Top 10 Digital Marketing Reports You Shouldn’t Miss in 2019

I’m a sucker for good reports. I have been carefully collecting those 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 not only point to current facts, but to underlying trends.

This is why, rather than devouring everything eMarketer or Statista have to offer, I prefer to follow specific reports over time. Those 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 Inbound
• KPCB 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.

Are you up to date with current trends in digital, content, and social? Follow these 10 reports each year and you will be!Click To Tweet

Edelman Trust Barometer

Goes out in mid-January

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.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• People are now more engaged than ever when it comes to media content. 40% share online and comment on news regularly. However, people don’t really trust the media they engage with. 73% worry about fake news being used as a weapon.
• As trust in media and governments is at a great low – at 47 points for the general public and 58% for the informed public – people turn to their employers for guidance. 76% believe CEOs should take the lead on change rather than waiting for the government to impose it.
• The trust crisis initiated by fake news also drove a huge decline in trust for “a person like yourself”. Last year we saw trust in this group at an all-time low, now it’s slowly coming back up, possibly due to the public activism in many groups and related to many issues. This is the third most trusted group of people. At the same time, trust in experts is increasing. Technical and academic experts are the most trusted. Regular employees are quickly climbing up the trust ladder, as they were the source of several big corporate scandals, uncovering the malpractice of corporations.
• Businesses should recognize that they need to focus on building trust. PR is not the best way to do it – rather they need to lead meaningful societal change, empower their employees, solve problems in local communities, and show the CEO leads the way and engages with issues.

See the Edelman Trust Barometer 2019 summary slides here:

Buffer’s State of Social

Goes out in mid-January

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

Why should you care?

The Digital Yearbook is a joint research of 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.

The most striking results of the latest edition

• Internet penetration is growing faster than mobile phone usage. It’s an interesting reminder to know there were some 30 million new internet users who didn’t own a mobile device.
• The growth in internet and mobile users is mainly due to a surge in Africa. Social media’s main driver lies in the Middle East and Asia. Developed markets are registering a single-digit increase in all four parameters.
• Facebook keeps its hegemony as the leader in social platforms. Still, 3 of the top 5 platforms are messaging apps. If you’re not looking into that space, you should start right away!
• The average internet speeds are appallingly low – some 40 Mbps for fixed and 20 Mbps for mobile connections. Make sure you remember that when creating your new website.
• The average Facebook organic reach is 8%. I still find this a rather generous estimate 🙂

See We Are Social’s Digital Yearbook slides here:

State of Inbound

Goes out in mid-May

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

• Marketers are mainly focused to drive their organic and SEO presence (61%) and to produce content (55%). These efforts are aiming to drive the bottom line or drive awareness – 69% are trying to mainly convert leads to customers, 54% are trying to grow website traffic.
• Video is still the core focus, but the channel distribution is different – for the first time we’re seeing professional networks like LinkedIn or Xing near the top – 43% of marketers plan to use video there, with 41% doing Facebook video and 45% putting efforts into YouTube.
• Marketers’ disillusionment with organic social media is visible – it’s the second most overrated marketing tactic, mentioned by 14% of respondents. The first one is paid advertising – but hey, the research is done by Hubspot and they might be biased 🙂

KPCB Internet Trends

Goes out at the end of May

Why should you care?

Also known as “The Mary Meeker Report”, KPCB’s 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 most striking results of the latest edition

• Although this is the first year with 0% growth in smartphone unit shipments, we’re still seeing growth in time spent on digital, reaching 5.9 hours/day. The easier the product is the more likely it is users will spend time with it – Meeker uses Telegram, Square Cash, and Spotify as examples of simplicity. Additionally, messaging platforms continue to rise in popularity.
• People are looking for information suited for them and in ways most convenient to them. Voice is becoming more and more popular with Amazon Echo’s installed user base growing to 30 billion in 3 years. While browsing, with voice or not, people expect results tailored to them – be it in the Facebook newsfeed or on Netflix. Personalized experiences lead to engagement which in turn leads to monetization. But this also provokes government scrutiny.
• E-commerce sales continue to grow steadily, but 6% is not something to write home about. It currently represents just 13% of retail. The world of e-commerce is changing by becoming mobile, interactive, personalized, and seamlessly integrated into regular day-to-day interactions.
• Amazon represents 49% of product searches in the US. This is huuuuge! Still, serendipity plays a big role with product discovery in social networks like Facebook and Instagram.
• Subscriptions are getting bigger by the day. Currently, Spotify’s subscribers represent 45% of monthly active users (MAUs).
• The gap between time spent in online media and percent of advertising spending is declining, but still present. Last year it was 7%, now it’s just 3% – but this represents a $7B opportunity. Growth in digital ad spending is starting to decrease, but it still grew by $15B in a year.

See the Internet Trends Report explanation here:

Social Media Marketing Industry Report

Goes out at the end of May

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

• Measurement keeps being a struggle. Just 44% of marketers believe they can effectively measure what social media activities bring to the business. The trend is quite consistent – it was 38%, 41%, and 42% in the previous three years. Which also translates to other results, like 38% of marketers not knowing whether Facebook marketing works for them or not. Although the matter of ROI is unclear, 62% of marketers plan to increase their Facebook organic efforts and 67% will increase ad usage on the platform.
• Marketers want a lot from social media. When talking about the benefits of social media, they cite traffic, loyalty, lead generation… We rely on social for the whole of the funnel. In the end, this leads to issues with prioritization. The graphs on plans for future social media usage tell a similar story – more than half of marketers plan to increase their use of Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. That’s a lot of action!
• Instagram usage continues to climb. It’s now the second most used social network with 66% of marketers relying on it – this number was 54% last year and 45% the year before. LinkedIn usage has stalled at 56%, driven mainly by B2B marketers (79% use the platform, compared to 47% of B2C). Twitter sees a minor drop from 68% to 62% and YouTube gets a little bump from 45% to 50%.
• The use of live video is increasing, with more than 1/3 of marketers using it now compared to 1/4 a year ago. This will probably be the last year where you can gain quick traction in this relatively free space. 63% use “traditional” video, up from 57% and surpassing blogs (currently 60%, down from 66% last year).

Annual Blogger Survey

Goes out at the end of October or start of November

Why should you care?

Andy Crestodina’s Orbit Media Studios is a relatively new survey with just 5 years of history. Still, 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 rise and has reached 3.5 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 1151 words, growing 42% in 5 years. Still, there’s great variation – about half of all bloggers typically write pieces below 1000 words. Again, those writing longer pieces are seeing better results.
• Blogging has moved away from being a daily activity. If 4 years ago most bloggers published 2-6 times a week, now they have moved to write several times per month. Longer posts and relevant articles take time, so this makes sense. Daily posting nowadays is reserved for social media.
• 38% of bloggers are now editing older posts as part of their strategy. 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.
• 1/4 of bloggers rely on original research in their writing. The number isn’t high, but it’s a good example that bloggers take their work seriously. The more writing starts to professionalize, the more time bloggers invest in long-term promotion strategies like SEO and email marketing – and SEO, together with influencer outreach and paid promotion, tend to lead to the best results for bloggers.

Content Marketing Benchmarks – B2B and B2C editions

Goes out in October for B2B, November-December for B2C

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

• The percentage of organizations with a documented content marketing strategy is still low – 33% for B2C and 38% for B2B. This number hasn’t moved greatly in 2018. It doesn’t seem that marketers understand the benefits of having a strategy in place. Same goes for measurement – just 49% of B2B and 57% of B2C marketers measure ROI.
• Email is the top content method used, with 80% of B2C and 87% of B2B companies relying on it. Educational content comes second (71% for B2C and 77% for B2B).
• For B2C, the top 3 content types used include social media stories (68%), long-form content (57%), and video snippets (52%). For B2B, the top 3 is comprised of the same content in different ranking: long-form content (74%), video snippets (43%), and social stories (37%).
• Content marketing is largely a “pay to play” game – 66% of B2B and 68% of B2C content gets promoted through paid channels. 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

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

• CMOs will become more than marketers – they will lead the digital transformation for their brands and present the path to understanding customers and keeping with the times. Sidenote: I recently spoke to Brian Solis and he kind of hinted at the same thing.
• Successful CEOs will be those who remember their values and manifest them in their actions – as hinted in the Edelman Trust Barometer. Buyers, even B2B ones, are concerned with what their commercial choices mean to society – so trust in companies is becoming ever more important.
• Voice is slowly becoming the norm. The voice revolution will be enabled by personalization and the changing behavior of customers who will start to perceive voice as a natural thing.

See the latest Ogilvy Consulting Trends slide deck:

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?