The New Year is almost here — time to peak around the corner and see what the future of online marketing has in store. Here are 5 online marketing trends that can positively change your business in the coming year.
Content
When it comes to marketing strategies, content remains king and it continues to be the preferred marketing tool for today’s B-to-B marketers. Creating great content can establish you as a thought leader in your industry, shoot your website to the top of the search engines and help generate qualified leads.
HiveFire, Inc., a content marketing technology company, recently released the results of their B2B Marketing Trends 2011 Survey, which showed that B2B marketers are moving away from traditional marketing strategies and toward content marketing. In fact, 82 percent of respondents now use content marketing in their programs, which makes it more popular than search marketing, events and public relations and over two times more popular than print, TV or radio advertising.
Social Media
It’s very rare these days to have any marketing meeting without discussing social media. That’s because it’s helping us reach new audiences, speak to customers and prospects and get valuable feedback. According to a recent study by BtoB Magazine, 93% of all B2B marketers are engaged in some form of social media marketing, focusing mostly on the three major platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter).
This year, there were several major updates to the top social media sites, and I am sure many more will follow in 2012. Twitter just released their new brand pages, which allows companies to have a banner and featured video at the top of their page. Linked-in released their advertising product, allowing users to generate more connections and leads. Google Plus was launched this year as well and it continues to gain momentum with their recently added business pages. In the past year, we’ve also seen social media integrated into search results in Google & Bing. And social media is now officially part of the ranking algorithm – being a strong indicator of authority, trust and trends.
Local
The Internet lets you find products and services all over the world, but if you’re like most people, you’d prefer to work with a local business. According to comScore, approximately 3 billion web searches contain local terms every month. And 70% of online searchers will use local search to find offline businesses. (Source:Kelsey Group). With services such as Google Places or Bing Local, now even the smallest businesses can get page 1 rankings within a specific geographic area. If you haven’t done it already… make sure your business is represented on all of the local search services.
Mobile
The mobile world is expanding at an increasingly rapid pace. Smartphones are gaining functionality every year and the wildly popular iPads and tablets are gaining momentum. Consumers are becoming more dependent on mobile sites and apps for instant access to information, deals, and product reviews, causing mobile commerce to also increase. In fact, the latest comScore numbers say that 38% of consumers have purchased a product on their phone. That’s pretty impressive, considering most websites aren’t even optimized for mobile devices. Forrester Research projects by 2014, the U.S. mobile advertising market will more than double in size, reaching $2.5 billion! So whether you are selling products or not, make sure, your website is optimized for mobile use in 2012!
Longtail Search
Long Tail refers to a very targeted search phrase of 3 words or more. And if you’ve tried SEO you probably already know that getting placement for a competitive keyword phrase could take months or even years. But the search landscape is changing, and more searchers are typing in long tail search terms to find what they’re looking for. Not surprisingly, marketers are responding by implementing long tail search optimization strategies. According to SEOmoz, long tail search comprises a staggering 70% of all search traffic. This strategy works because long tail keywords are less competitive and will yield you better quality traffic and higher conversion rates. Don’t be greedy and go for the most highly trafficked term, long-tail is the way to go!
Graphics
Content is still King, but graphics are a great compliment to your writing. They are also a refreshing way to deliver a message and get more traffic to your website. As social media usage grows, the competition for attention keeps increasing. Facebook recently released heat maps showing where users eyes focused the most and the photo banner was one of the most viewed areas. Infographics are becoming very popular and are an amazing way to get links to your site. With all of this content to take-in people are always looking for a quicker way to get information. Delivering a compelling image is a great new way to capture peoples’ attention. So start spicing up that content with a killer graphic and you will be rewarded!
2012 is the year to become more innovative and agile with your online marketing.
For help planning your online marketing strategy, contact Brainstorm Studio.
More From BrainStorm Studio
- How to Grow Your Business with Content Marketing
- Five Key Benefits of a WordPress Website
- New York Web Design Studio | Is Google's Your World Too Much of a Good Thing
Thanks for the valuable information, we should prepare new campaigns for 2012 right now