Well it’s that time of the year again. To peer into the crystal ball and see what the future hold for marketing your business.
Which opportunities will bring the most leads in 2012? Which will push your business to new heights and sweep away those competitors? Let’s have a look at some forecasts on the web.
The blogs are popping up everywhere, and nearly every marketer has an opinion about which method or madness will be hot stuff in the new year.
Top 5 Marketing Trends 2012 – Infographics, Video and Social Media
On Frame Concepts, you will find their top 5 are:
- Location Based Marketing (LBM) - This is all about delivering content (usually to mobile devices) to consumers based on their location.
- QR Codes - Their novelty factor has not worn off as quickly as some predicted and we are now seeing them used on ATL and BTL advertising…
- Video - Think about running customer events over video or producing video newsletters…
- Social (business applications) - Social is ‘Trending’ in a big way. Not just for consumers and our online ‘friends’ but also for businesses.
- Infographics - The way we consume information is changing and different audiences prefer to consume it in different ways.
My Predictions – Business and Marketing Trends 2012
Annie from Saucy Social Media, shares “My Predictions – Business and Marketing Trends 2012″ like:- The Rise of the Social Business - The social business is one that realises that their business must transform and include their employees, their customers, clients, partners in fact everyone in their sphere of influence as a part of their social marketing circle.
- Video Marketing – …will become a major influence with new sites dedicated to digital advertising…
- Gamification - Gaming is now a part of the mindset of the new purchasing generation and we will see more gamification…
- Collaboration – …we will see businesses begin to collaborate more often in local directories, local mobile marketing, deals, and in ways that take their marketing outside the box…
- Social Media Will Die Out – …the words used to define social media marketing will change completely…
PR, Communication, and Marketing Trends 2012
Jonathan Bean the COO at Mynewsdesk share his thoughts on “PR, Communication, and Marketing Trends 2012″:- Digital First - Companies and organizations are now, finally, giving digital marketing channels precedence over traditional, analog media.
- Decentralize Social Media - We believe that social media will become increasingly decentralized, forming the holistic “honeycomb” pattern…
- I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends - The trick is to find your crowd, to find the people that will help you tell your story digitally.
- Customize This! – …people are choosing their own content, on their own terms.
- Brand News World - The purpose is to tell stories, but this method of content marketing emphasizes a neutral tone, lending credibility and trust to the brand.
2012 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends [Research Report]
Content Ninja, Joe Pulizzi shares his thoughts on the recent research report: B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Budgets, Benchmarks and Trends:- Increased adoption rate for some tactics -
- Blogs (27% increase)
- White papers (19% increase)
- Videos (27% increase)
- Marketers are using social media more frequently -
- YouTube: 47% increase
- LinkedIn: 39% increase
- Twitter: 35% increase
- Facebook: 30% increase
- Content marketers are becoming more effective -
- Blogs: 45% increase
- Case studies: 32% increase
- Videos: 36% increase
- Webinars/webcasts: 25% increase
- Content marketing spend is increasing - On average, 60% of respondents indicate that they plan to increase their content marketing budgets over the next 12 months.
My Thoughts
There is no doubt that 2012 will bring change for small business owners looking to drive their marketing dollar further. I’ve seen that Australian businesses have been unfortunately slow to adopt, and are wondering why they are losing business, as consumers are finding it easier to shop overseas.
After reviewing a tonne of opinions, here are the ones I agree with:
Mobile and Tablet Boom
There is no denying that we are quickly becoming a world of smartphone (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) users and Tablet (iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab, Asus) carriers. This is changing the way we are accessing our information, and news, and businesses have the opportunity right now to take advantage, and run unique campaigns to these users.
There are currently not many fisherman, but a whole lot of fish!
Location Based Marketing
Like Frame Concepts, I also feel that targeting locally will continue to be a big trend in 2012. The internet is becoming flooded with competition as more and more businesses jump online to start building their presence. Those that focus locally in their SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and PPC (Pay Per Click) efforts, will see better and faster results in their campaign responses.
Death of the Brochure Website
Hubspot recently released research stating “Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors.” Businesses will need to quickly realise that their websites need to become more an online platform and foundation for all their online activity, and also turn it into an engagement tool, to share their knowledge with their customers, and listen to their feedback.
The business websites that embrace the “dynamic” approach, and start implementing a blog and social strategy will be best positioned into the coming months.
Social will get more Social
Your customers are talking about your business online. And they will keep talking long into 2012, as the social networks continue to grow, and niche networks start to appear. Are you listening?
The internet has provided business owners with a great variety of tools through which they can become more real, more trustworthy and build better relationships with their customers. These tools include:
- Blogs
- YouTube
- and others….
Video Marketing
Internet video is now 40 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and will reach 62 percent by the end of 2015 – Cisco
What will this mean for your business? Opportunity if you act now! Video brochures, video newsletters, and video training on your products… There are many options to consider.
Somehow as consumers, we trust video more than text/ written words on a page. Maybe it has something to do with the authenticity of the person on the video. Either way, most of your customers are looking for an expert, who can communicate, and video is increasing as the channel to deliver this directly to them. Creating a video marketing strategy for 2012 needs to be in your marketing plan. And if you’re video-shy, you may just need to get over it, find a staff member who’s not, or get creative!
Twitter: ExtremeJohn
December 10, 2011 at 11:02 pm | Permalink
This could be a great start for the new year. Thank you very much for sharing this brilliant information about the top marketing trends this coming 2012. These lists are truly great and awesome in general.
Extreme John´s last [type] ..Google+ Hangouts How To
Twitter: fionamceachran
December 12, 2011 at 12:32 pm | Permalink
Hi John! I was hoping business could use this to add some extra thinking to their 2012 marketing plan. There are so many opportunities for business owners, it’s just a matter of some careful planning and taking the right action.
Which one do you think is the biggest trend for 2012?
Hi Extream john, Nice to see you here and i agree with you, these kind of tips are really good to improve marketing skills and can show brilliant results.
Arjun Rai´s last [type] ..Payroll management Agency
Twitter: whoisgregreed
December 18, 2011 at 8:17 am | Permalink
Customers expect EXTRAordinary service. Good isn’t good enough.
Thank You marketing will be the big winner in 2012 and beyond
I agree! There are so many opportunities for business owners. Smartphones and Tablets are changing the way consumers are accessing information. One opportunity business owners need to be aware of is integrating unique and content rich campaigns on to the connected television platform. This is a market that is completely unsaturated -”not very many fisherman but a whole lot of fish.” Getting on board early and being seen as an early adopter could be very beneficial to the 2012 consumer.
But what about the third world countries, where internet consumption is up to 20 or 30%.
Hi,
first, thanks for this great post. its important to have the right plan for 2012.
The social networks are the future and a great platform for promotion.
i think, its a great way for business.
In last weeks, i read many things about marketing and strategy. So i think, when you connect video marketing with the social networks, it`s a great and successful idea for your site.
I want to thank you for sharing your tips. in Germany, the people don`t share, it’s so sad.
So, i like your site and find your posts very interesting for me in the future.
Wish you all merry Christmas. With best wishes and greetings from Germany