Hot Seven Marketing Trends for 2012
Currently marketing is moving at lightning fast speeds which is why the world of marketing and advertising is so exciting whilst remaining challenging to the marketer.
Although no one has a crystal ball about what 2012 will be like for marketing what we can count on is that customers and prospects being able to have the power to get the information they want right at their fingertips.
Brick technology web design has noticed with a number of our internet marketing clients that they now want communication from us on their terms. They want the right messages and updates through the right channel at precisely the right time.
Marketing is changing and as part of this there is a need to expand social, mobile and local initiatives to ensure that we are fulfilling the demand from our customers. What is important is that customers feel they are getting personalised content via more channels.
Here are Brick technology’s hot seven! These are seven marketing tips to get ahead with in 2012 and following these will ensure your competition stays firmly behind you.
Trend 1: Location, Location, Location!
This is perhaps the most relevant point which needs to be made to marketers. Knowing where customers and potential customers are at a specific time is key; however would you like to be followed everywhere you went?
The answer to the above is most likely no! Location based marketing has been made easier recently because of social networking sites and the ability to add a location to their status and updates. More people are “checking in” on Facebook through mobile devices and in doing so they are spreading brand awareness to people who they are friends with. This is a great way of marketing in order to boost sales and generate leads.
What you need to do for location marketing success is to ensure that you integrate local initiatives with email, mobile and social to maximise reach and revenue. When someone checks in at your workplace or company then reply to them, make them feel unique and in doing so they are more likely to check in again and ultimately keep your brand in the spotlight.
To increase check-in numbers why not hold a competition with a prize which will encourage people to want to do it.
Trend 2: Humanised Content
This is a highly important trend for 2012 with the new Google Algorithms released which rely on fresh content the idea is to spent less of your time talking at your customers and more time noting their behaviours, comments and suggestions. Although you should remain professional remember please be human! You can talk to customers like they are a person and not a robot. You should provide extra value to your customers rather than trying to shove products under their nose at every given opportunity.
You need to ensure that customer voices through various messages, testimonial pages and guestbook’s are always visible. This can give your website, products and services a personality and when customers talk about your products or services then it instantly humanizes your brand. Customer comments are vital and perhaps one of the most valuable pieces of content you can have.
Many new customers will read the comments from other customers before making a purchase themselves. Ensure that you get regular feedback on customer testimonial pages and you encourage customers to leave comments following their relationship with you.
Another great way to add a personality to your website is through the introduction of your team and managers along with a picture so that customers can put a face to a name. People do business with people and so through offering a friendly face customers can interact with.
Trend 3: Design for Multiple Devices
Perhaps one of the most important trends to bear in mind; Brick technology have been designing websites which are compatible across a whole range of platforms. With the rise of mobile devices we have seen a rise in the number of clients who are now requesting mobile apps and mobile websites. What you need to do is bear in mind multiple devices, design for the fingertip as a mouse and avoid putting items such as hyperlinks too close together.
Content must be created so it is readable on a full range of devices such as using alt tags and larger fonts. Landing pages must be checked through thoroughly in regard to how they look on a mobile device as these are perhaps some of the most valuable pages on the site.
In 2012 ensure that you are prepared for mobile devices as with increasing numbers of people purchasing them you could be missing out on a massive target audience if you do not include mobile devices within your marketing strategy.
Trend 4: Re-engagement is vital
Customers and prospects are busier than ever and that why they are always looking for ways in which to make things easier for themselves. On average a person will receive around 5,000 plus marketing and advertising messages every single day! Without realising people tune out to these messages because they are irrelevant or not attention grabbing and there is no proper call to action. Winning new customers is important however retaining customers who have purchased your products and services before is just as important.
Newsletter campaigns are a great way of sparking a re-engagement as a form of marketing in order to remind a customer that you are still there. Ideally what you should do is engage with contacts before you lose the connection and the relationship becomes inactive. Ensure that all new customers are kept on a system in which you can follow up with them say in 6-8weeks and then frequent time periods so that the engagement remains.
Trend 5: Actions Speak Louder
In the past marketing companies have focused on self-promotion and third party data in order to evaluate what it is their customers want. Now marketing heavily relies upon listening to and learning from their customers and prospects on a one-to-one basis. In 2012 marketers are going to have to engage with new technology in order to collect date about customer demographics, preferences and behaviours.
In addition to the above mentioned points, marketers are going to have to also monitor social behaviours and see how to best communicate through these platforms. When a marketer gets behaviours sussed out then they are in a position to deliver timely, relevant content which enables you to connect to individuals with how they interacted with your company.
Web tracking technology can track behaviours of customers and this is a great way of showing to you where the areas of improvement are. You can then make these improvements and better the user experience.
Trend 6: Learning Curves – Be everywhere
Now this may sound like stalking but you need to ensure you are everywhere, wherever your customers and prospects are you need to be too! Marketers have to change the way in which they interact with their customers and prospects to ensure they are positioned exactly where they are. The various channels which they use must be used by the marketer and in addition to this they must grow a database of customer details so they can keep that continuous contact with them and nurture a relationship which may see them return.
Marketers need to ensure they know exactly what channels their customers are using and gain understanding of these. If they are using for example social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter then these should be learnt inside out and then utilised.
Trend 7: E-mail is still dynamic!
Within this article we have talked about a number of brand new and exciting communication channels which have opened up. One which has continued to thrive is E-mail and by using personalised and branded E-mail templates when you send them out you can engage contacts, nurture leads along with boost customer loyalty and hopefully boost your revenue.
E-mail will in 2012 be more of a standalone channel which will pull in data and take advantage of integrations with multiple technologies.
The way to succeed with E-mail is to include dynamic content and to populate them with customer comments, testimonials and try to send your customers down various paths which will ultimately lead them to either purchase your product or service or alternatively contact you for more information.
Brick technology web design does not know whether or not these trends will properly take off in 2012 but let’s see what the year will hold. Do you have any ideas about what will become a marketing trend in 2012?
If you do then please feel free to leave a comment in our comments box below.