by
Daniel Burstein, Director of Editorial Content
We analyzed which MarketingSherpa charts from 2013 were most helpful to you, based on the number of tweets those charts received.
Let's get right into it. What were the most popular discoveries from surveying thousands of marketers in 2013?
Discovery #1. Tuesday is considered the most effective day for sending emails
Marketing Research Chart: Which day is best to send emails?Q: How effective are emails sent each day of the week?
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
Tuesday ranked as the most effective day for sending emails, with 26% of marketers ranking it a 5 out of 5, and 35% ranking it a 4. Marketers considered Sunday a day of rest, with 42% ranking it a 1, or least effective.
Discovery #2. Content marketing is the tactic mostly likely to have a growing budget
Marketing Research Chart: Tactics that are seeing a budget increase (and decrease)Q: How will budgets for the following marketing line items change in the next 12 months?
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
Content marketing showed the most promise for growth in budget, with 64% of marketers indicating their content marketing budget will increase.
Interestingly enough, contextual advertising, associated with such growing (or perhaps, hyped?) tactics as targeted advertising and mobile advertising, was the constant of the group, with 71% of marketers indicating their budget will not change.
Discovery #3. Blogs are the most effective social media platform for SEO
Marketing Research Chart: 84% of marketers consider blogs at least somewhat effective for inbound marketing Q: Please indicate the LEVEL OF EFFECTIVENESS (in terms of achieving objectives) of using social media platforms in your inbound marketing efforts.
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
While stock prices tend to make all of the headlines when it comes to social media, the lowly blog — the social media tactic without an IPO underwriter — was considered a very effective social media tactic for inbound marketing success by 32% of marketers, and somewhat effective by 52% of marketers.
Discovery #4. Video is the most effective mobile marketing tactic
Marketing Research Chart: Which mobile tactics are most effective?Q: Indicate the level of EFFECTIVENESS for the mobile engagement and relevancy tactics used by your organization.
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
Mobile video was another hot trend in 2013, from football on your phone to Vine. According to 38% of marketers, it is a very effective tactic.
But don't overlook a tactic just because it's a little lower down the chart. Segmentation is core to mobile marketing, and even though fewer marketers rated it very effective, 83% of marketers considered segmenting campaigns based on behavior and/or sales cycle to be somewhat effective.
Discovery #5. Generating high-quality leads is the top B2B marketing challenge
Marketing Research Chart: What is the biggest B2B marketing challenge?Q: Which of the following marketing challenges are currently most pertinent to your organization? Check all that apply.
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
B2B marketers are challenged much more by quality than quantity. They view generating leads that are likely to make a final purchase, such as someone who has asked to learn about the product, as more of a challenge than simply getting a high number of leads, like an email address from an unrelated squeeze page.
As you can see in the chart, 80% of B2B marketers in the trial phase — no current process or guidelines — rated generating high-quality leads as their top challenge, with similar responses from their peers at organizations with more mature B2B processes.
Discovery #6. Traffic is the most tracked website objective
Marketing Research Chart: What metrics should you track?Q: Which of the following website objectives is tracked by your marketing department?
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
Marketers focus their website tracking at the top of the funnel, with 79% of marketers measuring the easy-to-track metric of traffic.
Discovery #7. Email newsletters are most effective for lead nurturing
Marketing Research Chart: Messaging tactics for effective lead nurturingQ: Which of the following have been the most effective for nurturing your leads?
Click here to see a printable version of this chart
From previous MarketingSherpa research, we've found that
marketing departments with a lead nurturing campaign in place reported a 45% higher ROI. So what is the most effective tactic for lead nurturing? Email newsletters, according to 57% of marketers.
Discovery #8. Marketers seek to use mobile to impact the bottom line
Marketing Research Chart: Top mobile marketing objectivesQ: What are your TOP BUSINESS OBJECTIVES for mobile marketing in the next 12 months?
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
When social media came on the scene, the focus was more on engagement than ROI. However, marketers are looking squarely at the bottom line when it comes to mobile, with 63% of marketers indicating that increasing sales conversion and revenue was a top business object for mobile marketing, surpassing softer and lower-funnel goals.
Discovery #9. Webinars are the most effective content marketing channel
Marketing Research Chart: Webinars, webpages, e-books among most effective places to create content Q: Please indicate the LEVEL OF EFFECTIVENESS (in terms of achieving marketing objectives) for each of the content products your organization is using.
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
Webinars and webcasts were rated very effective by 49% of marketers. With the growth of smartphones and tablet computers, it's surprising to see mobile Web content and digital magazines farther down the scale of effectiveness. Still, 68% of marketers considered these quickly growing tactics somewhat effective.
Discovery #10. Relevance, traffic and revenue are the top goals for email marketing
Marketing Research Chart: What are your peers' top email marketing goals?Q: Which goals does your organization want to achieve through email marketing in the next 12 months? Please select all that apply.
Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart
Organizations expect email marketing to achieve a lot of objectives. Chief among them — deliver highly relevant content, drive additional traffic to the website, and increase sales conversion and/or revenue — according to 67% of marketers.
Related Resources
E-commerce: 3 tactics retailers are rolling out for the holidaysMarketing Research Chart: It's not too late to optimize one key element of your holiday marketingEmail Marketing: What I've learned from writing almost 1,000 emails for MarketingSherpa
