Digital excellence translates to higher revenue for marketers
Digital excellence can be closely linked to revenue growth and other business success metrics. It has become evident over the years that marketers that have focussed on their digital play have also widened the gap between them and their competitors.
The point is reiterated in a recent study by Adobe. Adobe Digital Index Best of the Best Benchmark for APAC compares the overall average versus websites in the top 20 per cent on six key performance indicators across six regions: Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia, India, South Korea, Hong Kong, China and the United States. Key performance indicators are mobile and tablet traffic, stick rate, visits-per-visitor, time spent and conversion rate.
The research reveals insights into how the best digital marketing organisations are performing relative to the average.
“We are seeing a major gap developing between being average and being in the top 20 per cent of marketers across Asia Pacific. For conversion rates alone, the ‘best of the best’ websites in industries that sell online deliver nearly double the average conversion rate. They are proving that making a commitment to digital excellence can result in a significant increase in revenue,” said Tamara Gaffney, Principal Analyst, Adobe Digital Index.
Key findings in the Best of the Best Benchmark for Asia Pacific include:
• Australia and New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, have seen the most overall growth in tablet share; the best of the best sites achieve about 5 per cent more tablet visits than the average.
• Time spent on websites is higher in Australia and New Zealand, and Southeast Asia, but has fallen year on year in all other countries.
• Websites optimised for smartphone visitors in South Korea see nearly 90 per cent difference in share of smartphone traffic than an average site; in the past year the gap between average and best in class for mobile optimisation has grown in every country. Mobile optimisation refers to websites which have been optimised for smartphone visitors.
• All countries except South Korea saw an increase in stick rate year on year; India led all countries with that nation’s ‘best of the best’ marketers improving their stick rate by over 14 per cent year on year.
• The ‘best of the best’ websites increase the amount of return visits by as much as 25 per cent compared to the average across Asia Pacific.
“There is no such thing as ‘offline’ any more. The data is telling us that delivering seamless experiences across devices and within social media is driving the best performance and leading to superior business performance,” Ms Gaffney explained, and added, “Across Asia Pacific, those marketers delivering best in class are on par with top marketers around the world. For example, we can see that stick rate is higher across Asia Pacific than in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. This is a leading indicator of two important elements of website success – optimised marketing acquisition activities and homepage relevance and engagement.”
“Businesses that can improve customer engagement and drive conversion rates via their digital channels will find themselves at the front of the pack; our Adobe Digital Index has shown that an improvement in the conversion rate of just a tenth of a percent can result in millions of dollars of revenue growth,” said Stephen Hamill, Managing Director, Adobe Southeast Asia.
The consumption of online content and performance of online transactions on mobile devices in Southeast Asia is only going to increase. Singapore has the highest smartphone penetration in Asia Pacific at 87 per cent, with other markets in Southeast Asia like Thailand (49 per cent), Indonesia (23 per cent) and Philippines (15 per cent) gaining traction. Tablet ownership in Singapore also grew 30 percentage points in the past year to 47 per cent, with Malaysia up 23 points to 42 per cent. The opportunities in the mobile arena cannot be ignored.
