Five ways to win the marketing battle in 2012

My colleague from Experian Hitwise, James Murray, thinks that online video will be key for 2012. Video is one of the fastest growing media online and in the last year we’ve seen visits to online video sites grow by 36%. There are 785 million visits to online video websites every month and, if the growth trajectory continues throughout 2012, then we expect to see a new milestone of 1 billion visits to video sites every month.

With customers consuming more and more video, brands should increasingly be looking to use video as a core part of their digital strategy. Video can play a crucial role in customer retention and acquisition by driving website traffic, boosting brand awareness, demonstrating products and services or acting as a customer service channel. Importantly, online video can also be cost effective, so we expect to see 2012 as a year that brands really capitalise on video.

Will Ashton, Managing Director of Alchemy Social, thinks that 2012 will be the year the ‘Sponsored Stories’ ad format truly takes off. Sponsored Stories launched in 2011 and have thus far been somewhat limited in their scope. However, with the launch of custom verbs at this year’s F8, their potential has been opened up. It’s no longer just about ‘liking’, brands will soon be able to run Sponsored Stories which mention ‘reading’, ‘listening’ or any other verb that fits with the brand in question.

This makes sponsored stories more interactive and interesting to consumers. Naturally this added relevance will push up response rates and help Facebook provide even more value for brands. To do this brands will have to make sure the content that they produce is tailored to the customers they seek to target and retain. Again, this is all about brands creating innovative content that engages the customer.

One of the key themes we’ve been talking about this year is multi-channel, and I think 2012 will see multi-channel grow in importance for retailers. Joining on and offline channels has been key in helping brands deliver products through the right channel and the right location for their customers. As brands begin to understand their customers’ shopping habits in greater detail, multi-channel will play an even more important role in 2012.

The increased number of channels and devices consumers can shop through will be incredibly important, especially as the use of smart phone and tablet devices shows no sign of subsiding. This means retailers will need to develop their skills in channel management and, in particular, the use of data and insights to maximise ROI from multi-channel sales. As multi–channel options grow for consumers (for example click and collect and in store kiosks) the importance to retailers of delivering them effectively will grow.

So far our trends for 2012 have focussed heavily on getting online communications right but as James Wedge from Experian’s Marketing Information Services team pointed out it’s equally important to get physical locations right. The success or failure of a new location can be dictated by just a few streets.

Our final trend might come as a surprise to some, but my colleague Helen Taylor from Experian CheetahMail believes that 2012 will be a year in which email marketing enjoys a renaissance.  The increasing growth in sales and popularity of smart phones gives customers another device through which they can view their emails at any time of day or night, making email an even more accessible form of communication.  

To compliment this, email is going to become even more customer-centric. As our inboxes reach capacity, and with many of us having more than one email account and consuming emails on a number of different devices, Email service providers will have to cut through the noise in order to stay competitive. 

In 2012, emails will become more targeted and more educated as brands know more about their consumers and deliver stronger calls to action.

There’s no doubt that 2012 will be a challenge as the economy continues to worry brands and consumers alike. We believe 2012 will be a year when marketers will get to know their customers better than ever before and deploy data, insight and creativity to use the full range of channels to reach their customers effectively.