Lead Generation and Internet Marketing in Sweden

Swedish and the Internet

There are 8.4 million internet users in Sweden which represents 89.2% of the population. This puts Sweden in 5th place worldwide in terms of internet penetration. With an estimated population of 9.4 million and a GDP per capita of $37.775, the population of Sweden have the disposable income to spend online and the leisure time to consume varied and rich online media content. Sweden is officially known as the Kingdom of Sweden and is a Nordic Country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula, Northern Europe. Occupying an area of 173,860 square miles, Sweden is bordered by Norway to the west and Finland to the east with Denmark being accessible via the Oresund Bridge. It has been reported that at least 3.8 million internet users in Sweden are using a broadband connection which represents 45.2% broadband penetration in terms of the internet population and 40% in terms of the total population. Sweden’s broadband penetration rate is amongst the highest in the world. Opportunities for internet marketers and lead generation in general are plentiful, with only a peek into the online habits of Swedish internet users being necessary to launch a successful campaign.

Social Media in Sweden

Social media in Sweden is taken very seriously with 4.4 million Facebook users, which represents 48.3% of the total population and 52.2% of the internet population. According to Google there are 6.1 million unique visitors to Facebook from Sweden via Google and these unique visitors generate 6.4 billion page views every month. These figures suggest that Facebook’s reach goes beyond their membership base and non-members also visit clicking on the links on visible profile pages. Internet marketers should consider these figures when planning lead generation campaigns as some social media sites may have less members than others but receive the same, if not more, unique visitors. Linkedin and Twitter have similar page views with 12 million and 13 million respectively and both show user category preferences for development tools, search engine optimization topics and Compensation & Benefits. Sweden has one of the most advanced welfare systems in Europe and these preferences indicate that people are searching for information about benefit entitlements. Such insights could create an opportunity for internet marketers to capture the attention of the unemployed user by highlighting the benefits of making money online as opposed to conventional employment. Clearly, there is already an interest in website development and search engine optimization which may suggest that this is already happening on some level.

YouTube

YouTube receives 5.6 million unique visitors every month who generate 970 million page views and stay on the site longer than the worldwide average of 25 minutes. Swedish YouTube users stay on the site 28 minutes and 20 seconds and the categories of most interest to Swedish users include Online Video, Rap & Hip-Hop, Soul & R&B, Song Lyrics, Rock, Anime & Manga and Eastern Africa. These preferences show an eager online music video following with regards to rap and rock.

Search Engine Market Share

Search engine market share in Sweden is led by Google with a 97.81% share followed by Bing with 2.28%. Yahoo, Alta Vista and Ask Jeeves lag way behind with 0.47%, 0.25% and 0.08% respectively. The top two searches in Sweden have remained “Facebook” and “Youtube” for the 12 months up until June 2011 which suggests that no internet marketing campaign should consider leaving the two social media giants out of any campaign. Particularly if they want long term success in the Swedish online industry which offers an internet advertising market size of no less than $615 million. For more on the internet industry in Sweden go to the Interactive Advertising Bureau for Sweden