1. Huge Growth in Mobile Commerce and Marketing

Predicted by: Ally

The consumption of goods and services via mobile and tablet devices has increased in 2011, but 2012 will see them rocket. At the end of 2010 the average percentage of traffic visiting our customers’ websites via a mobile or tablet device was 3%. At the end of 2011 that figure is around 10%. We fully expect well over 20% of visitors accessing our customers’ sites via mobile and tablet devices by the end of 2012 and that has huge implications in terms of how we reach and engage these visitors.

We’re already seeing huge demand from our customers for mobile-specific websites and web applications, and everything points towards 2012 as being the year that the business masses will begin investing in mobile as a powerful marketing channel. Your current website may be accessible via mobile browsers but, unfortunately, the same things that make your website engaging on standard browsers will not make them an engaging mobile experience. Mobile websites and applications need to be simple, stripped back, have great usability, load fast (even on 3G connections) and offer real functionality (in other words ‘something to do’).

This growth in mobile usage will also be combined with a large increase in the percentage of goods and services purchased via mobile devices. mCommerce has already begun to take off in 2011 and you can expect to see this trend pick up even more pace in the next 12 months. The prediction is that by 2015 50% of all products and services purchased on the internet will be purchased on a mobile device.

The growth of mobile and tablet usage is really exciting and we’re looking forward to seizing all of the new marketing opportunities it will bring in 2012.

2. Facebook will Successfully Refine Advertising Offer

Predicted by: Stuart

2011 was the year that Facebook really began to monetize their hugely popular platform. Version 1 of the Facebook advertising offer is good - if not great - but it really it’s only the start. In 2012 it will be refined and improved to offer advertisers a much more social way of advertising (in keeping with the core Facebook offer).

It’s not yet clear exactly how this will work, but we can expect it to be based on the ideas of ‘social personalization’ and ‘social design’ – both subjects Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been talking about a lot in 2011. Basically users will be presented with adverts based on what their network of friends have ‘liked’ and these adverts will show users which of their friends have already interacted. Research and practice shows that we react and engage so much more when we know others in our peer group have already clicked on or ‘liked’ an ad.

This improved advertising offer will give Facebook a clear point of differentiation over rival platforms such as Google’s Adwords. It will make Facebook unique in the sense of offering businesses a completely new way to engage potential customers and we expect this to be extremely powerful and effective. Make no mistake, if Facebook can build a truly effective advertising platform then businesses will flock to it – we predict 2012 to be the year that this happens.

3. Deal-based platforms will lose ground

Predicted by: Robert

In many ways 2011 was the year of Groupon and countless other daily deal sites. The growth of these advertising platforms has been phenomenal and I think it’s fair to say we all fell in love with the idea of getting a deal with 70, 80, 90% off straight into our inboxes everyday.

However it now appears the ship has hit troubled waters! Groupon has been a magnet for huge criticism in recent months; with investigations by advertising authorities over accusations of over-egging discount claims in their ads, and who could forget (especially their shareholders!) the disaster since their initial public offering earlier in the year.

Forget all the controversy though, we think it’s all much simpler than false advertising and questions about the company’s real market value. Quite simply we all got fed up! Great as getting offered a fantastic discount is, when everything is offered at such huge discounts all the time we begin to switch off. It’s no longer as impressive or eye-catching, and the emails we receive in our inbox everyday just become another part of the marketing ‘noise’ we’re subjected to everyday.

Our prediction – in 2012 we’ll say lots of these sites fail and fade into obscurity. I’m sure Groupon will survive but, unless they make some fundamental changes to the business model, I can’t see it becoming the huge marketing powerhouse we all predicted earlier in 2011. 

4. Increased Importance of Local and Social Search

Predicted by: Debbie

Search Engine Optimisation is an incredibly powerful and important marketing tool and in 2012 that’s not going to change. What will change and develop – as always – is the way in which Google (and other search engines) index search results and present them to users. In 2012 the 2 biggest developments in search engine marketing will be Local Search and Social Search.

Local Search will become increasingly important for local businesses as the huge increase in mobile internet usage continues to grow. We all increasingly use search engines and search based applications on our mobiles to find a suitable restaurant, bar, shop or any local business for that matter. In 2012 we’ll begin to see businesses focus on getting their local search right, and investing more in this side of their of their search engine marketing. At the same time we’re also pretty sure that Google will focus more attention on indexing local searches and placing importance on these in the rankings.

Social Search is something that has been on the cards for a while but we think 2012 will be the year that Google begin to place more importance on what’s happening on social networks in their search results. So live results from Facebook, Twitter and other platforms will become a larger part of the search experience and this will have implications on how important it is for businesses to make good use of social media. Essentially it will mean the better use you make of social media then the better your search engine results will be. 

5. It’s all About Re-marketing

Predicted by: Ryan

Have you ever been on a website looking at a product and noticed for the next few days, weeks and months you’re being presented with adverts from that same website on other sites such as YouTube, blogs, news sites etc? This type of advertising is an example of Re-marketing and it is an incredibly effective way of continuing to market to people once you know they are interested in your product. We know it’s effective because the percentage of click-throughs and purchases we see on client sites in comparison to other online marketing methods is huge. This is only one example of Re-marketing and there’s lots of great ways you can take advantage of this type of marketing.

Some people may find this type of marketing irritating or obtrusive (and we can see why that is the case) but by virtue of the results that it provides we think Re-marketing will become a more prominent and popular online marketing tool in 2012.

Well that’s it – now let’s wait and see if our predictions are correct! As always please contribute your own predictions in the comments section.

Websites Like Groupon and It Is On can be Fantastic Marketing Tools...

(If you remember the golden rule!) 

Anyway, it’s no surprise that deal-based websites have become so popular – they’re great for consumers and, at the same time, a fantastic marketing tool for businesses – especially those with a limited marketing budget.

Because these websites work on a regionalised basis, they provide a great way for local businesses to entice new customers through the door with a unique one-off offer. At the same time, if you do have a limited marketing budget, these websites usually don’t charge directly to run a campaign with them - they actually charge a proportion of the payment taken from each deal claimed. So if you don’t have the marketing budget to invest in an advertising or online campaign this is an interesting results-based way to pay for marketing.

But remember, you are still paying for the campaign – the offer in the first place will reduce your margins and the commission you give back to the website per deal will reduce this even further. Purely judging by the jaw-dropping deals I have seen on Groupon and Itison recently, it appears that many companies will barely break-even or may run a loss for their promotions. This is fine as long as they remember the core reason for running a promotion – to let new customers sample their product or service at a low rate so that they can give them a great experience and make them come back again and again.

Generating customer loyalty is what this is all about, which is why I’ve been surprised over the past couple of months to directly witness and hear reports of negative deal-based experiences. My direct experience happened last week when I purchased a deal on Today’s Great Deal for a restaurant I had wanted to go to for a while. This deal came up and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to sample the place. When we turned up though it seemed like we were treated like second-class citizens. We had purchased the deal so the onus seemed to be on getting us in and out of the restaurant as fast as possible. From the time we sat down we were out of there within 20 minutes and the staff paid us little attention in comparison to others in the restaurant – hardly a memorable experience.

I’ve been hearing reports of similar, and worse, experiences for other deal-based promotions as well. One friend was directly told because she purchased the deal she would have to leave and come back in 30 minutes – despite booking an appointment in advance. When she did come back she found that deal had been over exaggerated and didn’t include everything that was mentioned in the promotion before she purchased. It doesn’t matter how cheap something is, if you don’t get what’s been advertised you won’t be coming back.

It really seems like many businesses are completely missing the point with this potentially very effective marketing tool. The point is not just to get a lot people through the door once – I’ve already highlighted that there is no money to be made in doing this. The point is to turn those who participate in the deal into loyal fans of your business – people that will talk about their experience to others and come back to you again and again. A big part of this is ensuring that all customer-facing staff are well aware of the purpose of this campaign – make sure they give the same service you would expect them to give to any customer.

An example of a company doing it extremely well is Papa John’s (the takeaway pizza chain). I participated in a promotion they ran last week and we ended up getting 4 Extra Large Pizza’s that would have cost £14.99 each for £1.75 each! But even better, when we (yes WE – I didn’t eat all 4 pizzas on my own!) ordered the pizzas the service we received was great and the pizzas were fantastic. A company like Papa John's will be running this campaign to raise awareness and to encourage new customers to start ordering from them instead of the bigger chains such as Pizza Hut and Dominos – and trust me it worked!

So try and emulate Papa Johns and don’t make the easy Groupon mistake – ensure you get value from your deal-based campaign by treating every customer to an experience they’ll want to have again (and rave to others about). Otherwise its money down the drain I’m afraid!

What's your experience of group buying/deal-based websites been like? Let us know