Commentary

How Search Marketers Can Strengthen Consumer-Brand Links In 2013

Pipes-ASome 63% of companies surveyed in a recent Aberdeen Business review survey cite "new customer acquisition" as the top marketing priority. Only 39% of respondents use CRM or sales force automation tools, and 30% use marketing automation. I guarantee those numbers will rise in 2013, as marketers attempt to integrate mounds of data collected from a variety of media silos. Not only on Web sites, but from Amazon, eBay and other shopping sites like Google and Bing.

Complexity in online marketing techniques will require companies to automate and integrate. Brands will need to build funnels that pour data from multiple sources into one bucket. Not just text sources, but voice, too. The integration will come from first-party data and third-party data of consumers who don't quickly opt out.

Marketers will need to support a resurgence of personalized-content microsites in 2013, built from branded top-level domain (TLD) names and retargeting strategies. The thinking comes from an Aberdeen Group report titled Product and Services Mix Drives Sales and Marketing Automation Trends, where analysts confirm that if customers just showed up and bought products companies wouldn't have a need to nurture, score, track, and report on activity and progress. They also wouldn't have a need to integrate information collected from ad tags and sensors stored in data silos.

Aberdeen's report also emphasizes the need for product-focused companies to offer services. Service only firms report the lowest satisfaction and highest dissatisfaction rates for marketing capabilities, according to the company's recent survey. It means service firms need services of their own to support efforts, rather than provide the service for someone else's service.

A few things to think about as brands and vendors build out 2013 strategies.

Meanwhile, thank you for sticking with MediaPost in 2012. We look forward to sharing knowledge with you in 2013. Not only online, but in person at the Search Insider Summit and other events throughout the year. Best wishes for a prosperous 2013.

Happy New Year!

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