Marketing online is fast becoming the most effective method of advertising for many industries across the globe. Below is a look at various online marketing facts and stats conducted in studies from all over the world.

Online Marketing
Marketing online offers the opportunity to advertise products and services over the internet with the advantage of doing so at a lower distribution cost rate and reaching a much broader audience. Online marketing opens the door for creative aspects and various technical factors, such as design, development, advertising and sales to be utilised in a way that attracts not only the correct audience, but the largest one possible.

Online Marketing Facts & Stats

1. General Facts & Stats

• It is estimated that an average 80% - 90% of all website user traffic begins on search engine sites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.
• Thousands of unique visitors are more likely to visit your website if it can be found on the very first page during a search on Google.
• Online marketing can achieve a better search engine optimisation (SEO) positioning on major portals (search engines) and branding of your business, services and products.
• Online marketing promotes "more clicks" on your website, which offers more prospective customers. More clicks increase a company's brand over the internet as well as earn additional revenue.
• Keyword rich and high quality articles on a website best assists with optimising or highlighting it and bringing it to the forefront of the industry pack. Metatags are a useful tool here to promote a high keyword count in an article. The more opportunities that you create to highlight your brand name, logos and services using keywords and metatags, the more often a target audience will take notice of your website.
• Social network websites, such as Facebook are currently popular choices for reaching a broad target audience which are predominantly younger age groups, but make up a massive portion of the world's customer base.
• Online marketing allows for consumers to research and purchase a company's offered products and services at their own convenience.
• As of the year 2007, online marketing has become the fastest growing media advertising type.
• Broadband was introduced to American residential homes in March 2005. By May 2008, broadband technology was being used in more than 90% of all residential internet connection in the USA.  An estimated number of internet users totalled 220,141,969 with at least 199 million of those people using broadband technology to surf the web. Broadband technology offers people the opportunity to view more rich multimedia online marketing content at the mere click of a mouse. Broadband technology speeds are continuously being upgraded and increased. Online marketing campaigns will too, continue to increase their viewers in vast numbers across the world.

2. Online Marketing Industry Effects: Facts & Stats

• Music - with the increased amount of people purchasing and downloading music online, Apple Inc's iTunes Store has become the largest music vendor in the USA as of 2008.
• Finance - more and more banks are offering online banking services as a growing number of customers has increased the demand for convenience. An estimated number of at least 150 million U.S citizens currently bank online.
• Auctions - eBay and other popular e-stores have emerged as convenient areas to shop for antiques, movie props and specialised items as opposed to common flea markets and other stores.
• Advertising - Of all industries, advertising has benefited the most by far. In 2006, it was estimated by Price Waterhouse Coopers that a minimum of US$16.9 billion was spent on online marketing in the USA.
• Elections - online marketing has greatly influenced the electoral process of many countries across the world. In particular, presidential candidates in the 2008 USA elections "recruited" on average an additional 500 social network supporters per day in order to spread their election campaign messages. President Barack Obama raised more than US$1 million each and every day during his presidential campaign, largely coming from online donations.

Online Marketing Studies & Surveys
1. Facts & Stats

• In 2008, The New York Times in collaboration with a company by the name of comScore published a study done whereby data was collected from large internet based companies. Data collected included interactions with company websites and the number of hits measured from advertisements. The average number of data collected amounted to 2 500 times more per user, per month.
• In 2007 a study conducted by Britain's Royal Mail concluded that recommendations are the number one reason people choose to visit a particular site. Consumers also trust friends and family above experts (65% trust friends, 27% trust experts, 8% trust celebrities).
• A study done by McKinsey & Co and Jupiter Media Metrix in 2002 stated that online users who contribute to product reviews or post messages visit websites 9 times more often than non-contributors. Contributors were also noted to make twice as many purchases from a website than non-contributors.
• A survey conducted by Jupiter Research in 2007 found that online social network users are 3 times more likely to trust their peers' opinions over advertising mediums before making a decision to purchase a service or product offered online.  Marketing Sherpa's study done in the same year concluded that 86.9% of people are more comfortable trusting a friend's recommendation over and above a critic's review. An estimated 83.8% of people taking part in the same survey said that they would trust a user's review over a critic.
• 81% of online holiday shoppers read customer reviews according to a study conducted by Nielson Online in December 2008.
• 86% of online consumers read online business reviews ahead of making any purchasing decisions according to a study by Kudzu.com in December 2008.
• A survey conducted by 1 to 1 Media revealed that as many as 84% of marketers agree that the building of customer trust is set to become online marketing's primary objective across all industries in the world.
• Allurent conducted a survey in January 2008 showing that online businesses currently lose as much as 67% of their consumers due to a lack of online product information.

In Conclusion
Online marketing is fast becoming an almost essential tool for advertising the world over, especially where creating brand awareness and the generation of sales is concerned. At Optimus01 a team of specialists will assist you and your company with precise ways in which you can best utilise your online marketing campaigns, and get the most out of advertising online. Contact us for more information or call on +27 11 463 2040.