The VDB team absolutely loves using data to inspire ideas and drive decisions. Here are some statistics (in no particular order) for 2021 we think you’ll enjoy too!

1. 84% of companies report they now have a content marketing strategy (not sure what we mean? See our article this month on Inbound Marketing) (source: SEMrush).
2. Email marketing has a 4400% ROI on average (source: OptinMonster).
3. Oval-shaped diamonds are getting hotter. In 2020, searches for ovals grew 58%, from 9.2% to 14.5% of searches (Source: VDB).
4. Worldwide digital ad spend only grew 2.4% in 2020, but it’s expected to grow a whopping 17% in 2021. (Source: Forrester).
5. 21% of all lab-grown diamond searches are for F color – significantly higher than the 15.1% of F color searches for mined diamonds (Source: VDB).
6. Welcome emails have an average open rate of 82% (source: GetResponse).
7. LinkedIn ad spend in the US has increased over 40% since 2016, making LinkedIn a staple advertising channel for B2B marketers (source: Dialogtech).
8. Demand for round diamonds may be slightly declining. Searches for round diamonds fell 25% year-on-year from 2019 to 2020, from 58.1% of searches to 43.3% of searches (Source:VDB).
9. Only 61% of marketers think their current marketing strategy is effective (source: Hubspot).
10. Lab-grown diamond consumers are more likely to look for oval shapes than mined diamond consumers (source: VDB).
11. 80% of marketers report their paid lead generation activities are only slightly or somewhat effective (source: BrightTalk).
12. Demand for cushion cuts is growing. Cushion searches grew 37% year-on-year from 2019 to 2020, from 5.2% to 7.1% (source: VDB).
13. 58% of marketers are now focused on targeting or segmenting their audience (source: Forrester)
14. Omnichannel advertising campaigns produce a 250% higher rate of purchase frequency than single channel campaigns (source: ClickZ).
15. Customer retention rates are 90% higher for omnichannel campaigns than for single channel campaigns (source: ClickZ).
16. The emerald cut boom may be over. Memo requests for emeralds were down 36% in 2020, from 8.8% of memo requests to 5.6%. (source: VDB).
17. 81% of marketers are worried that their use of third-party data will raise privacy concerns, and 82% of marketers plan to increase their use of first-party (private) data as a result (source: eMarketer).
18. More online advertisers drove leads to phone calls in 2020 than ever before. Click-and-call campaigns are a powerful sales driver, yielding more than 170 billion phone calls (source: BIA/Kelsey).
19. 28% of people who perform a local voice search go on to call the business (source: BrightLocal).
20. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates 3x as many leads (source: 99 Firms).