Changes of Business and Marketing 2012

Jan. 5, 2012 - PRLog -- Businesses will see many changes in the year 2012. The marketing and sales strategies that most businesses adapted to earlier in the year 2011 will have to refine their methods and move ahead with the changing technology. Small and medium sized Businesses will be concentrating hard on refining their content on social media networks and building a dependable database.

Year 2011 is being called the “Year of the cloud” due to its immense contribution to cloud computing and businesses. Cloud computing will no longer remain a wonder in the year 2012 as all businesses will fast adapt to it and consume it and it will fast become a norm to expect delivery services through cloud computing. Owners of businesses will find it important to use cloud computing for their internal IT infrastructure. Businesses will find data center storage as more dependable than old methods that required stringent security protocols. Cloud Computing will also increase the micro outsourcing around the world. Outsourcing will become easier, dependable and cost effective in the coming year due to Cloud Computing as it will make it more efficient for both freelancers and employers.

All business alike whether large firms or small start ups, entrepreneurs everywhere are realizing the gold mine of Internet marketing and fast adapting to smart phones and tablets by being more clearly visible on social media sites. The focus is mainly on Social media marketing, which not only proves a cheaper way to advertise but also a sure shot and easy way to promote businesses. Mobile commerce is to grow at a compound growth rate of 39% through 2016, tablet adoption will grow at a growth rate of 56% per year and competition will ever be on the rise, with the smallest of firms being able to afford a net space more easily than having to bother with actual physical space.

Businesses will see a surge in personalized content. Information and content still is king and small businesses will see the light in this and create branded niche media properties for their target audience and will try not to get flooded along with the rest of their competitors on Social media sites. Personalized strategies become more important to remain visible. Many unique services are to emerge at the beginning of the year which will help businesses understand even their smallest customer based on their personality and preferences and hence each business set up can easily have extensive databases of their preferred audience and specialize their services to their audience.

The Businesses will soon be adapting to digital versions of punch cards, or simply put will be promoting themselves through good deals on the digital market. Loyalty programs for small businesses will influence customer database with specific purchase history, social media activity and marketing campaign responses, so finding their niche market with target audience becomes easier.

Social logins will see an increased vigor as it is easier and faster to login to various websites with their already existing Google, Yahoo and Facebook accounts. And a survey shows that 50% of eCommerce visitors are logged into Facebook simultaneously and Facebook is the people’s favorite choice of social login, so most businesses will be concentrating on social login through Facebook which again helps them filter through many and keep an account of their target audience.

LinkedIn which was once just a resume posting site is being used by many businesses for professional meet up groups and clubs, content sharing, fundraising, authority building with clients and customer support and mainly for market research. Google+ might be emerging as the new king for content marketing and might even emerge as a competitor to Facebook. More content sharing has been happening on YouTube and Slide Share. With such new advancements, businesses have to be on their toes and keep up with the influx of technological advancements and therefore cannot afford to relax.

Though this is probably a well known fact, as the year 2011 draws out that the personal brand image will be viewable to all, even if you are part of a large set up you can and will be under minute scrutiny, and it is very sensible to keep a consistent personal brand image. Businesses might get stricter with their employees to keep up their integrated brand image as a whole.

The difference between online and offline marketing slowly merges and becomes interdependent. The year 2012 will see a rapid growth in refinely designed websites as opposed to gross ones, as marketing becomes even more complex with varied ranges of applications on the stand, businesses will start to convert their expertise into usable content and apply it as well as possible across the many platforms easily available in a jiffy. So the overlapping of many marketing strategies will be seen in this year, and many old methods will be completely obsolete. The main thing to remember is that “Content is King” and the greater the database and information, the more you are likely to grow, be it any field of business. With all these new additions to marketing, businesses will have to keep a closer eye on the upcoming technologies and learn to adapt and adapt fast. Competition and personalized services will be on the rise, and even the consumers are becoming well aware of better deals due to the explosion of internet and easy accessibility, so most products will not only have to perform well but also need to be price competitive to stay in the business.