New Year is here and another chance for us marketers to get it right, hurray!
The main highlights of digital marketing in 2012 were the introduction of Penguin from Google, a boom of visually engaging content with Instagram and Pinterest and an evolution of social media turning into a prime news channel. With these in mind, what 2013 could have in store for us?
Content Marketing
Yes, content marketing is the new SEO since Google has updated its ranking algorithm in early 2012 and you may have noticed drop in your total web links and domain ranking. Low quality links are out; the future of digital marketing is all about good content that is interesting and easy to share.
Beyond blogging, the type of content that is worth investing in 2013 will be infographics - which is not just a great way to present information, statistics and numbers but also an exceptional tool to generate inbound links and create a buzz in social media.
Mobile marketing
In 2013 global mobile marketing is estimated to be worth $24 billion and 80% of the world population will be using mobile phones.
The introduction of 4G will make it more convenient for us to keep our mobiles closer and abandon desktops; a study by Google revealed that 18% of the UK adults would rather keep their smartphones instead of their desktop PC and the number is likely to grow further in the New Year.
Some mobile trends to watch out for in 2013 include...
- Mobile emails: 35% of the UK population use their mobile to stay connected and two thirds of 18-24 year olds open emails on their smartphone. In other words businesses (particularly B2C) will need to make sure their email marketing is optimised for mobile.
- Location: Sometimes I wonder how I used to get places before my smartphone and was relieved to learn that it isn't just me! 24% of the British adults utilise their mobile phones for getting direction and finding local businesses; making it essential for pubs, restaurants and businesses to appear on local search if they don't already.
- Multi screening: As life gets busier we can no longer focus on only one activity and most of us are doing multiple things at the same time; surfing internet on our mobiles while watching TV or texting while playing Xbox. Whilst providing a tremendous opportunity for clever advertisers to engage with their consumers during their waking hours - these same advertisers will also have to learn to temper their enthusiasm with the maxim that "less is more" to avoid drowning them with marketing communications
- Augmented reality apps: Augmented reality is the interaction of superimposed graphics, audio and other sense enhancements over a real-world environment that's displayed in real-time. The line between what is real and what is not blurs when you are fighting with UFO on the top of the building in front you. Most smartphone producers offer this type of app and the IKEA augmented reality app is a great example for brands to consider adopting the mobile marketing strategy to increase sales by helping consumers to experience the real world in an imaginary world.
Measuring conversion
Traditionally most digital marketing analysis focused on metrics such as visits, views, shares and mentions but the value of these types of evaluations will decrease in the future. This is because the metrics that measure the effects of marketing activities on the business goals such as sales, subscriptions and contact requests will get increasingly easy to align with web analytics.
Social media in 2013
Facebook:
It is predicted that by the end of 2013 1.5 billion people will be using Facebook; that is nearly 1 in every 4 people. The channel will make the marketing more personalised and targeting with its new apps such as Facebook Open Graph.
Twitter:
Like it was observed from the recent stories of Hurricane Sandy and Gaza strike that the site will be more of a real time news platform in the New Year.
Pinterest:
Recently, there was a very delightful announcement from Pinterest as the social media introduced private board settings. Privacy! Finally! Now you do not have to feel guilty for your taste in anything or at least on the channel. Pinterest is set to be the main sales channel for retailers as 59% of the users purchased an item that they saw on the site.
LinkedIn:
Linkedin has reached 183 million users in November 2012 but it will still likely to remain mainly relevant to B2B marketing and to individuals for job hunting.
Instagram:
The site is turning into a social media channel hence its recent introduction of web profile which is similar to Facebook timeline with people being able to comment, rate and like photos now. Fashion brands and restaurants were the early adopters of the site and the geo-tagging of Instagram photos creates more opportunity to do location based marketing with the channel.
Google+:
The channel hasn't been very popular among consumers or marketers until now but Google+ still matters because it is the social media channel of Google and will certainly continue to benefit your SEO.
Marketing challenges for the businesses
- Lack of resources to do content marketing properly
- Choosing the right and suitable channel from the increasing number of social media sites
- Getting consumers interested in marketing campaigns as today's individuals are recorded to have shorter attention span than goldfish
- Reaching out to the real consumers through social media as 5-6% (54 million accounts) of the Facebook accounts are fake
- Maintaining online reputation
- Content marketing: There is nowhere to escape from content marketing in 2013 and since it is getting hard to get the attention of consumers; invest in quality content marketing. It will pay off!
- Find out where your consumers are: Not all the social media channels are relevant to every business; therefore before creating an account, do target audience research and find out where they are and their online behaviour.
- Go mobile or not? If more than 10% your web traffic is from mobile devices it might be worth considering mobile marketing in the New Year.
Some tips
- Content marketing: There is nowhere to escape from content marketing in 2013 and since it is getting hard to get the attention of consumers; invest in quality content marketing. It will pay off!
- Find out where your consumers are: Not all the social media channels are relevant to every business; therefore before creating an account, do target audience research and find out where they are and their online behaviour.
- Go mobile or not? If more than 10% your web traffic is from mobile devices it might be worth considering mobile marketing in the New Year.
What is your prediction of digital marketing in 2013?