If your business goal for 2012 is to keep up with the changing trends in online marketing and remain cutting-edge, then you have come to the right place. Our President, Kim Albee, makes it her personal mission to attend multiple online marketing conferences during the year to stay on top of this exciting and dynamic industry so you don't have to. Two such conferences happened to be in February this year, at which Kim spoke. Many topics were covered at both the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego and SES Social Media Summit in London. From these topics, we compiled a list of what we believe are the top 4 online marketing trends for 2012. There really is no better time to be a marketer!
1. Video Marketing
Video is gaining momentum in the online marketing world as an essential storytelling tool. As more companies produce written content, it can become overwhelming for customers to sift through everything.Video helps your company stand out from the rest. According to Greg Jarboe, President & Co-founder of SEO-PR and Leslie Drate, Manager of Social Media at Cisco, if video is included on your website, it is 15% more likely to land on search engine results pages on Google. Not only that, but 70% of visitors take action after watching video.
Kim gave a 3 hour workshop on how to create and leverage video at OMS in San Diego, and she'll be giving a shortened version of what was a popular workshop as a webinar on March 22nd that will talk about the importance of leveraging video in our marketing efforts. (You can register for the webinar here).
2. Social Media is not a fad, it’s a way of life.
Many businesses still consider social media to be a side channel. This will not work anymore. If you want your business to remain cutting-edge, your social media links must be embedded into everything. In every blog post, eBook, or video, include links to your social media presence. This will allow your content to be seen and heard and will drive people to your brand. Remember though that focus is crucial to success so you want to make sure you use only the social media that your target audience uses. (Kim also spoke on this topic at OMS San Diego, and the SES OMI Social Media Day in London, and will be giving as a webinar in April, so stay tuned!).
3. Market Automation
If content is king then timeliness is queen. Consumers are coming to expect content that meets their needs, and quickly. This means you need to be where your customers are and consistently disseminate relevant content to them. With an increasing amount of channels to post to, this can be challenging. Marketing automation is invaluable because it enables marketers to produce multiple campaigns that are personalized, relevant, and timely. What this amounts to is increased engagement with your audience and, in many cases, a faster sales cycle. In short, marketing automation in 2012 is providing a way to do more with less.
Of course this is great news for Genoo. Here's what Gleanster had to say about Genoo in their recent report on Marketing automation: "Genoo is a full-featured marketing automation tool, but for the price you wouldn't know it. Starting at just $199/month for unlimited leads and unlimited landing pages, Genoo is truly an affordable and compelling solution for small business owners."
4. Mobile Marketing
Do you know if your website can be viewed on smartphones and other mobile devices? If not, this could be detrimental to your company’s success. If your goal is to be where your customers are then your website needs to be mobile. In fact, by 2013, more people will use their mobile phones than computers to get online. And they expect their mobile experience to be just as good as their desktop experience. So don’t get left behind. Optimize your website for mobile by making it simple and easy to access. Make sure your video is viewable across all mobile devices (including iPhone and iPad).
Want to learn more about these topics? Watch for our upcoming webinars. Register for our upcoming webinar on incorporating video into your online marketing and social media campaigns!
