With a New Year beginning, one resolution for your business should be to improve your marketing campaigns and optimize your opportunities by utilizing the most efficient and appropriate marketing channels. There are two significant trends that will continue to affect the marketing world in 2012: The first one is the continuing shift from postal mail to electronic mail and the second is the rapidly spreading use of SMS (short message services, or text messages) through mobile phones. The two marketing channels, email and SMS, have become dominating presences in lives of not only Americans, but people worldwide, and it will be important to capitalize on these two means of marketing that are sure to continue to grow in use into 2012. We will also look at whether telemarketing can survive as a strong marketing tactic amongst the era of “do-not-call” lists and telemarketing rules and regulations.
Trend # 1: The Shift from direct mail to email
As technology continues to make everything more easily accessible at the convenience of our fingertips, the popularity of email cannot be denied. It is fast, direct, easy, and relatively cheap. Also, now email is not only being read from computers; smart phones are making emails accessible round-the-clock with the capability to read emails right from your phone. Direct mail is just not keeping up with the pace of emails, as the U.S. Postal Service acknowledges as they see mail volume down 20% in the past five years and they struggle to increase revenue. Also, due to the fact that email is being accessed on-the-go, sending emails with coupons, sales, and promotions can be a tremendous advantage because consumers have the email deals on them at all times. Using email marketing in 2012 will provide direct contact with consumers through a rapidly-growing channel.
Trend #2: SMS popularity
A shocking fact: the number of wireless devices in the United States now outnumbers the people living here. Connected devices with wireless subscriptions rose to 327.6 million, verse the U.S. population which, according the U.S. Census Bureau, is only at 312.4 million. So, 2012 is the perfect time to follow this trend of mobile device usage and activate a SMS campaign. Text messaging is already popular, and will probably continue to grow considering voice minute usage increased just 1% verse texting’s 16% (cnnMoney). Worldwide, the numbers are just as staggering, with 4 billion of the world’s mobile phones in use, 3.05 of these are SMS enabled. So, clearly, SMS will be a great way to reach consumers in the coming year.
Trend # 3: Will telemarketing prove to be a useful marketing tactic
Yes, despite the newer obstacles for the phone channel, telemarketing will continue to be a highly useful and successful means of marketing into the New Year. Even among all the quick-response, technology-driven means of advertising today, telemarketing will thrive due to its ability to produce a more authentic and personalized feeling. Marketing Sherpa’s 2011 B2B Benchmark report stated that 86% or marketers are maintaining or even growing their telemarketing investment. So, in the upcoming year, consider using this well-established marketing channel in order to increase your revenue.
Tip # 1: Give the consumers what they want
An important step that needs to be taken by marketers in the New Year is to use the information they have gained from consumers. Using different methods such as econometric modeling, you can take information about customers you have learned from feedback and trends and use it to understand the consumer and future trends more in depth. Make sure the CMOs ideas and the consumers ideas are lining up; studies have shown huge discrepancies between what consumers want and what CMOs think the customers want. While CMOs think that consumers are interacting with brands because they want to be heard, a majority of consumers said they are doing so because they believe they will be getting exclusive offers. In 2012, use marketing campaigns through email and SMS to actually entitle consumers to special offers and deals. This coming year, give the consumers what they want, not what you think they do!
Tip # 2: Cater to consumers’ needs
Unfortunately, despite the improvement from the recession in 2008, economic trends for 2012 seem to be ominous enough to still be calling for discounts and sales for the consumer. Analyze your company’s personal CRM data to gain insight to what really drives your customers to buy. Use promotions and sales only if the data from the past has proven a significant ROI. Reach out to customers with advertisements on a “need-to-know” basis; when you are having promotions or sales, notify existing customers along with potential customers who may respond to the current perks.
In 2012, follow these trends of popular marketing channels and these tips to ensure your New Year is a great one!
Sources:
econsultancy
jponMedia
cnnMoney
wzzm
census
SalesandMarketingEmpowerment
AML