Top 10 Digital Marketing Reports You Need in 2021 to Keep up With Marketing Trends

The post was updated with the fresh editions of all marketing industry reports in February 2021.

I’m a sucker for good reports. I have been carefully collecting these like a botanist gathering new specimens in her herbarium. But the difference is that dried plants stay the same, while interesting statistics have a way of living a life of their own. They are changing over time and they can point not only to current facts but to underlying trends. And following them is now more important than ever with the pandemic putting all of us on a dynamic new path.

This is why, rather than devouring everything eMarketer or Statista have to offer, I prefer to follow specific reports over time. These are reports I trust and reports I find trustworthy in terms of research methodology. And they are much better than looking at “predictions for the new year” posts – it’s a way to predict the future on your own by regularly observing where the world has been headed.

I thought it’s worth sharing my favorite reports, what makes them valuable and when you can expect their next editions. Here’s the full list:

• Edelman Trust Barometer
• Buffer’s State of Social
• Digital Yearbook
• State of Marketing (formerly, State of Inbound)
• Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends
• Social Media Marketing Industry Report
• Annual Blogger Survey
• Content Marketing Benchmarks – B2B and B2C editions
• Ogilvy’s Key Digital Trends

I also created a Google calendar with reminders. You can make sure you go to the website and download fresh info even before everyone starts talking about it! See it here and just copy it to your account.

Edelman Trust Barometer

Goes out in mid-January. Latest edition: 2021

Why should you care?

Trust Barometer is extensive international research into the perception of trust in different opinion leaders, organizations, and industries. It has a very good track record of predicting what would be trustworthy spokespeople for your brand, influencers in your niche, etc. And it now has been running for 20 years, giving you a great opportunity for longitudinal analysis.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• With the growing mistrust for institutions like the government and media, businesses are the one player that still keeps a decent trust record. They are the only institution deemed both competent and ethical.
• The pandemic has increased fears of job loss and sharpened different societal concerns. People feel it’s now more important than ever to address issues like poverty, education, climate change, misinformation, discrimination, and racism. And people expect businesses to help find the solutions to these, too.
• There’s a local feel to trust. Employees have high trust in their own CEOs (63 points) while they distrust CEOs in general (48 points). Scientists get the highest trust rank (73 points), people within the local community are also in the high trust category (62 points).
• Business leaders have a lot to prove, as 56% believe that they are purposefully trying to mislead people. They will need to rely on other spokespeople to spread their message. Academic and technical experts are the most trusted ones (both at 59 points), followed by “a person like myself” (53 points).
• As for the channels of information people believe, social media is hitting an all-time low at 35 points. News organizations are seen as biased with 61% believing the media is not objective and 59% believing journalists purposefully deceive their audience. Internal company news sent by the employer turns out to be highly trusted, at 61 points.
• When the government is absent, people clearly expect business to step in and fill the void, and the high expectations of business to address and solve today’s challenges has never been more apparent. 68% think that businesses should step in and fix societal problems governments fail at. 66% believe CEOs should take the lead on change and hold themselves accountable to the public. People apparently turn to businesses to guard information quality. According to Edelman, businesses need to embrace this and lead with facts and trustworthy content while acting with empathy to earn their standing in the public eye.

Buffer’s State of Social

Goes out in mid-January. Latest edition: 2019

Why should you care?

As one of the leaders among social media management apps, Buffer has access to a lot of marketers and uses that to produce reliable survey results. Their annual State of Social research covers the ways marketers use social media, what they find effective, and how they plan to move forward.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• Stories are the new black. 57% of brands feel they are an effective marketing tactic. This is still an untapped channel, as 62% of brands are yet to invest in stories ads.
• Messaging is another channel with an even higher potential. Currently, just 28.6% of marketers have used messaging apps in their marketing, and just half of all marketers plan to use messaging in 2019. So if you’re looking to rise above the noise, messaging is surely the way to go.
• On the other hand, if you’re still not using video as part of your marketing mix, you have some catching up to do. Just 14.5% of marketers are still staying away from video – a significant drop from 25% last year. Lack of time and budget are the main hurdles to video creation.
• Just 50% of businesses have a documented social media strategy. This number hasn’t changed at all from last year to my great surprise. Keeping this in mind, it’s not surprising that 1/5 of marketers can’t measure the effectiveness of social media marketing and 25% can’t measure the results of paid social media ads.

Digital Yearbook

Goes out at the end of January. Latest edition: 2021

Why should you care?

The Digital Yearbook is a joint research of the Philippines-based agency We Are Social and the social media scheduling platform Hootsuite. They collect useful data on trends in internet usage, social media, and digital media. And they provide detailed country-level data, too.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• Social media growth has accelerated significantly since the outbreak of COVID-19. In 2020, there were 13% more social media users compared to the previous year, double the growth for both 2019 and 2018.
• The typical user now spends 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media each day. There’s no increase in this metric compared to the previous year which is weird to me. There might’ve been a short bump in usage at the start of global lockdowns, but now we have fatigue setting in.
• Mobile is officially now the first screen – we spent 53% of our connected time on mobile devices. Still, there’s a lot of time spent on other devices, too, so you need to keep a multi-device focus in your marketing.
• Search is slowly changing. Most people still use a conventional search engine, but 45% would also use voice commands. And when it comes to how users research your brand, social networks might be the top channel – 53% of young consumers (16-24 year olds) use social research as a primary source of brand information.
• Social media users overlap significantly between platforms. This means you definitely need to vary your strategy by channel and present valuable native information in each one. The copy/paste approach won’t bring you many wins.
• The pandemic made e-commerce adoption rise quickly and significantly. More than 3/4 of internet users routinely shop online. Younger generations are much more likely to use a mobile phone to make online purchases, but these figures tail off quite quickly amongst their parents’ generation. Females are also more likely to shop from their smartphones.

See We Are Social’s Digital Yearbook slides here:

State of Marketing (former State of Inbound)

Goes out in mid-May. Latest edition: 2020

Why should you care?

The report is created by Hubspot – the company also has a large reach among marketers, so getting a big enough sample is not an issue. I have to admit their report tends to be a bit preachy, so sometimes it’s hard to sift through the “Inbound marketing is awesome!!!” message and get proper information. Still, it proves an interesting read.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• Content marketing is the hot new thing. 70% of marketers are actively investing in it and 60% say content is very or extremely important for their overall strategy. Still, when it comes to measuring content marketing results, marketers have not gone beyond the obvious – sales or traffic. It’s unclear if this means just direct sales or if there’s more elaborate attribution happening here.
• Video has officially dethroned written content as the leading content format. Almost 20% say it’s their primary format, compared to 15% for blogs.
• Facebook is still the main social channel, with more than 20% of companies investing in it. Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn come behind it, in that order. Marketers report high ROI for Facebook and Instagram, while the return on their investment in other platforms is almost non-existent. This means it’s not likely for Facebook to die off as a key channel quite yet.
• When it comes to paid advertising, Facebook is also unmatched in terms of ROI, providing the highest return for 1/3 of marketers. Google Search is the only other channel that seems to come close – a bit more than 1/4 say they see the highest return there.
• Website, social, and email are the traditional marketing trifecta of preferred channels. But some are also trying out new tools – 45% have bots set up on their websites (although that does seem more like a tool used by customer support).

Internet Trends Report

Goes out at the end of May. Latest edition 2019, with an exclusive 2020 coronavirus one

Why should you care?

Also known as “The Mary Meeker Report”, this annual Digital Trends presentation is something of a grand event in Digital Land. It’s the one report that is loved by tech journalists and marketing specialists alike, as it covers a host of macro trends that shape the digital economy. And the sheer volume of data means you still find insights even months after it comes out. The latest “standard” edition was published in 2019. In 2020, there was a shorter exclusive report focused on the effect of the coronavirus.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• E-commerce reached 15% of retail sales in 2019. We still don’t have recent data and it’ll be very interesting to see how the global pandemic shifted the numbers here.
• Internet ad spending continues to see steady growth at more than 20% year over year. Google and Facebook are definitely the winners here, but other players like Amazon, Twitter, Snap, and Pinterest are gaining traction. The key trends here include better targeting, machine learning that seamlessly integrates ads at the right time, shippable catalogs, and highly relevant ads.
• As advertising becomes more competitive and cost per acquisition rises, companies need to find ways to boost their efficiency. This includes keeping new customers happy, using recommendations, and investing in improving your product.
• The time we spend in digital channels grows by 6% compared to last year, reaching 6.3 hours per day and mobile continues to occupy more time (3.6 hours, up from 3.3 hours last year). We now spend more time on mobile phones than in front of the TV.
• The top platforms we spend time with are Facebook, YouTube, Whatsapp, WeChat, Instagram, Messenger, and Twitter. YouTube jumped from fourth to second place in a year. Instagram moved in front of Messenger.
• Podcasts have seen a huge increase in usage from 2014 onwards. Now 70 million users listen to podcast monthly – up from just 22 million in 2008.
• Image creation, usage of image-first platforms is rising. Users are becoming savvier and savvier in editing and communicating through images. According to Meeker, we’re in the early days of this game still.

See the Internet Trends Report explanation here:

Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Goes out at the end of May. Latest edition: 2020

Why should you care?

The report is created by Social Media Examiner the go-to media for social media marketers. They don’t just focus on how social media strategies are evolving – they analyze the development of the marketer’s role and expertise, too.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• Facebook has been losing its grip on the social media throne. Just 59% of marketers say that Facebook is their most important platform – down from 67% in 2018. And 10% of marketers are planning to decrease their organic marketing.
• Instagram seems to be the new marketing darling. 76% of marketers already have it in the mix, for 17% it’s the most important platform, and 67% plan to increase their Instagram efforts. Video is another key focus for marketers – 55% already use it and 69% plan to increase their efforts there.
• Bots are still not able to win the interest of marketers. Just 13% are using them and most marketers don’t plan to start soon.
• Although there’s a lot of talk about TikTok, but just 5% of marketers use it now. And 74% don’t plan to use it next year.
• 54% of marketers still don’t use live video. Out of the ones who do 64% are focusing on Facebook Live, 19% on Instagram, and 10% on YouTube.
• Just 35% of marketers think they can measure the return on their organic social activities. This is down from 44% in 2019, reflecting the constantly changing algorithms and attribution options.

Annual Blogger Survey

Goes out at the end of September or in October. Latest edition: 2020

Why should you care?

Andy Crestodina’s Orbit Media Studios is already a seasoned survey with 7 years of history. It’s the only large study focusing solely on bloggers. And since I’m a blogger, and we bloggers are of the self-centered type, I’m bound to include it in this roundup Jokes aside, it shows how blogging has evolved from casual posting to almost a profession.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• The average time it takes to write a blog post continues to stay high at close to 4 hours. Bloggers investing more time are seeing better results – especially when it comes to those devoting 6+ hours per blog post.
• More time equals longer articles. The average blog post now is 1269 words, growing 57% since 2014. Bloggers who typically write 500-word posts have considerably decreased in number – just 7% now compared to 21% in 2014.
• Blogging has moved away from being a daily activity. Longer posts and relevant articles take time, so this makes sense. Daily posting nowadays is reserved for social media. Still, bloggers keep it consistent – even if it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.
• Editing older posts as part of blogging is now the norm – 70% are doing it. As publishing frequency goes down, we choose more evergreen topics that need to be kept up to date. Regular measurement is also becoming part of the strategy with 1/3 of bloggers always measuring their efforts with Analytics.
• 42% of bloggers now rely on original research in their writing. The number has risen significantly in the last few years.
• It’s great to see email marketing being one of the distribution tactics on the rise, as opposed to all other types of driving traffic like SEO, outreach, and social media distribution, too.

Based on the data in the survey, Orbit Media has compiled thestrategy that will give you the highest chance to success:

Content Marketing Benchmarks – B2B and B2C editions

Goes out in October for B2B, December or January for B2C. Latest editions: 2020

Why should you care?

The Content Marketing Institute is the only proper institution focused on content marketing. They know this is more than a fad and are ready to prove it with numbers. Theirs is the key in-depth research on content marketing trends that you should follow. Splitting the results into two separate studies, a B2C and a B2B one gives you a bit more context in the evolution of the practice. Sadly, it only covers North America.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• Whatever changes the pandemic necessitated, marketers believe they will stay on for the foreseeable future. Most marketers had to shift their targeting and messaging strategy (63% in B2C, 70% in B2B) or adjust their editorial calendar (54% in B2C, 64% in B2B). 18% revisited their audience personas and 13% updated their content metrics during the pandemic.
• Half of companies outsource at least some aspect of their content strategy. Content creation is the thing that’s most often outsourced (75% of B2C and 86% of B2B). This can be a challenge as there are a lot of companies that potentially outsource without a well-documented strategy.
• The percentage of organizations with a documented content marketing strategy has been growing, now at 42%. This number has increased from 38% two years ago. Another big shift comes in measurement – nowadays, 77% of B2C and 81% of B2B companies measure content ROI (up from about half in 2018). As content complexity goes up, it’s only natural that marketers become more structured.
• Blog posts, email newsletters, and videos are the top content types used. For B2B the third place is shared by videos and case studies. The use of virtual events has increased significantly – 39% from 27% for B2C and 67% from 57% for B2B. Livestreaming has also gone up – 35% from 13% for B2C and 29% from 10% for B2B.
• As far as organic distribution channels go, the trifecta remains the same and far ahead of competitors – social, website, and email reign supreme. The social platforms preferred by B2C are Facebook (used by 97%), Instagram (81%, up from 74% the year before), and YouTube (72% up from 62%). For B2B, the top 3 are different – LinkedIn (96%), Twitter and Facebook (at 82% each).
• Content marketing is largely a “pay to play” game – 72% of marketers use paid channels for distribution. And this trend will probably continue, as 50% of B2B and 57% of B2C marketers expect their content marketing budget to increase in 2019.

Here’s the B2C Content Marketing Report slide deck:

And here you’ll find the B2B Content Marketing Report slide deck:

Ogilvy’s Key Digital Trends

Goes out in mid-December. Latest edition: 2020

Why should you care?

Looking at yearly predictions still deserves a post of its own, but I’m including Ogilvy’s edition here, as it’s backed by some pretty useful stats. And they start by stating what their success in predicting trends over the past year was – so you can clearly see if you could trust their judgment or not.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• As creative campaigns reach their lowest point of effectiveness in 24 years, marketers turn to science. Behavior science and psychographics become viable ways to research and target the right audience. When you understand the audience’s worldview, you can engage them in a way that resonates with their cultural identity.
• Employee experience is key for business growth. This goes beyond traditional perks and bonuses – it’s about building relationships, making employees feel connected and able to express and follow their worldviews. If employers don’t pay attention they risk not just higher employee attrition but a decline in innovation, profitability, corporate reputation, and much more.
• Lockdown accelerated the adoption of e-commerce by five years in just three months. While the e-comm giants predictably grew a lot, traditional retailers and B2B brands alike did a foray into online sales. Digital experiences are getting integrated into physical locations (e.g. through digital menus and payment options) to make the real world safer and more convenient. And they are here to stay – 70% of EU customers say they will continue using digital as often post-COVID.
• Brands’ survival depends on their ability to satisfy consumer needs and work in accordance with clients’ behaviors. Brand purpose needs to be articulated and put into practice. And it’s not about being green or ethical – it just needs to be relevant to your audience. Currently, we’re not doing that good – 94% of customers believe it’s important for companies to have a strong purpose, but just 37% think this is true today. We’ll need to step on brand purpose, customer needs, and global trends to create specific brand experience principles and deliver these through all customer touchpoints.

Stats, stats everywhere

Looking at reports is a useful way to sync with the industry. Still, it’s pointless to just look at the numbers. Think about what they mean for your business and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Don’t forget, you can easily get reminders for new editions by adding this Google Calendar.

Are there any great reports you follow on a yearly basis? What are they?