7 Marketing Services With Strongest 3 Year Growth Trend
When my co-founder and I started Agency Spotter to help marketers find agencies, we always said the data was going to get interesting. After publishing our Marketing Services Trends Reports for the last three years, I can honestly say that I have started to see the data behind marketing and design services in a whole new light.
In our February 2017 report, there were two big pieces of data we discovered: Seasonality and Services Growth/Decline Trends.
About the data: If you’re a data geek like me, the report is based on the behavior of more than 120,000 unique users in 2016 and a breakdown of user demographic data is included in the report.
The Seasonal Demand For Marketing Services
We found that some marketing services had seasonality, meaning a much higher number of people are searching for services like Content Marketing in the first half of the year versus E-Commerce in the second half of the year.
It doesn’t mean that companies don’t need an agency doing Content Marketing for them all year long, but that more tend to search for a new agency of a certain type at different times during the year.
While I’m not going to write all about that here, I encourage every marketing agency and design firm out there to download our free report to better focus marketing and new business efforts. (Tip: If you are a registered user, you can download it immediately OR you can provide your email and it will be sent to you.)
7 Marketing Services On A Growth Streak
I was surprised by a few of the services that seem to be growing and those in decline. But, I was also very curious as to why some, like searches for Mobile Agencies, were more flat when it seems like everyone is doing more with mobile. Let’s look at the seven marketing services that had clear growth.
Web Design
At the top of the most searched services, Web Design has always been in the top five. However, when looking across three years, it was clear that it continued to grow and now has the #2 spot behind Advertising. Search Web Agencies on Agency Spotter.
Direct Marketing
Next up, Direct Marketing made a b-line for the top of the chart between 2014 and 2016. This one surprised me because I initially thought of Direct Marketing as just targeted mailers and such. In talking to experts, I realized that it has become much more than that and is really targeted outbound marketing. Direct Marketing can work across many channels from email to snail mail. Search Direct Marketing Agencies.
Content Marketing
Content Marketing making the growth list was not a surprise, until I realized that it was one of the services that had significant seasonality. It is growing fast, for sure, but Content Marketing agencies are searched for much more frequently in the first half of the year. Despite that seasonality, they are right at the top in the #3 spot on the full year chart for 2016’s top marketing services. Search Content Marketing Agencies.
Inbound Marketing
With the steepest growth, Inbound Marketing was only just added during 2015. That could mean that it was under represented that year. However, in normalizing the data and also looking at the popularity of content around Inbound Marketing and organizations like Inbound.org, it does seem to be fundamentally growing demand as a service. Search Inbound Marketing Agencies.
Experiential Marketing
If you’re not in CPG, Food or Beverages Industries, you may not know a lot about Experiential Marketing. It was also added during 2015, but seems to show solid growth.
Experiential Marketing is when a brand directly engages consumers and invites and encourages them to participate in the brand product or a brand experience. Consumers are no longer passive receivers of messages, but are actively involved. Many times, this has a physical component in the form of street teams and guerrilla marketing on location, but it can also take place online in live gaming contests, and many more sophisticated brand interactions like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Search Experiential Marketing Agencies.
CRM Automation
Searches for CRM Agencies broke into the Top 25 Most Search Agency Services for the first time in 2016. CRM Agencies focus on qualifying leads, closing more deals and creating happier customers for brands big and small. It’s not surprise that many brands turn to agencies to help manage and engage their CRM audience. With the continued growth of Salesforce, Sugar CRM and others, it is no surprise that more businesses are searching for CRM Agencies than ever. Search CRM Agencies.
Data Analytics
With a steady growth curve going all the way back to 2014, Data Analytics Agencies are getting more and more sought after. With more data and more need to find meaning in the data, we expect to see this growth trend continue. Search Data Analytics Agencies.
Get the full services trends report to learn which 11 marketing services seem to be declining and compare them with those that get a seasonal boost.
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