5 Surprising Marketing Trends for 2013

It feels like every January we see list after list of business forecasts for the year to come. More often than not these lists feel a bit repetitive and not all that inspiring. Well – and not to give 2013 an overblown ego – we feel fairly confident that this year will see a departure from the usual, predictable trends in small business marketing in favor of some refreshing, enthusing changes.  Here’s a peek at what we see comingdown the road in terms of small business marketing:

Smarter social media

The last few years have been all about every business feeling obligated to create a dynamic presence on every social media platform. Now that we’re getting the idea that the set of hot social media sites is never going to be a static group, that there will always be the hot social media outlet du jour, the idea that we should all feel pressed to utilize and engage on every available front is not only unreasonable, it’s a strategy that could only lead to depressingly disparate engagement. Instead, we believe 2013 will be the year that small businesses become confident and adept enough at social media integration to pick the specific platforms that make the most sense for their business. The reality is not all social media sources are perfectly suited to every industry. This year businesses should decide which platforms are the most worthwhile places to reach their audience, thus hopefully seeing greater returns as a result.

Simplicity will reign supreme

Maybe it was “Gangnam Style” that pushed us over the edge of overstimulation, however as we embark upon a new year, the overwhelming feeling among consumers is one of exhaustion. There is a sense that from the hyper-connectivity of our highly-digitized lives to the bright, flashy, complicated sensory input we’re fed everyday, there is no way to continue at this pace. As a result, 2013 is likely to be a year where the most successful marketing strategies will be ones that are not only simple in nature, but promote goods and services that serve to simplify the consumer’s life, or even just their customer experience.

Campaign-based marketing will take a break

As a marketing strategy, campaigns are great…in theory. The problem with focusing on a tactic that involves a set group of marketing activities and processes centered around one theme is that it operates on a company-based timeline. Inherently, this neglects to account for the timeline of the customer, which is, at this point, almost entirely real time. Up until now, companies have been progressively integrating social media and real time customer engagement as a supplement to campaign-based marketing. We think that from here on out, real time marketing, through social media and websites, will be the focus. We are excited to see what inspired strategies come about.

Marketing will be more tied to revenue generation

We were fairly surprised to read a recent study by Fournaise Marketing Group that cited 73% of executives do not believe that marketing significantly ties to creating revenue. This is not great logic; 2013 will be the year everyone catches up. Instead of just measuring lead generation, marketing’s worth to a company will start being weighed against sales growth. This could entirely change marketing’s key performance indicators, which, ideally, will lead to a more effective marketing department altogether.

Mobile will get its due

Last year, more people purchased smartphones than PCs. Seriously. While it feels like we hear the word “mobile” more than our own names these days, global marketers haven’t entirely caught up; 90% of them have a mobile site, but only 20% include mobile strategies as a fully integrated part of their overall marketing plan. If nothing else on this list comes to fruition, count on “mobile” being a bigger, bolder line item on every major marketer’s strategy this year.

Forbes