{"id":1724,"date":"2012-01-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2012\/01\/23\/2012-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly\/"},"modified":"2025-03-05T15:00:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T15:00:51","slug":"2012-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2012\/01\/23\/2012-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"2012: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been reading all of these recent 2012 predictions and I\u2019ve been inspired to have a go myself. One month in to the New Year, I think 2012 is shaping up to look like one of the most interesting years in online marketing for some time.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve split my predictions in to:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 the good \u2013 things I\u2019m most looking forward to this year
\n\u2022\u00a0 the bad – things I\u2019ve read as predictions and don\u2019t agree with
\n\u2022\u00a0 the ugly \u2013 self explanatory!\n<\/p>\n

The Good…<\/h3>\n

Conversion rates on the up. <\/b><\/p>\n

According to Econsultancy (and Richard\u2019s post a fortnight ago), for every \u00a392 businesses spend driving traffic to their websites, they only spend \u00a31 converting it. This was one of my favourite stats of 2011. Don\u2019t be part of that stat this year! If you\u2019re not looking at conversion rate optimisation<\/a> already, then now is the time to get involved.<\/p>\n

During 2012, and these dire financial times, it\u2019s likely that we\u2019re going to see marketing budgets taking a hit, meaning marketers are going to need to make every penny they spend accountable and for that penny to work as hard as physically possible.<\/p>\n

Making your website more appealing and more usable for your target audience is going to be vital over the coming year. Before you think it, I\u2019m not just talking about colours of buttons; I\u2019m talking about testing page layouts, imagery but more importantly content and messaging. These things can all have huge implications for the success of your site, so getting it right is vital.
\nSocial media on everyone\u2019s marketing plan.<\/b><\/p>\n

This year social media is going to play a bigger part in all our lives especially those of us in marketing. Social is appearing on more and more marketing plans without prompt, and if you\u2019re not already using social as a marketing channel, it\u2019s likely you\u2019ll be thinking about it.<\/p>\n

In 2011, the big news from social was Google+. Google actually managed to create a social platform with some legs. Will it last? I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s not going to replace Facebook and their 800 million active users, that\u2019s for sure, but it has enough users to keep it going. I predict we\u2019ll see Google+ adding features at a pace this year, to help it take market share from the other platforms.<\/p>\n

We also saw new platforms raising eyebrows towards the end of the year, more notably Pinterest<\/a>. It\u2019s a very nice concept, but do we really have the need (or the time) for another social platform? 2012 will make or break Pinterest.<\/p>\n

One of the other big things for me in 2012 is that boundaries of home and work lives will blend, mainly thanks to the likes of Twitter and LinkedIn. What does this mean for marketing? Well, for B2B marketing in particular it means that you\u2019re not just going to be engaging with your prospects from 9-5… If you\u2019re customers are being social 24 hours a day, are you missing a trick by not being there?<\/p>\n

I realise this could be quite a daunting thought, but there are a good number of social monitoring tools out there that can help you understand where your target market are and when they\u2019re most active. If you use Google Chrome, you can try the free version of SocialBro<\/a> for example. This will help build a picture of when your customers are being social and when they\u2019re most likely to interact with you. This is turn will help you to more effectively manage your social channels and ensure you get the most from them.<\/p>\n

Social and search becoming one. <\/b><\/p>\n

This is something I\u2019ve been monitoring for a while now and the recent news from Google<\/a> comes as no surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cSearch plus your world\u201d is the first big feature for Google in 2012, and shows just how exciting the world of search is going to become this year. The new tools allow users with Google+ accounts to search through personalised recommendations from their friends, including Google+ posts and images uploaded to Picasa. You\u2019ll also be able to use Google to search for people you know and Google will use what it knows about your relationships to help make the results more relevant to you. (i.e. return the John Smith you actually know rather than the beer.)<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t help but wonder whether SEO will exist for much longer on its own. Social signals are becoming so important now that SEO without social is like strawberries without cream. (Can you tell I\u2019m looking forward to summer already?)<\/p>\n

The Bad…<\/h3>\n

This is my pick of things I\u2019ve heard people say or that I\u2019ve read around the net for 2012, that I disagree with… and my reasons why.<\/p>\n

Email Marketing<\/b><\/p>\n

Bad Prediction: \u201cEmail Marketing<\/a> is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen this come around a couple of times recently and it amazes me that people say that. If you can\u2019t tell already, I think those people are wrong. Email is changing, or rather the way we use it is, and it\u2019s far from dead.<\/p>\n

According to www.about.com<\/a>, almost 300 billion emails are sent every day, so it\u2019s understandable that people think standing out is difficult. As marketers we do need to be smarter with the way we use email. Here are my top 3 tips for this year:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 We will need to start using email as less of a first contact tool, and more of a nurturing tool.
\n\u2022\u00a0 Automation strategies need to be planned and implemented. How are you going to use email as part of your content marketing strategies? How does this tie in with what users will see on your other\u00a0 channels?
\n\u2022\u00a0 We also need much more focus on clean data, and segmentation. Blasts to your entire list without personalised content should become a thing of the past as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

Mobile<\/b><\/p>\n

Bad Prediction: \u201c2012 is year of the mobile\u201d<\/p>\n

Not again…please… I\u2019ve heard that too many times now. I think this might be the 4th year of the mobile in a row.<\/p>\n

Mobile usage has seen phenomenal growth over the last few years and I\u2019m certain this year will be no exception (actually smart phone penetration in the UK is set to double!).<\/p>\n

The decision to make a leap into a mobile presence needs to be made for a logical reason and not because everyone else is doing it. Use web analytics; look at the data on visitors and conversion rates on mobile devices. If the potential loss of conversion from mobile conversion rates is enough to cover the cost of getting a mobile site, or app developed, then go for it. If it isn\u2019t then hold out a little bit longer.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re keen to test the waters but still don\u2019t have much mobile traffic (or more importantly any budget), why not develop a landing page with key information for mobile users? It could contain things like contact info, key services and links to social platforms. This will help keep costs down, but allow you to have a decent, temporary mobile presence. Temporary is the important word there though, don\u2019t get too comfy if you take this option. The mobile market is demanding more and more of brands and their websites.<\/p>\n

Natural Search<\/b><\/p>\n

Bad Prediction: \u201cIt\u2019s all about getting the top spot\u201d<\/p>\n

I imagine we\u2019re going to see less and less natural search traffic coming through this year. According to SEOmoz, 80% of search clicks are still on natural results, but that percentage is decreasing. This is not surprising considering how aggressive Google are being with the promotion of their paid ads.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen examples, like this one here, where only one (and a half) natural result appears above the fold.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Shocking really considering these are (algorithmically anyway) the best quality results for the users. So between increasing paid search real estate, and even more real estate being taken by other Google products and services, what is being in the top spot actually going to be worth?<\/p>\n

What do you need to do to combat this? Utilise different areas of free traffic you can get hold of and maximise the potential real estate available to you. If applicable:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0 Get a product feed
\n\u2022\u00a0 Get locations for all of your offices\/shops registered with Google places
\n\u2022\u00a0 Optimise your images (alt tags, sensible filenames and the like)
\n\u2022\u00a0 Effectively manage your site links for brand searches (using webmaster tools) to ensure that you make the most of your brand search results<\/p>\n

The Ugly…<\/h3>\n

The ICO have made my ugly list this year for the new cookie laws coming into play. First initiated in May 2011, they will start being enforced from May 2012. Why ugly?<\/p>\n

Firstly, for me the whole thing feels like it\u2019s been put together by people who really don\u2019t understand the concerns of the public, or the implications of what they\u2019ve put forward on the web. I\u2019ve blogged about it a few times.<\/p>\n

One of the things that annoys me most about the \u2018opt in\u2019 for cookies approach to the web is this:
\nSometimes the way companies use remarketing is really clever, and relevant to me, and I\u2019d like that to continue. Some companies use it aggressively and intrusively. I\u2019d rather that didn\u2019t continue. The problem is, I don\u2019t know at the suggested \u2018time of consent\u2019 whether this company is going to be good or bad at remarketing to me, so don\u2019t really know if I want to let them use cookies.<\/p>\n

Secondly, look at the way they\u2019ve implemented their solution for asking for consent? If that\u2019s not ugly I don\u2019t know what is….<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And finally (and more seriously), because the guidance is still not definitive enough to be of any real use. There\u2019s still far too much \u201cthink about this\u201d and \u201csliding scale that\u201d. Call me cynical, but getting this wrong could result in me getting fined significant amounts of money. I\u2019d rather have something more concrete and no longer have to second guess \u201cfor cookies that collect no user specific data, do this,\u201d \u201cfor cookies that collect anonymous statistics on user behaviour, do this,\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still hoping that one day soon I wake up and Firefox, IE, Chrome and the rest of the gang are going to have formed a partnership and implemented a cross browser solution for accepting or rejecting cookies on a site by site, cookie by cookie basis. This is the nirvana for me. A consistent approach for every site will be much easier for users to stomach at least.<\/p>\n

I fear that it will end up with users getting so fed up with being asked whether they want to accept cookies, they\u2019ll just be click yes anyway, defeating the point of the whole operation.<\/p>\n

and Finally…<\/h3>\n

As you can see, 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year to be a marketer. New regulations from our buddies in the EU may be a pain, but it\u2019s not going to stop the industry from pushing the boundaries of marketing. It\u2019s going to mean staying on our toes more than ever and being ready to adapt strategies and messaging to meet the demands of a rapidly changing marketplace.<\/p>\n

What are the things you\u2019re most looking forward to this year? How will you adapt to the evolving marketing arena? Why not leave me a comment below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been reading all of these recent 2012 predictions and I\u2019ve been inspired to have a go myself. One month in to the New Year, I think 2012 is shaping…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"related_service":[61],"related_industry":[],"class_list":["post-1724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"card":"

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\n Blog <\/p>\n \n

\n 2012: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly\n <\/h2>\n <\/a> <\/div>\n
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\n I\u2019ve been reading all of these recent 2012 predictions and I\u2019ve been inspired to have a go myself. One month in to the New Year, I think 2012 is shaping… <\/div>\n
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\n 23 January 2012 <\/p>\n

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\n General <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/article>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"related_service","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related_service?post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"related_industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related_industry?post=1724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}