It’s that time of the year again - we’ve just released another edition of our annual WA Digital Marketing Industry Report! In our fifth year embarking on the report, we continue to gain further insight into how digital marketing has helped businesses achieve their marketing goals. So with the success of last year’s report and the reports before it, we’re proud to present our findings for 2018.What is the WA Digital Marketing Industry Report?The WA Digital Marketing Industry Report highlights the importance small, medium and large businesses in WA place on digital marketing and the challenges they currently face as the landscape continues to change at a rapid rate. It gives WA businesses firsthand knowledge on the present state of digital marketing industry so they can benchmark themselves against other businesses in the state and get an edge over the competition.In partnership with independent market research experts, Research Solutions, we surveyed nearly 300 senior decision makers and marketing representatives from a wide cross section of the WA business community. This included 95% of respondents who currently undertook a form of digital marketing and a further 5% of respondents who were planning to undertake digital marketing this financial year. As social media continues to become an integral part of the digital landscape, this year we have included a detailed section on social media to help businesses quickly identify key social trends. We’ve also introduced specific sections for small, medium and large business so you can see a snapshot of where you should be heading. What did we find out?With this report, we hope to give you some great insights into how emerging trends have helped other WA businesses achieve their marketing goals. Some major shifts we identified in the market this year include:1. Social media marketing stays on topSocial media marketing was again identified by WA businesses as the most widely used marketing activity and was top of the list of priorities for 2017/18. According to the report, 97% of businesses now engage in social media marketing and almost all have a Facebook business page. This doesn’t come as a surprise as social media is easily accessible to businesses of all sizes and offers a more personalised way for them to reach their customers in real-time.2. Content marketing is on the riseThe report identified some major shifts in the market this year including how 83% of businesses seeing content marketing as the top emerging digital trend they use or plan to use in the financial year. Video content development, UX and customer journey mapping were all listed as future focuses, as businesses move towards more personalised forms of marketing in 2018 and beyond.3. The majority of businesses measure their marketingAlmost three quarters of organisations surveyed said they measured the success of their digital marketing activities, with Google Analytics continuing to be the preferred method of measurement across businesses of all sizes. This was a good indication that businesses are taking their digital marketing efforts seriously, with measurement allowing them to see what’s working and what’s not working for continued success.4. In-house wins out over outsourcing76% of businesses surveyed said they manage their social media in-house, with large businesses more likely to use a mixture of internal and external management for their social media activities than SMEs. With 50% of large businesses using a combination of in-house and outsourcing, we can see they’re beginning to realise that they need help to succeed online given their larger platform and audience base.5. Time is still a challengeOnce again the time it takes to manage was the biggest challenge facing companies when it came to digital marketing. Other challenges highlighted in the report across all business sizes were:
6. Digital marketing budgets to increase54% of businesses plan to increase their digital marketing budget this year. With a 15% jump year-on-year, this indicates the importance businesses are placing on having a strong online presence as their spend continues to steadily increase. However, the biggest jump was seen by small businesses, with digital commanding almost 60% of their marketing budget in 2018.But this is only a sneak peak of what we found out. So what are you waiting for? Get an exclusive look into the pulse of the industry and download your copy of the 2018 WA Digital Marketing Report today!
