Yorkshire businesses "outshone" Southern counterparts for ‘good digital practice’

According to a recent survey, Yorkshire-based businesses are ranked above their Southern counterparts in terms of their ‘digital footprints’ – the visibility they have on the Internet.

The research, undertaken by Wakefield-based digital marketing agency Sharp Ahead, surveyed 250 privately owned Business-to-Business sector companies headquartered in Yorkshire, comparing their online presence with over 500 based in the Thames Valley and Solent regions.

The survey revealed that, while in the South & South East 80% of Business-to-Business (B2B) companies polled had fundamental problems with their online presence, which directly impacted on their sales, the figure fell to 62% in the Yorkshire region.

Sharp Ahead’s research also showed that only 3 in 8 businesses were using what it termed to be ‘basic good practice’ digital marketing, although Sharp Ahead’s own case studies have shown that companies using digital marketing effectively can reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 90%.

The company’s investigations revealed that, in the UK as a whole, 76% of B2B businesses were not using Google AdWords, while 98% didn’t use Facebook remarketing. Even more significantly, 28% were failing to use Google Analytics, an industry standard way of measuring website visitor traffic.

The research shows that less that a quarter of B2B websites deliver a ‘good’ user experience, with 25% of sites being ranked as ‘poor’.

The figures are all the more important, as statistic reveal that 89% of Business-to-Business decision makers use the Internet during their research process, while 67% of the ‘buyer journey’ is now undertaken digitally, with 57% of this occurring before the first contact is made with a member of the sales team.

Dr John Woods MBA, Sharp Ahead founder & director, stated: “Our research shows that only 3 in 8 organisations have implanted basic good practice digital marketing within their business.”

Jennifer Esty, director of Sharp Ahead’s Wakefield office, added: “We found Yorkshire-based companies outshone their Southern counterparts.

“The North contains a thriving digital community, excellent Colleges and Universities, and hundreds of unique and ambitious B2B organisations that we believe can use digital marketing to realise their growth potential.”