October 7, 2020

How Digitally Effective Were the FTSE 100 During the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Unique research report from digital agency Kagool and Sitecore uncovers how the UK’s leading businesses performed digitally during the pandemic. Find out which brands come out on top in the FTSE 100 Digital Census.

The FTSE 100 Digital Census from Kagool in partnership with Sitecore explores the digital performance of some of the biggest names in business during lockdown. Each organisation has been tested, scored, and ranked for its performance across eight core aspects of digital to give an overall digital maturity score:

  • Website speed
  • Content
  • Calls to action
  • Social Media
  • Email marketing
  • COVID-19 communications
  • Search marketing
  • Mobile optimisation

Aviva, BP, and Legal & General took the lead in the report, achieving some of the highest overall scores. However, the research found that 49 per cent of the FTSE 100 businesses are missing the opportunity to leverage search marketing as a part of their wider digital strategy.

Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second – that’s around 3.5 billion each day. With that volume of potential organic traffic, businesses that ignore SEO as a marketing strategy are missing a pretty big trick to drive new business opportunities and engage audiences. The FTSE 100 Digital Census research identified a clear relationship between organisations’ digital maturity and search marketing performance, highlighting it as an opportunity across sectors.

Social media is a key channel for UK media and has been for COVID-19 communications since the lockdown took hold. Forty-two per cent of the global population are active on social media and users look to these channels to find out about products and services. The start of lockdown saw a spike in social media use and innovation to serve the rapid change in needs to be entertained, informed, and to facilitate day-to-day communication. This makes it a great space for brands to build and nurture meaningful relationships with their customers and audiences, especially during this period.

The report takes a closer look at how active and visible the FTSE 100 businesses are on popular social platforms. Eighty-three per cent of the businesses included in the report are overlooking the advantages of social media, highlighting this aspect of digital as an area of opportunity.

Download and read the full FTSE 100 Digital Census.