Would you feel the need to urgently address password security if someone told you, “Password security has become a big problem?”
What about if they added the fact that 42% of organizations are using sticky notes to manage their passwords right now?
Statistics can often tell a more compelling story by giving specific numbers to back up a need for a product, service, or action. They also add a trust factor that comes from a good third-party source, lending credibility to your marketing content.
So, where do you find statistics that you can use in your blogs, webpages, and other marketing? We’ll tell you where to find compelling stats that can help you make your point and the best ways to use them.
Do’s and Don’ts of Using Statistics
Before we get into finding statistics, let’s talk about the Do’s and Don’ts, which is going to help you as you’re searching for numbers to make your case to your readers.
You don’t want to grab just any old stat that you find online, because some are more reliable than others. If you use something that’s less than trustworthy, it could end up shooting you in the foot when your website visitors question its validity.
One of the benefits of using statistics is to earn trust. 92% of customers are more likely to purchase additional products and services from business that they trust.
Do look for the most recent statistics.
The number of malware attacks on the healthcare sector from 2014 is going to be fairly meaningless to your medical industry customers when you’re trying to get them to use your HIPAA compliance services. But if you give them a statistic from last year, they’ll be much more likely to stand up and take notice.
Don’t forget to link to the source.
Most people won’t trust a statistic where the source isn’t cited, and best practice is to link to the page where you found it. It’s actually kind of rude in the online world not to link back to the source.
Do use the best sources you can.
You can’t always get the statistic you need from a large organization or government agency. But if you have a choice between an unknown website and a well-known organization for the same stat, always go with the one that’s more well known.
Don’t get a stat from and link to your competitor.
It can be a real bummer when you find a great statistic to use but realize it’s from another IT company that you really don’t want to link back to (and send your website visitors to). Look for the source they used (if they used best practices and linked to it), which can often be your way around this.
Do feel free to flip the statistic.
Sometimes you may run across a statistic such as “60% of employees are happy with the mobile options their employers offer.” But that’s not really making the case for your technology consulting services. Instead, try flipping the statistic and say, “40% of employees are unhappy with the mobile options their employers offer.”
Where Can I Find Good Technology Statistics?
When you start using statistics to power the content in your tech marketing engine, you’ll be surprised how many of them there are out there. There’s just about a stat for anything you could think of.
Do you need to compel someone to sign up for a managed services plan? Just show them that it’s costing them an average of $5,000 per year, per computer to leave them unmanaged.
Is your IT client unsure about whether or not to implement multi-factor authentication in Office 365? Let them know about the Microsoft statistic that shows MFA blocks 99.9% of account attacks.
Finding statistics that are helpful and from a good source just takes practice and learning a few tips to make the process easier.
Start with a Basic Google Search
The first place to begin is a simple Google search on the type of statistic you’re looking for. This may take a few tries with a different wording of a question to get what you need.
Start with a search, like “increase in malware this year.” You’ll see that the first two results give you a recent report from reliable source (Malwarebytes) that you can pull statistics from.
Other searches may take more time to return useful information. If you’re having trouble, another trick is to use an “x” where a number would be. Such as, “Companies spent x on technology management in 2019.”
Tip: Google doesn’t translate “IT” very well in a key phrase as meaning “information technology” and sometimes just regards it as “it,” so try using the term “tech” or “technology” instead.
Search with the Word “Statistics”
Using the word “statics” in your search term can cut to the chase and remove results that don’t have any statistics in them to be used.
For example, when you search, “small business technology,” you’ll get results about using technology in a small business or technology trends, but nothing with numbers that stand out.
Instead, use “small business technology statistics” and you’ll immediately start getting search results with usable numbers to help you make a point.
Limit the Search Year
One problem with statistics is that if you don’t look closely at the date, you can end up using one that’s several years old. And sometimes a more recent article will fool you by using an old statistic inside.
For example, when looking up “time spent looking for files,” one of the first search results is from Medium and it notes that IT professionals spend an average of 4.5 hours a week looking for documents. When you check the article date, it’s from 2017. Not the newest, but not ridiculously old either. But looking further, shows you that the statistic it’s quoting is from a white paper published in 2012, ages ago by technology standards!
You can limit the search year two ways in Google:
- Click Tools in the area directly below the search field, under “Any time” choose a timeframe from the drop down, like the past year or a custom date.
- Use the year in the search term. This isn’t guaranteed to remove older results, but usually gives you more recent pages in the search results.
Look for Reports by Major Tech Players
There are a number of technology reports that are put out annually by companies like IBM, Malwarebytes, Proofpoint, and others that are rich with all types of great statistics you can dig into and use in multiple ways.
Not only are these sources trusted, since they do these reports annually, you’ll always have fresh numbers each year. It’s a good idea to bookmark these and set yourself a reminder based on the date of the report to check back each year for the newest one.
Here are some that you can use:
- IBM/Ponemon 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report
- Proofpoint 2020 State of the Phish report
- Malwarebytes 2020 State of Malware Report
- Yubico/Ponemon 2020 State of Password and Authentication Security Behaviors Report
Research Government & Non-Profit Sites
Another great source for timely statistics is government and non-profit websites. Look for some of these key areas related to subjects that intersect with your business offerings:
- Cybersecurity
- Data breach/privacy regulations
- Notifications of cyberthreats
- Business continuity and preparedness
Here are two examples of how you can find useful statistics from government websites that also have the benefit of speaking directly to your geographical audience.
Australian Data Breaches
Australian MSPs looking to warn their clients about data breaches can visit the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to find statistics, like this gem:
- In Q2 of 2019, 34% of reported data breaches were due to human error.
U.S. Financial Industry Compliance
If you serve the financial industry sector in the U.S. and are trying to convince them that they need help with compliance, visiting FINRA gives you these helpful stats you can use:
- In 2018, FINRA levied $61 million in fines
- 23 financial firms were suspended in 2018 due to FINRA violations
- Financial firms paid $25.5 million in restitution to FINRA in 2018
How Should I Use Statistics?
There are a number of places you can insert statistics into your marketing to make a point and compel your visitors or followers to take action.
Here are some of the ways you can implement them in your tech business marketing.
On Landing Pages
Using a strong static on a website landing page can be just the juice you need to convert a visitor to a lead. It’s helpful to call out statistics in bright colored containers like a box, arrow, or circle to ensure they’re not missed among the text.
Here are two examples of statics that can compliment landing pages:
- IT Security Landing Page: 70% of over 4,000 organizations surveyed are unprepared for even a basic cyberattack.
- Backup/Disaster Recovery Page: 84% of U.S. small businesses that lose data never recover it.
One note about using statistics on landing pages: This is a case where you want to put the source link at the bottom of your site instead of right with the stat, so you don’t send a visitor directly to another site. You can simply use a “*” and link the source further down the page.
In Your Blogs
Website blogs are the bedrock of your content marketing and a major driver of SEO. Statistics not only back up a point you’re trying to make in a blog, they can give you ideas for creating new blogs.
Social Media
Want to grab attention and get more interaction with your social media posts? Throw a surprising statistic in there. Such as the one we used in our opening about 42% of organizations using sticky notes to manage their passwords. (Yes, that’s a real statistic!)
Infographics
You can use infographics as lead magnets and they’re also a great way to get backlinks to your site.
If you’ve been wondering what to put in an infographic… statistics make a great subject matter. By digging into one of the major tech player’s industry reports, you can pull multiple statistics from a single source and make a pretty awesome infographic.
Remember to cite the source! In an infographic, you could just do this at the bottom.
Sales & Marketing Materials
Statistics lend themselves well to brochures, postcards, posters, and other types of sales collateral.
You’ll want to make them big and noticeable to get the most impact and use them along with your value statement right before your call to action.
Emails & Email Newsletters
An attention-grabbing statistic makes a great newsletter subject line and can encourage users to open your email to learn more about it.
Just as one statistic can be used as the subject of an entire blog, it can also be the subject of an email that’s used in a lead nurturing campaign to provide compelling evidence for your product or service.
Use Statistics to Drive the Conversation
Statistics are great conversation starters, and if you do them right, they’ll add additional fuel to your marketing engine and help you convert more leads.
Are you using any compelling statistics on your website? Share them in the comments!
