What Online Marketing Will Look Like Throughout 2012

In 2012, Internet marketing will become increasingly more personal and fragmented. Social media and mobile devices will drive this change.

One major online trend for 2012 is the increased focus on mobile marketing. More and more people are purchasing iPhones and downloading apps. Many of these apps are entirely funded by advertisements.

In addition to trying to reach customers through mobile marketing techniques, businesses will need to optimize their websites for mobile users. The best way to do this is to create a version of their website that is designed specifically for mobile users. The main concern with mobile devices is their smaller screens. For websites to be read easily on mobile devices, they must be more simplistic.

The variety of devices that consumers use will continue to expand and businesses will need to continually broaden their marketing mix in order to survive. Fortunately, the target market for the company might use certain devices more than others, allowing businesses to decide which devices to target more.

Businesses that market their products online are going to need to make it easier for customers to rate their products. Customers are increasingly using product ratings to decide whether they will purchase a product and they are wary of businesses that do not have ratings openly displayed.

Search engines such as Google are increasingly relying on social networks and consumer ratings to hold websites accountable for creating high-quality content and have been harnessing the power of Google+ to this end.

Social media marketing will continue to serve an effective channel for helping businesses keep their customers engaged. While Facebook and Youtube are still the two top social networks, several other social networks are starting to become more popular, so businesses that want to maximize the extent to where they reach customers will need to broaden the number of social networks that they use.

Consumers will be increasingly using the Internet to try to find the cheapest deals on products. More so than ever, businesses will have to look at the prices of their competitors in order to ensure that they are always offering the best deal, since consumers can easily search by price.

Another trend that will continue to increase is the use of the Internet to learn more about consumers. The use of cookies and other forms of tracking will continue, but businesses will be trying other innovative methods, such as sending texts to ask customers about things they are interested in.

Texts will become more common, but email marketing will likely remain the dominant form of push marketing until the costs of sending a text message become more affordable. Email marketing can still be highly effective when businesses obtain permission from those whom they email.

While many things are changing, other things are staying the same. Content marketing continues to be highly effective on the Internet, providing users with valuable information and helping the company develop brand awareness. But for content to be indexed by search engines, the need for high quality content has never been greater.