Future Trends: 2012 Online Marketing & Technology Predictions
Posted on 26. Dec, 2011 by Lee Odden in Blog, predictions, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media trends, trends
What does 2012 hold in store for online marketing? The acceleration of innovation in online technologies and the ways we can discover, consume and engage with information can be a challenge to keep up with. But as digital marketers that are more than shiny object opportunists, seeing future trends is exactly what we need to do in order to anticipate our place in the digital universe.
It’s not just about where you can sell stuff to people right now, but next month, next year, 5, 10 or more out. That’s why I think the concept of discover, consume and engage is so important, because it transcends ideas like “social network” or “search engine” and focuses more on consumers and technologies. Will we be using a search engine like Google in 5 years? Will we be using desktop computers in 5 years? What will future social networks look like? Answers to those questions are answers to the future of marketing and customer engagement.
Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon and plenty of other large companies are innovating at amazing speed to gain control of our attention. Some are doing it through devices, some through content, others through infrastructure. A handful of companies have had a huge impact on what we do online and at the same time, new companies, start-ups and individuals are creating amazing solutions. What are you doing to see the bigger picture and what it means for your business?
Rather than jumping sequentially from one thing to the next, marketers should consider developing adaptive models that allow for rapid assimilation of new technologies and trends. As it stands, companies may adopt early with some risk, move with the crowd giving up first mover advantage or wait and see until it’s too painful not to change. The ramp up time to evaluate and adopt new technologies and trends is expensive. As an example, over $100 billion has already been invested in social business and that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the next 5 years as companies implement enterprise collaboration platforms and social technologies.
In order to survive and thrive, I think more companies are going to evolve their ability to adapt more quickly, tune in to trends and data more efficiently and at the same time have the infrastructure and partnerships that will allow them to evolve and innovate at greater speed.
From a practical level, the new internet no longer exists on your computer as consumers and content shifts to tablet devices and smartphones. The search experience has not only become distinctly different for consumers through user innovations like Siri, interface and back-end changes but also for marketers trying to play Google’s game in achieving top search visibility.
Imagine how many more changes there will be in technology as well as with consumer behaviors in the coming year. Here are 7 reports and infographics outlining key technology, social business and digital marketing trends for 2012 and beyond.
Envisioning Emerging Technology. At the heart of the fast changing digital ecosystem of mobile, internet and information is technology. 10 years ago not many marketers could have predicted the ubiquity of tablet devices and smartphones we see today. What’s in store for the next 20 years. Or 30? This smart data visualization from Michell Zappa charts future technologies like artificial intelligence, interfaces and robotics through 2040 on several dimensions including relative importance and consumer impact. Virtual Reality life forms anyone?
2012 Social Business Developments. What’s the future of business? Social Business. Here are 12 social business predictions from Dion Hinchcliffe of Dachis Group covering the move of social to mobile, marketing consolidation, budget and operational aspects of social business and some keen insights on social business applications.
“It’s a Social World: Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed. Globally, social networking is the most popular activity online according to a new study from comScore. The impact of Facebook and microblogging have had a profound impact on how brands and consumers connect and engage around the world. Any company doing business globally would benefit from reading this report that covers social media usage, adoption and trends.
Mobile Outlook 2012 (pdf). Mobile predictions finally came true in 2011 and companies have invested significantly in mobile websites, apps, advertising and integration with local and offline promotions. The future of mobile is even brighter as outlined in this report from Mobile Marketer including Mobile payments, Advertising, the continued effectiveness of SMS, mobile social media and search.
B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends (pdf). The second annual survey from Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs tapped over 1,000 B2B marketers and shows continued investment in content marketing as well as its uses and intersection with other channels like social media. This report provides useful insight for B2B marketers to gauge where their peers are investing, challenged and applying best practices content marketing in 2012.
Digital Marketing Budget Trends for 2012. What are the lowest cost but most effective online lead generation tactics? Where are companies investing in their marketing for the coming year? 6smarketing assembled a great collection of digital marketing budget trends ranging from overall digital marketing spend to online advertising and mobile marketing.
Internet Statistics Compendium North American Edition. This isn’t a report or infographic on future trends, but a collection of statistics compiled by Econsultancy regarding: Affiliate Marketing, Internet Advertising, Web Analytics, Social Media, Search Marketing, Mobile, Email Marketing, E-commerce, Customer Experience and Technology Adoption. Part of seeing future trends is having a baseline of data on what’s happened in the past. This report, which is one of many you get with a paid Econsultancy subscription $495, is a useful compilation of that kind of data.
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Top 15 Content Marketing Predictions for 2012
Posted on 22. Dec, 2011 by Joe Pulizzi in B2B, Blog, content marketing, content marketing predictions, Fun Stuff, predictions, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
I was thrilled with how our 2012 content marketing and social media predictions piece came out this year (full predictions below for viewing and/or download).
With nearly 80 contributors, the predictions were plentiful. But, for whatever reason, here are my favorite 15. Enjoy!
I believe that Google+ will become a new blogging platform and that in addition to sharing content, users will start creating their own content right on the G+ site. – Ali Goldfield
2012 is the year more organizations embrace the convergence of employee personal branding and corporate branding through content marketing strategies. – Bernie Borges
Content Marketing jobs will be at their peak due to the constant need and hunger for lead nurturing mechanisms. - Celine Francisco
Brand marketers will continue to hire their own brand journalists and build out their own editorial departments. So if you’re a publisher…watch out! Your own advertisers and sponsors will be competing more and more with you. – Daniel Burstein
As real-time becomes the norm and journalists search Google for thought leaders to quote, more and more marketers will newsjack their way into the media. – David Meerman Scott
2012 will be the year of hard work – and the year we all focus on building our content brands: getting famous for great content not just for great widgets. – Doug Kessler
New button is added to social sites… The “Shut Up” button to quiet trolls and people that don’t add any value to the conversation. Okay, maybe it’s not a prediction, just a wish. – Douglas Karr
Media agencies will either create new content marketing specialized groups or expand the roles of “search strategists” to “content strategists” and include effective and efficient content distribution to their responsibilities. – Gilad de Vries
Mobile can no longer be treated as an isolated channel or a “nice to have”; it will become a primary way to speak to customers and prospects. – Gordon Plutsky
Creating content around the needs of the customer, not the needs of the brand has been proven time and again to work. More companies are going to see the value and ease of providing that in 2012. – Jason Falls
There will be a slew of top brands that start to buy established niche media properties instead of starting from scratch. – Joe Pulizzi
Content Marketers will begin to to place even more focus on video storytelling by expanding the distribution of video content at the retail level through the gaining momentum of QR Codes. – Nate Riggs
I think you’re going to see a lot of activity around Social TV. We’re starting to see critical mass around key live events (Super Bowl, Awards Shows, etc.), the same programming that networks charge big dollars for. Social TV integration will either support those traditional ad spends, or be used by those who can’t afford a :30 spot during the Oscars. – Rick Liebling
Brand marketers will realize an editorial function is needed to define their overall content strategy and planning. Content will be tweaked for different media. Brand marketers will not only distribute their own content, but also start curating third-party content to reinforce their messages. – Pam Didner
And my favorite, from my friend Paul Conley, is below (in its entirety).
I expect that 2012 will see two changes in who creates the content in B2B content marketing.
First, public-relations departments and agencies will move into this role in a big way – and do a better job than the marcomm-type folks who dominate the space now. The reason is pretty simple: marketers don’t have a culture that is open to journalism. And make no mistake: if you’re in the content-marketing game in B2B, you’re in the journalism game. News happens. Often when you least expect it — like when your feel-good interview with an executive turns into major news because it contains an off-the-cuff remark about your industry that infuriates people and moves share prices. Most marketers don’t handle things like that well. They don’t have what journalists call “news judgement,” so they get blindsided when they create content that becomes news.
Second, I think traditional B2B publishers, who moved into the “marketing services” space with great fanfare in the past two years, will retreat. In fact, they already are. This was never a good idea. Legacy publishers don’t get the Web. The only thing they had to sell in the market was the one thing they shouldn’t be selling — the ability to co-opt their journalists!
So, what’s your favorite? What did we miss?
Here’s to a fantastic 2012!
The original post is titled Top 15 Content Marketing Predictions for 2012 , and it came from The Content Marketing Revolution .
8 Content Marketing Initiatives To Seriously Consider for 2012
Posted on 14. Nov, 2011 by Joe Pulizzi in Blog, case studies, content marketing, content strategy, Fun Stuff, open forum, predictions, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Social Media
I recently put together a new content marketing presentation focusing on the eight things I would be doing as a marketing executive now and into 2012. I thought I’d share it with you. Odds are, all of these won’t work for you, but I guarantee that at least one could make a major impact on your business for 2012.
8 Content Marketing Strategies to Take Now
Tackle One Goal with Content for 2012
Take a look at your marketing plan. Is there something in it that is working well but could work better? Is there something that is completely and utterly broken?
The solution to that effort could be solved with a content initiative.
For example, many people don’t realize that the ultimate objective behind GM’s magazine Corvette Quarterly was NOT primarily as a loyalty tool for Corvette owners. Actually, it was used as a conversion tool for other sports car owners, such as Porsche. Who knew?
How about P&G? They have so many personas and verticals it may seem hard to manage content creation and distribution. So their plan was to create individual platforms for many of their buying groups
- HomeMadeSimple.com – Stay-at-home Moms and Dads
- BeingGirl.com – Adolescent Girls (check out this article on BeingGirl.com performance)
- ManoftheHouse.com – Dudes like me (excellent story on ManoftheHouse here from CCO Magazine)
Point is, think of your challenge a little differently with a possible content solution like GM and P&G has.
Reimagine Your Content 10 to 1
Google’s Panda update earlier this year means that social media sharing is more important to getting found in search engines than ever before. In addition, our customers are completely in control with how and when they engage in our content. That means we have to think from the beginning how each of our stories will be produced and shared.
So, think 10 to 1. Can you reimagine your stories in 10 different ways? Can that blog post become a white paper series, Kindle eBook or even a printed book? Can that video story be transcribed into a blog post, broken apart and shared via Facebook, or transformed into a podcast? Point is, think about these things up front:
- How will you pre-activate the content in all situations? (get the community involved in the content)
- How will you share the content?
- What can the base content offering (blog, video, etc.) become?
Take the Visual Content Audit
Sometimes it’s hard to convince the executive team that your content is broken. Unfortunately, to get some buy-in from the CXO, they need to see it first hand.
- If you can, print out a good portion of your content – white papers, web site pages, blog posts, Tweet stream, etc.
- Then gather your marketing team in a room around a large table.
- Spread out the printed content on the table.
- Engage in your content.
Odds are, you are talking about yourselves in most of the content…you are NOT focused on solving the customer’s pain points. Ask the executive team if they would really engage in this kind of information. Hopefully, after this little exercise, the marketing team will be thinking a bit differently about what is produced.
Clearly Identify Content Marketing Roles
Whatever size company you are with, you need to establish the roles of Chief Content Officer, Managing Editor, Content Producers, Chief Listening Officer and your Content Creators. Look at your content marketing workflow and make some decisions now.
Test a Niche Related to Your Products
Do you see a content opportunity in a niche related to your industry?
Look at what Citrix has done with Workshifting.com, an incredibly helpful content site for those who want to work anywhere and everywhere. They saw an opportunity back in 2009 around this niche of small-business owners and executives on the go, and created the ultimate resource site for them.
Can you do that for one of your target customers or prospects? If so, what would it do for your business?
Partner Where it Makes Sense
Openview Labs, a product of Openview Venture Partners [disclaimer: I am an Openview Advisor], develops almost all of the content for this resource site themselves, using their internal employees and an on-site studio.
On the other hand, American Express outsources most of Open Forum to agencies and freelancers.
Both great sites, both done completely differently.
Find out what you are great at and what resources you have inside your organization…then outsource the rest.
Or…Buy
Do you remember when JPG, the photography magazine, was on the selling block? It wasn’t another publishing company that bought them…it was a group led by Adorama Camera, a photography supplies store. Genius!
Are their media companies in your industry that have a great brand, an excellent subscriber base or tremendous talent or workflow? If so, you might want to consider buying them.
Take Heed…Google
For those regular readers of this blog, this point is not new…but critical none-the-less. My take is that Google, currently the world’s largest organizer of content, will soon become the largest publisher in the world, with their recent content purchases of Zagat and on YouTube.
This is scary, because it is possibly that Google could monopolize the entire content finding chain. To combat this:
- Focus on your referral traffic by building relationships with outside influencers.
- Consider creating an influencer content site around a topic that isn’t being fulfilled. Mike Stelzner has done this with Social Media Examiner. We have hopefully done this with the Content Marketing Institute with the help of our 65 contributing authors.
- Create content pieces leveraging the larger community. Put your influencers, including your customers, in the spotlight (they’ll be more likely to share).
In Summary
Overall, think about these issues for 2012:
- What does your audience really need to know? (their pain points)
- Share awesome stuff (the best in your industry) with clear goals!
- It’s almost never about you (your story needs to be about your customers).
- What are your content roles?
Google Will Be the Largest Content Producer in Three Years
Posted on 06. Oct, 2011 by Joe Pulizzi in Blog, Branded Content, content marketing, Custom Publishing, predictions, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing
A decade ago when I worked for Penton Media, Google was a hot topic. To partner or not? Do we open up our web content to Google’s spiders?
It seems a silly discussion today, but it was big business then. Publishers and editors were of the mindset that Google was somehow stealing their content by indexing it and serving it up to Google’s search engine.
As more publishers realized the number of relevant readers they were getting to their websites, Google turned from axis to ally.
So with publishers on board about the possibilities that Google could bring them (in both traffic and Adsense sales), it set the stage for Google’s growth.
In 2010, Google did almost $30 billion in revenue and $8.5 billion in profit. They have $34 billion in short-term investments and cash-on-hand.
And Google continues to be the place where people find stuff. They are the problem solver. They link people to other people’s content, spatter it with a bit of advertising, and make a ton of money doing it.
Google Is Changing The Model
For all of its amazing innovations such as Google Voice, Google Apps and even their Android platform, the large majority of Google’s revenue still comes from Adsense. The product diversification has happened, but the revenue results are lagging. For those of you who understand the stock market, Google trades at a PE Ratio of 12.3, a historic low. This means that investors look at Google as more a value play and not a growth stock any longer.
So where does Google go from here?
Ah yes, to Content.
I need to find something. I go to Google. I do a few searches on Google. I click on a link. After that, for the moment, Google loses me as a revenue opportunity.
But what if?
I need to find something. I go to Google. I do a few searches on Google. I click on a link. That link is a piece of Google content (video, textual, audio, etc.). Google monetizes that content through more advertising and sponsorship.
Yep, this is the future. Heck, it’s the present. The clear start of this was Google’s purchase of restaurant-review media company Zagat a few months ago. No one made a peep. Everyone seemed happy.
And now, according to the Wall Street Journal, Google is putting up $100 million to create content for its YouTube franchise. Google is the publisher investing in content in order to monetize that content on the back-end through sponsorship.
In a matter of just a few weeks ($125 million investment in Zagat and a $100 million YouTube content investment), Google has become one of the largest publishers on the planet. And now there is no stopping them.
What Should You Expect from Google?
Regarding content, here are just a few possible events that shouldn’t surprise you over the next few years:
- Google will provide customized content for both brands and media companies.
- Google will start purchasing the leading niche providers of content in multiple verticals.
- Google will begin to hire journalists and content creators of all types to provide content for all Google platforms.
It makes too much sense. Google can stay with the consumer throughout the purchase cycle.
I’m not saying that this is good or bad, I’m just making the point that this is happening…and that this will affect content creators (media-side and brand-side) in all industries and verticals. Google will be the largest content producer on the planet. We need to start preparing for this now.
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