Though the start of a new year is a good time to reflect on what you learned last year and what you hope to learn in the new one, you undoubtedly already know that to be an effective marketer, you need to keep up on updates from week to week and month to month — not only year to year. That’s why we scour the internet (yes, it’s exhausting — but it’s a labor of love) to bring to you the latest marketing research and studies every month of the year.
Digital content marketing studies and research:
Mobile shopping apps shone during the holiday season.
Brands are continuing to find success in mobile apps. This was especially true during the 2021 holiday season in which more than half of mobile shoppers downloaded one or more new mobile shopping apps leading into the holidays. The 2021 Q4 Shopping App-ortunity Report details that brand apps like those from Amazon, Target, and Wal-Mart stand head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to awareness of the apps by digital consumers, but eBay, Etsy, and Nike are not too far behind. Nike, in particular, is climbing quickly in building awareness among digital consumers.
B2C content marketing studies and research:
Email remains the most effective channel for marketers.
Email might be boring (sorry, email marketers), but excitement is not the same as effectiveness. In fact, marketers have once again rated email as the most effective marketing channel. In the recent Litmus “State of Email Marketing Report,” researchers found that email beat out every other available channel. Other top channels in the report include (2) paid search/ads; (3) organic search; (4) social media; (5) events; (6) direct mail; (7) SMS; (8) video.
B2B content marketing studies and research:
B2B content consumption grows again.
If it seems to you that you are seeing more B2B content that is more engaging and effective, you aren’t imagining things. New research shows that B2B content engagement growth increased from 2020 to 2021. The report, sponsored by Pathfactory, examined how B2B content trends have continued to evolve — particularly after B2B brands were forced into reimagining their marketing strategies when in-person communication became mostly obsolete. The report found that the B2B content specialist saw 55 percent more website visitors, 34 percent more page views, and 47 percent longer sessions in 2021.
Social media content marketing studies and research:
TikTok solidifies itself as the third-largest social media network.
Although it hasn’t been around nearly as long as Twitter and Snapchat, TikTok has ridden its meteoric rise over the last two years to now find itself as the third-largest social media channel in the world. The short-form video app now only follows Facebook and Instagram in monthly users. Coming into 2022, TikTok now has 755 million monthly active users. This comes following two standout years in which TikTok grew by 59.8 percent (2020) and 40.8 percent (2021). Though TikTok is expected to continue to grow in 2022, eMarketer predicts a growth rate of about 15 percent, making the growth rate slower — but still significant.
