As 2020 draws to a (welcome) close, ClickThrough's Group Marketing Director, John Newton, reveals the ten blog posts that drew the most clicks over the last 12 months.

Our Top 10 Digital Marketing Blogs Of The Year

With the first FaceTime Christmas drawing near, and the ninth month of voluntary lockdown continuing to take its toll, a cheery thought suddenly occurred — it’s time for the inaugural Top 10 blog round-up of the year!

2020 has been a vintage year for ClickThrough’s long-standing blog:

Twenty-nine members of staff have written for our blog this year — three times last year’s roll-call.
Our total of 129 posts (and counting) this year means we have posted every 2.7 days, compared to once a fortnight in 2019.
Engagement (sharing, likes, comments) with our blog posts has increased by 450% on Twitter and 544% on Facebook year-on-year — results not to be sniffed at.
And as you might expect, blog traffic this year is up too — by a whopping 226%.

But which standout articles made our most-read top ten? As science’s Maddie Moate would say, let’s find out.

#10 — In tenth position it’s Sian Moss looking at ‘Rhetoric in Marketing: How to Write Persuasive Content’ in which Sian led readers through Aristotle's three artistic proofs of ethos, pathos and logos — ethical, emotional and logical appeal — and the effect they still have on crafting marketing copy today.

#9 — Our ninth most read post of the year was ‘The Importance of Infographics in SEO’. Sophie Hillier outlined the five benefits of including infographics in your SEO strategy, and dropped in a top tip on how to make more of your infographics on social media.

#8 — The eighth most read blog post this year was only published last month. Written by Sarah Clarke, the post looked at ’The Infusion of Psychology and Digital Marketing’. Running through some of the most famous experiments in psychology, Sarah examined their implications for marketers today.

#7 — Our seventh most read blog post is from Alison Humphries, from way in back in April in fact, with an International Marketing News round-up examining the Impact of COVID-19 on economic growth in Ireland, how retailers responded to the pandemic, some early signs of recovery from China and how brands with apps can use them to deliver helpfulness for consumers during lockdown.

#6 — Our sixth most popular post was written by yours truly, and explored what the proposed online sales tax might mean for UK retailers. The article examines what might happen, how consumer behaviour could be affected by the change, the possible effect of a charge on individual deliveries and whether the timing is right to introduce this tax given the turbulent economic headwinds.

#5 — We're now into the top five, and our fifth most read article is one of Tom William’s weekly SEO news round-ups from May examining Google's core update, which had just been announced, plus news of the local ranking update introduced by Google in late April.

#4 — Our fourth most eye-balled web blog post was another of mine from April, running through the numbers on how Coronavirus had affected the way consumers were searching in the Travel, Telecoms, e-commerce, Sports and Gaming, Home and Garden. Health, Finance, Education and Automotive industries.

#3 — Alice Murray smashed into the top ten with July’s article on the ‘5 Ways Your Content Marketing Might Be Sabotaging Your SEO’ — such as failing to establish a clear demographic, forgetting to prioritize for mobile, and producing thin content.

#2 — Which brings us on to our second most read article of the year, Toni Brookes’ ‘7 Ways to Ensure Your Content Has SEO Value’ — a step-by-step guide to creating content that has visual appeal, that addresses the intended audience and is super-shareable.

#1 — Which leads us to our most read blog post of the year. Written by Ashley Cook with help from Lewis Jewsbury and Katy Aston, it's 'How to Use Amazon Deals to Drive Brand Awareness and Increase Sales'. A real behemoth of a post, it breaks down all the different deal types, how to implement them, what to do to prepare for high-traffic sales events, plus ways to use sponsored activity on Amazon to make the most of key sales opportunities.

A big well done to everyone involved in this round up.

But before we go, let's take a look into our crystal ball at some posts we fully expect to be reading in next year's top 10:

Now that we're all used to wearing masks, we explore how the introduction of smart masks will affect marketers — including the ability to deliver taste and smell samples directly through to individual consumers, and how consumers with front-facing mask LED displays will soon be eligible for Google's AdSense program.
As different charges and tariffs continue to be levied on goods shipped to Europe from the UK, we cover the story of the great-grandchildren of Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen building a tunnel starting in Dover and ending inside Amazon's Berlin fulfilment centre.
With the widespread adoption of 5G in our major cities, leaving rural areas languishing on 3G connections, we reveal the results of a test to see whether a Londoner buying from Amazon Prime Now on their mobile can receive their item faster than a person placing an Amazon order in Stockport receives their confirmation email.
And finally, after Facebook came out fighting for small businesses in their long-running feud with Apple, we report on Microsoft taking up the cause of large conglomerates. After all, how can poor corporates hope to pay for Krug Brut Vintage champagne at the next shareholders meeting if consumers continue to insist on blocking cookies?

To get the lowdown on these and other developments in 2021, keep reading!