As it’s the first week in January, it’s crystal ball gazing time and not one to be left out we’ve taken a look at the many predictions around what will be the next big thing in Marketing in 2012. We’ve selected a few of what we think are the hottest trends. So read on to discover why the only place to be seen this year is on screen. And if you’re feeling downcast by tales of economic woe, how brands will be ready to divert your attention through gamification and interactive apps. Find out why your purse could soon become a collector’s item and community focused initiatives are set to capture the hearts of consumers.

Digital wallets
Contactless payment devices such as near-field communication (NFC) and QR codes will enter the mainstream in 2012. When used in smartphones, they encourage customers to merge their wallet with their mobile phones. Surveys suggest consumers are ready to embrace this trend. Two-thirds of UK shoppers say cash is inconvenient , according to 2011 surveys by Barclays and PayPal. According to Juniper Research, 300 million devices will be on offer to allow consumers to “tap and pay” through NFC by 2014. It is estimated the value of contactless payments and ticketing using NFC will reach $113bn (£72.4bn) per year by 2016 around the world. (Source: Stylus.com)

Welcome to the cloud
Businesses will invest large amounts of money in cloud computing and mobile technology next year. According to the report: IDC Predictions 2012: Competing for 2020, 2012 will see more money spent on mobiles and tablets than PCs and 80 per cent of commercial applications are set to be on cloud platforms. “The UK is underinvested in IT –  and with advertising and consumer spending rapidly moving online and kit becoming out of date, some rise there is likely,” points out chief executive of the Centre for Economic and Social Research, Douglas McWilliams. (Source: IDC.com, Insight.com)

Local marketing and partnerships
As the clean-up efforts following the London riots show, community love is on the rise. This year will see a resurgence of local marketing to tap into people’s collective devotion to their local community. While the internet by nature is international, there is a growing market for local websites and scope for businesses to tailor websites to specific localities. Brands are also set to tap into this trend for collective working as partnership marketing becomes more common. This will not just be about tactical value-based promotions but about strategic alliance with other brands. (Source:23red)

Screening
In 2012, if it is not on screen, it’s not worth seeing. Touchscreens and tablets have made it much more convenient for consumers to view online while they are on the move. UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has tapped into this trend by partnering with television provider Sky, allowing shoppers to watch sports events while they shop using in-cart iPad docks and speakers. In 2012, video consumption will soar as brands increasingly use this channel to engage with customers. Video brochures, video newsletters, and regular video communications will become standard features on websites. According to Cisco, 80 per cent of all internet traffic will be driven by video by 2015. (Source: Trendwatching.com, Milwardbrown). Running in tandem with this is the prediction that mobile is set to overtake the desktop PC and laptop – which is why it’s more important than ever to ensure that you have responsive web design to allow for the multitude of devices that your potential customers can access your site via.

Playfulness
In a bid to escape from the grim news about the economy, consumers will become more responsive to entertainment and escapism. Big brands will become more playful, using gamification and other “funware” that use points, puzzles and level progression to attract and engage customers. Social tools and technologies that enable people to interact with TV programmes will explode in 2012. Viewers will be able to interact with TV and producers will draw on this data for creative inspiration. Services such as Bluefin Labs and GetGlue indicate traditional TV ratings may be bolstered by “social ratings” as advertisers start to take into account how a show is travelling beyond the TV audience. (Source: Milward Brown)

LexisClick is a full service digital marketing agency, we specialises in helping businesses grow by using the power of digital marketing, with services such as web design and build, SEO, PPC, email marketing, and social media.

To find out how we can ensure your marketing is on trend in 2012 take a look around our website www.lexisclick.com or give us a call on 01202 788333.

From the LexisClick Marketing Team

(Adapted from Trends for 2012 from The Marketer January 2012)

B2B Online Marketing, Blogging for business, Email marketing, Marketing General, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Design

Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Blogging for business, Marketing General, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Everybody is talking about it. Social media is the latest technique in every marketing department’s hit list. Even though the research says that the majority of us are regularly using social media many businesses don’t understand how to make the most of it for their marketing.

Whether or not your business currently embraces social media, all the research makes a strong case for every business to evaluate social media opportunities.

Source Hubspot Inbound Marketing Strategy 2010

At LexisClick we’ve successfully implemented social media campaigns for a number of our clients. If you need help getting your social media off the ground, contact us for a free impartial discussion on how social media could benefit your business.

Download our social media whitepaper

Social Media Marketing

The following infographic shows some key stats from the Econsultancy report which was published earlier in November. (State of Social Report 2011).

We’d love to hear about what you measure in your social media metrics… drop us a line.  From the Social Media Team at LexisClick.

B2B Online Marketing, Blogging for business, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

A recent report from Econsultancy states that companies are still grappling with the isue of measuring social media (SM), though fewer are reporting that they are unable to measure ROI (37%) compared with 47% last year.
The three most important SM metrics reported are direct traffic from SM sites, brand awareness, and customer engagement, which have little to do with ROI! See the table below fo breakdown of responses…

From The Social Media Team at LexisClick

Blogging for business, Marketing General, Social Media Marketing

Fast on the heels of our LinkedIn Cheat Sheet comes one for Twitter. This  includes useful tips and explanations of the most popular terms and icons. Statistics for Twitter are more difficult to track down but Twitter themselves state that they have 175 million users worldwide – though how many of these are active accounts is debateable.

Love it or hate it you shouldn’t be ignoring it!

Twitter Cheat Sheet 2

B2B Online Marketing, Blogging for business, Marketing General, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Everybody is talking about it. Social media is the latest technique in every marketing department’s hit list. Even though the research says that the majority of us are regularly using social media many businesses don’t understand how to make the most of it for their marketing.

Whether or not your business currently embraces social media, all the research makes a strong case for every business to evaluate social media opportunities. Read more…

Social Media Marketing

Search engine optimisation is a key service of ours, and in our travels we come across thousands of blogs and social media presences that are being used as just another way of getting up the search engine rankings. All this content is being created for the search engine spiders, with little thought as to how valuable it is to web users. It is true that making frequent posts, promoted through social media channels will attract the search engine spiders to return to your site more regularly. Optimise that content and it’s highly likely you’ll see an upwards shift in your rankings. It might be a good strategy for bringing people in, but is it enough to keep them?

Whilst high search engine rankings are important for the businesses that we deal with, developing a long term brand is much more important.

To maintain a brand, customers and potential customers need to be engaged. So here is the simple RED or Dead rule to remember each time you make a post: Read more…

Blogging for business, Social Media Marketing blogging, Social media for business, Social Media Marketing, social media strategy

With the 2010 election campaign being touted as the election when social media is really going to come to the fore, it was only a matter of time before some prospective parliamentary candidate made, for want of a better word, a twit of themselves on Twitter. Read more…

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