Comments on: Pareto’s 80:20 rule in Marketing

By: Antara Man

Antara Man — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 21:25:00 +0000

Great data and analysis. I would add that 80% of our products get only 20% of sales. Even taken further, sometimes the principle becomes 90/10 or 95/5/ In the beginning of 20th century the land could be owned by 20% of the population, now it’s more likely to be 10% and even lesser.

By: Tim Watson

Tim Watson — Fri, 23 May 2014 20:18:00 +0000

80% of revenue from 20% of clients is indeed a good rule. See it lots. However, you sometimes only get the 20% of high spenders by looking after and trying to convert some of the 80%. The problem is you don’t know at the outset whether someone is a 20% or 80% person.

By: Dave Chaffey

Dave Chaffey — Tue, 20 May 2014 13:03:00 +0000

In reply to Graham.

Thanks for adding to the examples Graham!

Especially the Moz post – a blast from the past – I probably read that 5 years ago. It shows the “20:80” reverse

• Top 100 terms: 5.7% of the all search traffic
• Top 500 terms: 8.9% of the all search traffic
• Top 1,000 terms: 10.6% of the all search traffic
• Top 10,000 terms: 18.5% of the all search traffic

Or more digestible:

Fat head = 18.5%
Chunky middle = 11.5%
Long tail = 70%

By: Graham

Graham — Mon, 19 May 2014 21:17:00 +0000

This is really freakishly accurate. A recent employer of mine gets 80% of their business from 20% of their clients. They aimed to focus more on those 20%. Pretty smart.

For a spin on the 80/20 rule, Moz has a post about SEO + long tail implying the “fat head” or most highly competitive keywords are around 18.5% of search engine entries:
http://moz.com/blog/illustrating-the-long-tail

However, the 81.5% of other search entries make up the majority of searches and can’t be ignored. It’s a good, quick read.

Best,
Graham
Thoughts In Action
http://thoughtsinaction.org