111+ Digital Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2021

In a world where new businesses are popping up every day, brand visibility is everything.

Digital marketing is the answer to getting your brand in front of thousands of new potential customers. Digital marketing refers to any marketing channel that happens online or via technology. Marketing disciplines like social media, mobile marketing, and email marketing all fall under the umbrella of digital marketing.

There are an abundance of marketing myths out there which can make it hard to know what digital marketing strategies are worth your time and which are better left behind. The truth is choosing the right digital marketing mix will depend on your individual company goals. 

111+ important digital marketing statistics 

It might be hard to understand how all of these disciplines can come together in a cohesive digital marketing strategy, but these statistics provide insight into the most popular types of digital marketing and how they will impact business technology in 2021. 

General digital marketing statistics 

Whether your company is business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C), a fleshed-out digital marketing strategy is the most effective tactic to gain more visibility, customers, and revenue for your company. Here are some general statistics to give you an idea of the digital marketing landscape.

• The top three challenges marketers say they face are engaging customers in real time, creating a cohesive customer journey across platforms, and innovating.

• 88% of consumers say they want transparency about how brands are using and handling their personal data.
• 78% of marketers say they have a small marketing team of between one and three people. These teams usually included a writer (52%), a social media manager (36%), and an SEO specialist (34%).

• 54% of customers say they get annoyed if they are targeted with an ad for something they’ve already bought.
• 91% of marketers are "somewhat confident"’ or "very confident" that they’re investing in programs that influence revenue. 
• 58% of customers are comfortable with their data being used transparently, but only 63% say companies are generally transparent about how their data is used.

Content marketing statistics

Content marketing is a strategy in which marketing teams post relevant and engaging content to boost the value and visibility of their products or services. A great example of this is when marketing teams create informative blogs that establish their brand as a thought leader in their respective field. Here are some statistics about how real marketers are using content marketing in their larger digital marketing strategy. 

• SMBs report spending an average of $10,000 on content marketing per year.
• For comparison, one in six enterprise-level organizations report spending at least $10 million per year on content creation.
• 62% of marketers intend to increase their content marketing budgets within the next fiscal year.
• 87% of marketers who’ve used webinars found them effective.
• 67% of marketers report SEO as the most effective tactic they implemented to grow their content strategy. 
• Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads.
• The top three content marketing KPIs marketers report using are organic traffic (76%), leads generated (62%), and sessions (60%).

• 51% of companies say updating old content has proven the most efficient tactic implemented. 
• 84% of marketers list “brand awareness” among their B2B content marketing goals.
• 28% of marketers have reduced their digital advertising budgets to spend more on content creation.
• Companies with blogs produce 67% more leads per month than those without
• 54% of content marketers say generating quality leads is their biggest challenge.
• The three most popular content formats are blog posts (86%), case studies (42%), and customer success stories (36%).
• Content marketing costs up to 41% less than paid search.
• 45% of internet users aged 25–34 report listening to podcasts regularly.
• 83% of traffic to marketing blogs comes from desktops. 
• The two most popular content distribution channels are social media (94%) and email (76%).

Email marketing statistics

Email marketing remains the best digital marketing channel for ROI. Although it can be expensive, and a bit tedious at times, time and time again email marketing works. But what are the best ways to make sure your message stands out among a crowded inbox? These email marketing statistics can give you a good idea of where to get started.

• The average person checks their email at least 20 times a day.
• Both consumers and marketers rank email as their preferred method of communicating.

• 80% of marketers have reported an increase in email engagement over the last twelve months. 
• Tuesdays see the highest email open rates, but also the highest unsubscribe rates.
• For every dollar you spend on email marketing, you can expect to earn a staggering $42 back.
• The best time to send cold emails is between 5-6 am (37% open rate; 8% response rate) and 7-9 pm (48% open rate; 8% response rate).
• Roughly 53% of all emails sent classified as spam.
• Only 14% of subscribers believe that more than half of the emails they receive are useful to them.
• 60% of consumers subscribe to a brand’s list to get promotional messages and deals compared to only 20% that follow brands on social media.
• Mobile readers who open emails a second time from their computer are 65% more likely to click through.
• Segmented email campaigns have a 14% higher open rate compared to non-segmented email campaigns. 
• Segmented email campaigns have a 75% higher click rate compared to non-segmented campaigns. 
• Companies that A/B test every email see email marketing returns that are 37% higher than those of brands that don’t.
• Emails with personalized subject lines had a 50% higher rate compared to emails that didn’t use personalization.

Lead generation statistics

Lead generation is one of the most important metrics marketers are judged against. But getting people to film out lead forms and sign-up for email newsletters is hard. These statistics outline which lead generation strategies will give you the best results and how you can optimize your lead funnel to generate higher quality leads faster than ever. 

• Leads that are actively nurtured by marketing produce 20% more sales opportunities.
• Companies that nurture leads generate 50% more sales at 33% lower costs.
• Landing pages have the highest conversion rate (23%), while pop-ups have the second-lowest conversion rate (3%). 
• The average cost of a B2B sales lead ranges from $30 to $60.
• 80% of B2B companies use content marketing for lead generation. 

• Only 17% of marketers A/B test their landing pages to improve conversion rates. 
• Customers are only willing to wait five seconds for your page to load before they start to bounce.
• 42% of companies consider email to be one of their most important lead generation channels.
• 73% of leads are not sales-ready the first time they interact with your brand.
• 63% of leads who inquire about your business won’t be ready to convert for at least three months.
• 79% of your leads won’t ever convert to sales.
• 61% of marketers say lead generation is their number one challenge.
• 80% of marketers think marketing automation generates more leads and conversions
• Leads are nine times more likely to convert when businesses follow up within five minutes.
• The majority of midsize and large companies generate less than 5,000 qualified leads each month, with the average being 1,877 leads per month.
• 66% of marketers report using social media to generate leads.
• The majority of marketers agree that Linkedin is the most effective social media channel for B2B lead generation, but only 47% of marketers are actively using LinkedIn.

Mobile marketing statistics

Mobile marketing is a digital marketing strategy in which marketing teams attempt to reach their audience on their phones through channels such as text messaging and email. A business with an effective mobile marketing strategy will optimize its web pages for mobile viewing as well as all of its email marketing. Here’s a look at how marketers can make mobile marketing work for them.

• One in four internet users are already mobile-only consumers, meaning they only access the internet using a cell phone.
• Mobile video ad spend is expected to be around 72% of the total digital ad spend this year.
• 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their smartphones.
• 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby or want to visit a business the same day.
• 33% of SMS recipients react to CTAs in SMS marketing messages, and 47% of those end up making a purchase.

• SMS marketing click-through rates for e-commerce brands can be as high as 36%.
• Mobile devices now generate about half of all website traffic globally.
• Mobile advertising spending is expected to surpass $280 billion dollars by 2022.
• 59% of shoppers surveyed say that being able to shop on mobile is important when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from. 
• 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results such as the "click to call” option. 

SEO statistics

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a popular method for generating traffic to a brand website by ranking for popular search queries. Companies that want to drive traffic through SEO often conduct research on major keywords that internet users are commonly searching for. They then write content based on these keywords to drive more traffic to their site.

These statistics show the best strategies for using SEO in your own digital marketing efforts. 

• There are an estimated 3.5 billion searches on Google each day.
• 51% of shoppers say they use Google to research a purchase they plan to make online.
• 85% of marketers report using website analytics and SEO tools to track their campaigns.
• The top 500 most popular search terms make up 8.4% of all search volume.
• 90.63% of pages get no organic search traffic from Google.

• The #1 result in Google’s organic search results has an average CTR of 31.7%.
• 39% of purchasers are influenced by a relevant search.
• 64% of marketers actively invest time in  SEO. 
• Search is the number one traffic source to blogs across all industries. 
• The top ranking result in Google has an average of three times more backlinks than positions two through ten. 
• Google Analytics is the number one SEO tool used by marketers.

Social media statistics

Social media is one of the most popular digital marketing channels and it’s only expected to grow. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have been trusted by marketers for a long, long time. But what about new opportunities like TikTok? Are they worth your time and marketing budget? These statistics will give you a clear snapshot of the state of social media in 2021.

• Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the three most common social media platforms used by marketers.
• 62% of people said they were more interested in a product after seeing it in a Facebook Story.
• 82% of social media leads come from Twitter.
• 74% of Facebook users report using the site at least once a day.
• 63% of Instagram users report logging in at least once a day.
• Only 22% of U.S. adults report using Twitter.
• More than 300 million people worldwide use Pinterest every month.
• 41% of teenagers say Snapchat is their preferred social media channel.

• YouTube is the second most popular website after Google.
• Only 11% of marketers consider making use of user-generated content to be a tactic worth using.
• 81% of marketers have synced their social media platforms with commerce systems.
• LinkedIn is the second-most popular social media platform used by B2B marketers, ranking only behind Facebook. 
• The most common publishing cadence for social media marketers is three to four times per week. 

• TikTok was the fastest growing social media app of 2020, making it the fastest growing social platform for the second year in a row
• Almost a quarter of online U.S. adults say they have come across videos posted on TikTok. 
• More than 1 billion videos are viewed on TikTok every day.
• By 2023, Instagram is projected to reach 120.3 million monthly active users in the U.S.
• Instagram is the social channel with the second-highest ROI among marketers. 
• 68% of marketers report using influencers in a campaign.
• Facebook is the primary content distribution channel for marketers today. 
• Over 1.6 billion people around the world are connected to a small business on Facebook. 

Video marketing statistics

Video marketing has seen a huge boom in popularity in the last few years. Because videos are often expensive and time consuming to produce, most marketers are still unaware of the benefits these resources can bring their brand. Here are some of the best video marketing statistics for marketers in 2021.

• 80% of video marketers claim that video has directly increased sales. 
• 72% of customers prefer learning about a product or service by way of video.
• Video has become the most commonly used format in content marketing, overtaking blogs and infographics.
• 71% of people watch more videos than they did a year ago.
• A website is 53 times more likely to reach the front page of Google if it includes video.

• 84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. 
• 79% of video marketers use Facebook as a video marketing channel. 
• 87% of video marketers on LinkedIn described the platform as an effective video marketing channel. 
• Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year.
• People are twice as likely to share video content with their friends than any other type of content. 
• 87% of video marketers say that video has increased traffic to their website. 
• Promotional videos and brand storytelling are the most common video types created by marketers. 
• Videos under two minutes long get the most engagement.
• By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic.
• People are able to retain a message 95% better when the information is received in the form of a video compared to just 10% when reading it in text.

Digital marketing is a true omnichannel approach to marketing

With all of the different ways that businesses can market their product, it is clear that we are living in the golden age of digital marketing. Whether you’re an SMB looking to get your brand off the ground or an Enterprise brand hoping to reach even more customers, digital marketing can provide a wealth of information and tools to choose from.

Overwhelmed by all the areas digital marketing covers? Learn how to decide if it’s time to outsource your marketing strategy.