As 2017 is drawing to a close, and 2018 is on the horizon, TLC Business have taken a moment to look at the digital marketing statistics of 2017 and picked a few to explore in greater detail, to help shape your marketing content strategy in the year to come. Not only will we be discussing the relative merits of the various social media platforms, but we will also take a look at the current influences and trends around video, email and content marketing.

Who won the Social Media war in 2017?

Published figures suggest there are around 2.3 billion active Social Media users in the world right now. For most marketers who have utilised social media into their marketing strategy already or for those who are planning to, their biggest concern is about successfully targeting the right audience on the correct social media platform. So, let’s take a look at which were the most popular social sites in 2017, ranked by number of active monthly users.

1. Facebook

Coming in at the number 1 spot is Facebook, with 1.9 billion active users every month and an average of 6 new profiles created every second. Facebook is the most popularly used social media platform, with 22% of the world’s total population using it. It is also an ideal platform for targeting females between 18-49 years old. Statistics indicate that 83% of women online use Facebook, compared to 75% of men online. However, it still holds a wide general appeal, with the widest demographic of users and the most active out of all the platforms; therefore, it is no wonder Facebook is the overall top choice of platform for businesses. There are already 40 million small business users who actively use Facebook and 2 million businesses pay for Facebook advertising.

2. YouTube

With 1 billion active monthly users, YouTube is the 2nd most popular of the social media sites and has a higher proportion of men using it. 55% of males online use YouTube, compared to 45% of females online. More than 500 million hours of videos are watched by its audience of predominantly 18-49 year olds every day, this equals an average of 2 million video views per minute! Video marketing is one of the hot topics for 2018 and we will explore it further in our top trends for 2018 blog.

3. Instagram

At number 3 is Instagram, with 700 million active monthly users. Owned by Facebook, statistics show that 90% of Instagram users are under 35 and the users are predominantly female. 53% of ‘Instagrammers’ follow brands on the platform, making it another popular choice of social media channels for businesses. For millennials, Instagram is considered their most important and favourite social network to use. Over 80 million photos are uploaded by users every day, and in June this year, they introduced the function to add Instagram Live videos to your Instagram Story for 24 hours, as well as the ability to save live video to your device, making it a particularly popular platform for live video functionality.

4. The Rest…

Following Instagram in fourth place is (the now not so popular) Twitter – that is unless you are a male and between 18-29. The platform has 328 million unique monthly users, most of which only use Twitter for an average of 2.7 minutes per day. A staggering 53% of Twitter users never post any updates. Snapchat is in fifth place with 300 million active monthly users, 74% of whom are under 34 years old and 70% of which are female. LinkedIn, in sixth place, has 106 million active monthly users and is the No.1 choice of platform for professionals and particularly B2B organisations. Fact: LinkedIn users are slightly less likely to use another social media network compared to users of other platforms. In seventh place is Pinterest. It has 200 million active monthly users and is the most popular network for women aged 18-64, with 42% of all women online using the platform vs only 17% of men online. Another interesting point to add is that 10% of people that click thru to an e-commerce site via Pinterest are more likely to make a purchase compared to if they were referred from any other network. Something to consider for the B2C marketers out there.

The Rise of Video Marketing

2017 saw another increase in the use of video marketing in campaigns and the statistics continue to grow as we get closer to 2018. If you’re unsure of which platform to use, the answer is don’t worry about it. They all have their merits. Facebook generates 8 billion video views on average per day according to Social Media Today and YouTube reports mobile video consumption rises 100% every year (Hubspot), so it’s no wonder that video has become increasingly popular as a marketing method and marketers are investing more and more in paid or sponsored social video. According to Hubspot, a staggering 80% of users recall a video ad they have viewed in the past 30 days and after watching a video, 64% of users are more likely to buy a product online. Live streaming videos have also been in the limelight in 2017, with people spending 3 times longer watching a live social video compared to one that is pre-recorded. By 2020, 80% of global internet traffic will be attributed to video consumption and 48% of marketers plan to add video to their content strategy in the next year if they haven’t already done so. But not only is video being uploaded and shared on social platforms, it has proven to be successful within web and email marketing content too. According to Unbounce, including a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80%. In terms of email marketing, Syndacast said using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line boost the open rates by 19% and Hubspot suggests a video in an email leads to 200-300% increase in click-through rates. So, if you haven’t already incorporated video into your marketing plan, now is the time to do so.

Increasing Content for Mobile

The number of users web browsing on mobile devices increases +25% year-on-year and mobile is the number 1 choice of device for accessing the web and social media. By 2018, mobile content will account for 72% of digital ad spend according to eMarketer and the growth in businesses creating mobile-ready content is rapid. Businesses are creating more content for the smaller screen, including mobile-optimised websites, social media pages, videos, imagery and mobile-optimised emails. Tubular Insights recently stated that 84% of viewers are watching social video via mobile; therefore, creating video that seamlessly adapts to the size of screen it is being watched on is important for creating an effective user experience. According to Forbes, square videos take up 78% more space in the Facebook News Feed and get more engagement than horizontal videos. Mobile-only social network platforms, such as Snapchat, also continue to grow in popularity and are encouraging more time to be spent on mobiles. However, despite the favourable use of mobile devices, statistics show that mobile conversion rates are still much lower than desktop conversion rates, as people simply aren’t as ready to buy on the small screen. There are plenty of understandable reasons for this: people find it hard to navigate websites and make purchases on a smaller screen; people may not feel payments are as secure on mobile as they are on desktop; people might see phones as a device for browsing and entertainment, whilst desktops are the devices for making purchases. These are all issues which can be overcome with relatively simple strategies, such as: adapting your online content to fit mobile screens, introducing better access and ease of navigation across your website, providing a clear message that the online security measures are the same as desktop devices etc. Measures like these will improve mobile conversation rates and overall user satisfaction. Ultimately, you are playing into your competitors’ hands if you are not able to reach and engage with your audience through mobile and you are missing a trick.

Creating consistent content across multiple platforms is also important for delivering a smoother user experience online. Users rarely stick to one device and will often be multi-screening across several devices. Whilst mobile is the number one choice, many users still express preferences for visiting certain websites on desktop over mobile; therefore, although it’s important that organisations should offer mobile-optimised sites, in the meantime the desktop experience should not be sacrificed. This is why the majority of businesses are using adaptive designs in their content strategy, where layout and content are tailored for both desktop, tablet and various mobile screen dimensions. Another point to consider as part of a mobile content strategy is the creation of mobile apps vs mobile sites. Particularly for B2C businesses, the consumer preference for apps over websites or vice versa should be considered. Make sure you do your home work over which option your customers prefer.

E-mail Marketing

Did you know that 50% of smartphone users grab their smart phone immediately after waking up to check their social media networks and emails? This probably comes as no surprise as there’s a 50/50 chance that you do too. Integrating a mobile responsive email template into a businesses’ content plan is the bare minimum you should be doing, considering mobile email opens have grown by 180% in the last three years according to Email Monday. By next year, 8 in 10 email users will likely access their email accounts exclusively from their mobile devices and 79% of people already use their smartphone for reading emails; which is a higher percentage than those who use it for making calls. However, not only is mobile-optimised email content a necessity for successful email marketing. So too is utilising a rich variety of content and employing segmented email campaigns. Firstly ‘rich content’ can facilitate user interaction, for example videos, polls and infographics encourage user interaction, whilst simultaneously collecting consumer insights. Segmented email campaigns have an open rate that is 14.32% higher than non-segmented email campaigns according to Mailchimp; therefore, it is important to ‘clean-up’ and order your data regularly. GDPR will make this even more relevant in 2018.

A simple tip, if you are embracing email marketing in 2018. Before you start smothering your emails in graphics, videos, polls and fancy templates, first test your campaign and check that it displays effectively on different email platforms, such as outlook, gmail, yahoo, etc. – it is very common to encounter compatibility issues across different email clients and operating systems, which may affect your audience experience. Most e-marketing software platforms will allow you to do this simple and painlessly.