings “http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/resource-how-many-people-use-the-top-social-media/#.UyChUvSwLYt”

60% of Digital Marketers are currently using Social Listening tools to aid in their Social campaigns, with
24% additional Marketers planning to use Social Listening tools in 2014.
Social Listening tools go hand in hand with Social Media Marketing, so it’s no wonder more Marketers
are planning to add this to their tool belt.

2014 budgets being allocated towards Social Marketing and Social Advertising are fairly even, though
Marketers plan to increase spending on Social Media Marketing by 2% more than Social Advertising.

18% of Online Marketers plan to add LinkedIn to their Social Media mix in 2014 -- the biggest increase
of all social networks. 17% plan to start using Blogs, Podcasts, and SlideShare in 2014.

Marketers are hopeful their Social Media efforts will eventually produce an ROI, although 12% think it is
highly unlikely Social Media Marketing will ever produce an ROI.
Part of the problem is the inability to prove ROI, making it difficult to get buy-in from management.

Content marketing is propelling Google+ back into the spotlight, with Google offering extra search juice
to content authors for posts shared on Google+. If content marketing has a place in your 2014 plans,
you may want to consider growing your Google+ presence alongside your breadth of content.
18% of Marketers are planning to adopt
Google+ in 2014. This increase is most
likely due to the ranking advantages by
Google to help promote its social
platform.

Facebook continues to have more users than any other network, but Pinterest has the highest
percentage of growth in users from 2012 to 2013.

Instagram users are nearly as likely as Facebook users to check in to the site on a daily basis. While
Facebook is popular across a diverse mix of demographics, other sites have developed their own
unique demographic user profiles.
For example, Pinterest holds
particular appeal to female users
(women are four times as likely
as men to be Pinterest users),
and LinkedIn is especially
popular among college
graduates and internet users in
high income households. Twitter
and Instagram have particular
appeal to younger adults, urban
dwellers, and non-whites. And
there is substantial overlap
between Twitter and Instagram
user bases.

Internet users who only use one of these five (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest & LinkedIn)
major social networking platforms, 8% use LinkedIn, 4% use Pinterest, and 2% each say that Instagram
or Twitter is their sole social networking site. The remaining 84% say that Facebook is the one social
networking site they use.

Facebook is by far the most commonly used social networking platform, and as a result, a significant
majority of Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn users also use Facebook. At the low end, 83% of
LinkedIn users also use Facebook. At the high end, 93% of Instagram users also use Facebook
(Instagram’s parent company). About a quarter of Facebook users use each of the other sites.
53% of Twitter users also use Instagram, and 53% of Instagram users also use Twitter. Among non-
Facebook sites, this is the highest rate of “reciprocity” between user groups that were measured.

Customers increasingly expect your social media presence to be integrated into
your web and email communications. If it’s not, you can quickly lose touch with the
customers you’ve worked so hard to engage. Dave Chaffey of Smart Insights
projects the importance of social CRM to grow by 9% in 2014.4
According to Reuters, Social Media has overtaken porn as the number 1 activity on
the web.5 This clearly indicates the weight behind Social Media -- a channel that
continues to grow at a consistent pace.
4. Smart Insights “http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/marketing-innovation/marketing-trends-2014/”
5. Reuters “http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/09/16/us-internet-book-life-idUSSP31943720080916”

Source: IDC “https://fb-public.app.box.com/s/3iq5x6uwnqtq7ki4q8wk” (Slide 14)

16% of Online Marketers believe Mobile Marketing efforts are unlikely to produce any ROI -- 4% higher
than those who said the same for Social. 51% think they will eventually produce a ROI, and 29% say
their Mobile Marketing efforts are already producing a ROI.

Four out of five minutes on a smartphone are spent engaging with an app6, yet 22% of Marketers say
mobile responsive design for landing pages is never used.
Sales of tablets outstripped sales of both PCs and laptops in the last quarter of 2014 and that trend is
expected to continue for the next few years. More and more people are choosing to access the Internet
via mobile devices, and if your website can't deliver, they'll go somewhere else.7
6. comScore. “Mobile Future in Focus,” Mark Donovan, February 2013
7. International Data Corporation “http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b0218186-1b35-11e3-b781-00144feab7de.html#axzz2nkIcPzAW”

More Marketers are utilizing Mobile Holiday or Event campaigns than any other.
Cross-Channel Engagement and
Re-Engagement are the top two
Mobile Lifecycle Campaigns
Marketers are planning to use in
2014.
47% of Marketers do not plan to
use Mobile Win-Back campaigns
in 2014.

Only 5% of Marketers say their Mobile integration into overall Marketing
Programs is not very effective.

According to Google Places, there are more than 4 million claimed business listings by business
owners. Of those 4 million listings, only 2 million account for listings in the United States. Google also
reports that local searches account for 20% of all searches.8
With a steady increase of smartphone owners, more and more people are performing local searches on
their mobile while traveling -- accounting for 56% of mobile searches.9 As mobile usage continues an
inevitable upward trend, local searches on mobile devices will also soar, making it imperative for SMBs
to claim all of their listings so customers can discover the information that will get the customers in the
door.
8. Google Places “https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/googleplaces/metrics”
9. comScore “http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2013/Trends_Shaping_Local_Search_in_2013”

46% of shoppers use their mobile phone to research local products and services before making
purchases -- almost half of the consumers surveyed.10 Optimizing a mobile friendly website in 2014
should be a priority that will increase a competitive edge for local businesses. Don’t get left in the dust!
10. Telmetrics “http://www.mobilepathtopurchase.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/xAd_Telmetrics_Mobile_Path_to_Purchase_Press_Release_2013_US_General.pdf” (p. 2)

Out of the top 5 Social Networks, Facebook is the most used by Small Businesses. According to the
StreetFight Local Merchant Survey, 88% of SMBs plan on using some of their marketing budgets on
Facebook by the end of 2014 -- an increase from 43% in 2009.11
11. StreetFight Local Merchant Survey “https://docs.google.com/a/moz.com/file/d/0Bx3dFqqUVjvzMmxSc3ROaE05SkxVd1JvQTVtWlBDZ0VEV0ZZ/edit” (p.
8)
Source: VerticalResponse “http://hostopiablog.verticalresponse.com/blog/small-business-survey-reveals-social-media-trends-infographic/” (n = 400+)

The vast majority (84.1%) of the Small Businesses surveyed by VerticalResponse spend 10 or fewer
hours per week on Social Networks. The remaining 15.1% spend between 11 to 21+ hours per week on
Social.

55.9% of SMBs surveyed by VerticalResponse use 3rd party tools to manage their Social Media efforts
-- of those respondents, 39.5% pay for the 3rd party tools they use.
Out of the Small Business respondents who pay for 3rd party social media tools, 25.3% pay between
$50 or less, with only 3.2% paying $251 or more.

Email is one traditional marketing channel that continues to show steady growth.
According to ExactTarget, “98% of marketers plan to increase or maintain their spend
in 2014. Email Marketing was among the top 5 at 58%.”12 Being among the lowest cost
per lead, also producing high quality and quantity of leads, it’s no wonder Email
Marketing continues to be one of the favorite channels amongst online marketers.
12. ExactTarget “2014 State of Marketing” (p.3) n=2,500

58% of Marketers who participated in this survey are planning to Increase their
Email Marketing budget in 2014 -- 38% plan to keep it the same.

49% of Email Marketing Teams are sending more than 500,000 emails annually.

Birthday Email Marketing Campaigns are the most successful at 43%. Whereas Email Marketers say
Win Back Campaigns are the worst at 32%.

60% of emails are read on mobile devices by 31-70% of those
surveyed, adding weight to the importance of responsive design.

Quality of email database
is the number one most
stated barrier to effective
Email Marketing.
Lack of Strategy and
Lack of Time are also at
the top of the list of
issues.

2014 Inbound Trends

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2014 Inbound Trends