“and market share like no other media can. · social media came a close second (3.6), narrowly...

2Western Australian Digital Marketing Report 2015

Digital is a cost effective, easy to manage and powerful way to reach our target

audience and drive sales leads, revenue and market share like no other media can.“ ”


Contents

Marketing priorities 6

Marketing trends 7

Main benefits of digital marketing 8

Digital presence 9

Digital marketing spend 11

Digital challenges facing business 12

Measuring success 13

The future of digital 15

Introduction 4

Key findings 5

Methodology 19

Appendix 18

Participant profile 16

About Bang Digital 20


Introduction

This is our second year embarking on the WA Digital Marketing Report, and the landscape is changing at a rapid rate. We saw a marked increase in participants this year, and have restructured the questionnaire to incorporate additional questions surrounding social media, as this continues to grow momentum in the market place.

It’s clear that businesses are starting to understand that content is king, with this being the trend for 2015. The challenge for most businesses is the development of driven marketing strategies which cut through the “noise” in the digital environment.

Reputation risk management is becoming a key focus for customers, with this featuring high up on the priorities list. As more content is created, new challenges present themselves in the management of the two way engagement.

While “offline” marketing activities move further down the priority list in 2015, 72% of businesses employ an offline agency, however, only 50% employ a specialist digital agency.

The need for more businesses to understand the value of a fully integrated digital strategy is vital to address the key challenges.

Read on to see how your organisation compares to others in this State.

Renae LunjevichManaging Director

Bang Digital

A total of 206 WA businesses were surveyed this year using an anonymous online questionnaire.

These participants were chosen to ensure a broad spread of industries, across a broad range of business sizes.

In this report you will find the latest trends in digital marketing, and have the ability to compare your strategy to what others are seeing as important this year.


Key findings


Marketing priorities

WA businesses identified search engine marketing as the highest priority activity that they engage in, giving it an average importance level of 3.7 out of 5. Social media came a close second (3.6), narrowly ahead of email marketing (3.5).

Many traditional offline methods, while still considered part of the mix, are of lower importance for WA businesses.

Q. Rank the following marketing activities in order of priority from (1) least important to (5) most important for your organisation:


Marketing trends

Content marketingFacebook remarketingVideo content developmentAdvanced website analyticsLinkedIn advertisingDisplay remarketingMobile marketingCross platform device marketingNot sureYouTube advertising

51.7%47.6%42.0%42.0%37.1%28.7%23.1%21.7%17.5%15.4%

Trends for

2015 Content is kingWhere in 2014 WA businesses were focusing on ad extensions and mobile responsible design it seems they have matured in their digital strategies.

Content marketing takes out two of the top three spots for top trends in 2015 with Facebook remarketing and analytics also featuring strongly.

Interestingly while video content was the third most popular trend amongst WA businesses, advertising on YouTube came last. This indicates that businesses are aware of the increased value of video content but don’t completely understand the full marketing opportunity around video.

Q. Which of these emerging digital marketing trends does your organisation plan to utilise in 2015?


Main benefits of digital marketing

“The ability to directly target specific niches while having the power to tangibly measure your

associated ROI.”

“Data. Data. Data. Full stop.”

“I like that digital marketing can be so targeted and it’s so easy to track and measure impressions, CTR and

conversions. I also like that I have the flexibility to easily change and tailor my marketing messages for different target markets in a cost-effective and

timely manner.”

“The ability to showcase and communicate with an unlimited number

of people who are looking for our product and services. Not having to pay

thousands of dollars in print material that gets thrown in the bin. Better for us

and the environment.”

Q. What do you like about online marketing? In other words, what do you see as the main benefits?


Digital presence

Q. Does your company have a website?

Web presence.While the vast majority of WA businesses have a website there is still a suprisingly high percentage that have not invested.

This is a massive missed opportunity. Regardless of the type of industry or business, a website is the essential starting point for marketing in the digital age.

44.6% of businesses Australia wide have no websiteAustralian Bureau of Statistics Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business study


Q. Does your company currently have a presence on social media? Q. Please indicate which social media platforms your organisation currently utilises.

Social media.The uptake of social media across WA businesses is strong and has risen significantly from 76% in 2013 to 90.8% in 2015.

Digital presence

Unsurprisingly, Facebook is by far the most popular social network employed by businesses. The relatively low rates

of YouTube and Google+ suggests that many businesses are not aware of the

positive SEO benefits they provide.


Digital marketing spend

Q. How much of your 2015 budget will you be dedicating to digital/online marketing activities?

Percentage of overall spend dedicated to digital marketing

All size businesses have seen an increase in digital expenditure, however, medium sized businesses have seen the biggest jump this year with a 24% increase in digital expenditure.

Digital growth.


Digital challenges facing business

“Fear within the business (particularly executive),

reputational risk and not being able to control

everything and lack of resources.”

“Very complex, very time-consuming,

constantly changing, does it actually

generate business or just add to the noise?”

“So many choices and the time consuming aspect of it, plus the ‘noise’ of competing content.”

“Stakeholder buy-in has taken time, despite the evidence.

Old habits die hard.”

“To do it well you need to dedicate the time to

reach your audience. You simply can’t get a website or Facebook

page and let it be. You need to have an active

presence.”

Q. What are some of the challenges you feel you face when it comes to digital marketing?


Measuring success

Q. What measures does your organisation use to determine the success of its digital marketing strategies?

Data driven. The fact that analytics provides not only an insight into your current customer behaviours but also influences decision making going forward is clearly understood by WA businesses.

Multiple metrics encompassing not only impressions but engagement and conversions were the standard from most respondents.

9.1% of WA businesses do not currently measure the impact of

its online marketing activities


Measuring success

Multiple metrics. Almost 90% of respondents who track data reported that they used three or more metrics when measuring the success of their online marketing activities.

Using multiple metrics is generally considered best practice in the marketing industry as it provides a more holistic view of the data and therefore more accurate insights.

Website visits win.The most common metric used by WA businesses was website page views with 67.8% of the respondants stating they track this data.

While page views and traffic are important it must be understood that they are a starting point when measuring success. When used together with conversions and other metrics, the insights into online performance become significantly more powerful.

Q. What measures does your organisation use to determine the success of its digital marketing strategies?


The future of digital

“It’s hugely important. My main thrust will continue to be social

media because of its relationship building power.”

“Our organisation is focusing on a higher presence across all platforms.

Last year was the first time we utilised digital marketing and we are now seeing the results (3x increase

in enrolments in some courses)”

“We will continue to build our content, social media engagement. Allocating

more funds to a more diverse range of media, away from print & radio toward

mobile first experiences.”

“Our focus online for 2015 will be attracting new leads and also converting these leads into sales. I see remarketing (Facebook and display) playing a large

role in our digital strategy.”

Q. What are your thoughts about the future of digital for 2015? What will your organisation be focusing on overall?


Participant profile


Appendix: Overview of Methodology


Methodology

Small(0 to 20 staff):

95%

Medium(21 to 199 staff):

4%

Large(200+ staff):

1%

An independent third party survey provider was used to gather data for this year’s report via online survey. The questionnaire lasted on average 5 minutes. A link to this survey was distributed to key individuals within businesses using an independent email list sourced through WA Business News’ Book of Lists. In addition to Bang Digital’s own internal contact database, a total of 206 surveys were collected through this method.

Participants exercised their right to anonymity if they did not provide contact details with regards to the report being issued in advance.

All respondents were screened to ensure that: •Theirorganisationhadbusinessoperationsin Western Australia •Theyweretherelevantpersontospeaktoonbehalf of their organisation

The sample size of participants in relation to the size of their business accurately reflects a broad spread across small, medium, and large businesses. This is an accurate reflection of the composition of the WA business environment (which is based on Australian Bureau of Statistics counts of Australian businesses, 2008 to 2012).


About Bang Digital

21Western Australian Digital Marketing Report 2015 21Western Australian Digital Marketing Report 2015

We stay at the forefront of the digital industry by keeping up-to-date with the latest techniques and inventing our own unique marketing strategies. We provide a holistic approach to digital marketing so that you can use the one agency for your search, social media, website development, mobile activity and overall digital strategy. This enables us to provide added value to our clients by closely understanding their business and being able to provide the right solution for them, when they need it.

Bang Digital is fuelled by a dynamic, passionate and experienced team of digital marketing professionals. We are driven by providing the best solution for our clients, the highest quality service and results that deliver on your objectives. We have worked on both client side and agency side, and understand that it’s not just important to deliver results; it’s also about how you deliver them. Working ethically and valuing our clients is the cornerstone to our approach and success.

Bang Digital is a 8 year old fresh thinking, vibrant digital marketing agency in Perth, Western Australia. We love the hybrid of technology and marketing that is digital marketing.


ADDRESS: Suite 2/79 Hay Street, Subicao WA 6008PHONE: (+61) 08 9328 7000 FAX: (+61) 08 6210 5983 EMAIL: [email protected]: www.bangdigital.com.au

“and market share like no other media can. · social media came a close second (3.6), narrowly...

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