It’s a brand new year, and there are new challenges and opportunities just waiting for the right entrepreneur. What will the business marketplace look like in 2013? What can business owners to do better serve their customers, keep up with trends and leave competition behind? Here are 10 new marketing ideas for 2013.
Mobile Marketing
Smartphones and tablets have an undeniable grip on the general consumer body, and any vendor that can appeal to that immense market will leave their competition in the dust. Slightly less than half of Americans use a mobile device of some kind, and targeted marketing campaigns will speak to millions of users in a matter of seconds - literally.
Pinterest captured the imagination of social media in 2012, but canny use of the photo sharing website could make it a big player in 2013. Tapping into the vast goldmine of ideas, connections and ready-made sharing features within Pinterest seems like a no-brainer of an idea for the rest of the year.
Content Marketing
Websites live and die by the sword of search engine optimization. Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates saw many sites scramble to reshape their content to qualify for better rankings. While content marketing is nothing new, it will be a key player in 2013, as businesses will lose sleep over trying to stay relevant in a marketplace filled with competitors and millions of distractions that can snap a user’s attention span away. Better content to be marketed, better customer retention.
Just because Facebook already Instagram for $1 billion - in cash - doesn’t mean the social networking and photo-sharing service is off-limits. A clothing retailer combines images with discount codes, driving customers to their physical locations. They also host free Instagram photo shoots at their stores, marrying the Instagram craze with simply getting people into their shops.
Mobile Marketing
Telecommunications giant Ericsson estimates that 2013 will be the year mobile devices surpass desktops, in terms of numbers and usage. Businesses must realize that smartphones and tablets are no longer a trend, neither are they the future: they are the present, a reality that needs to be tapped to its fullest potential. Advertising on mobiles, having applications that cater to mobile customers, mobile-friendly e-mail campaigns and websites will be the priorities for any business wanting to successfully market themselves in 2013.
Authentic Marketing
The recession of 2007-2009 and the rise of social media shifted the traditional power dymanics away from the businesses and corporations, and into the hands of users, who can vote with a simple Tweet or Facebook comment. Companies know they have to be more honest and transparent in 2013, because customers can not only find alternatives at the click of a button, they can bring down an entire brand with negative feedback that goes viral.
Social & Crowdsourcing Marketing
Continuing from the previous point, with so much instant power and communication in the hands of customers, a marketing idea for 2013 would be tapping into that. Crowdsourcing projects were the craze of 2012, funding everything from startups to non-profit projects. If businesses let customers decide the future - like how Starbucks has done with MyStarbucksIdea.com - it could revolutionize the relationship between provider and consumer.
Personalized Marketing
The marketplace of 2013 will be a conflicted place: users will obviously want privacy and security, but with literally millions of ideas all vying for their attention, they want their news, their communication, their entertainment all customized for them. An alert business (like ReZoop) will come up with a way to appeal to their consumers on an individual level, not just as part of a target demographic.
Local Marketing
As important as it is to reach customers wherever they live, the idea of a physical presence will never go out of style. Mobile apps are truly great, but there’s nothing that can replace the convenience of dropping by a store on your way home from work. The best implementation of this idea for 2013 will be using mobile marketing to boost local marketing.
Freelance Marketing
With such a decentralized market out there, one of the many ways forward in the business world of 2013 will be freelance marketing. People are still scarred by a recovering economy, and any opportunity to make some extra money will be a valuable commodity.
