AMiable Solution #172: Make 2016 Mixable

For years we’ve heard the predictions.  Direct mail is dying.  Digital marketing is the future.  Mobile marketing will change the way businesses operate.  And with so many options to choose from--print, email, websites, social media, public relations, content marketing, SEO, etc.--trying to decide which channels to invest in and how to distribute the marketing budget among them can be overwhelming.

The problem is, marketing is not a single-channel operation.  Most organizations benefit from a mixture of mediums. 

Just how many approaches you take and just how much you invest in each will vary depending on your specific audience, your offers, and your industry.  However, the following facts and statistics, obtained from Tom Pick’s December 2, 2014, business2community.com article, “104 Fascinating Social Media and Marketing Statistics for 2014 (and 2015),” may help you determine the right mix for you.  At the very least, they’ll give you something to think about:

·        91% of people have unsubscribed from company emails they previously opted into.

·        89% of 18-29 year-olds are active on social media, as are 43% of adults 65 and older.

·        Each month, 329 million people read blogs.

·        Articles with images get 94% more views than those without.

·        Posts with videos attract three times as many inbound links as plain text posts.

·        Facebook accounts for 15.8% of total time spent on the Internet.

·        There are nine times as many marketing emails sent each year as direct mail pieces delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.

·        Email marketing delivers the highest ROI (about $44 per dollar spent, on average) of any digital marketing tactic. SEO is #2. Banner ads have the lowest ROI.

·        Emails with social sharing buttons increase click-through rates by 158%.

·        Almost half--48%--of all emails are opened on mobile devices, yet only 11% of e-mails are optimized for mobile.

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           Despite all the hype about online, 67% of B2B content marketers consider event marketing to be their most effective strategy.

Should you base your entire 2016 strategy on the statistics above?  Certainly not.  But you should consider your audience carefully in light of them and then do what marketers do best: test.