4 Vital Digital Marketing Trends (or Developments) for 2012
Keeping an eye on what the future holds in its palm is key to growing your business and reaching out to new audiences. Trends will continue to 
change directions. And if you aren’t ready to embrace the upcoming developments, you can easily lose the race. As we proceed into 2012, it’s highly essential that you become cognizant of the top digital marketing trends.
Given below are four key trends that you’ll need to watch in 2012, so that you can make your digital marketing efforts fruitful and elevate your business to new heights.
#1. Location, Location, Location!
Location-based marketing (LBM) is one of the top trends in the digital marketing arena, as the year 2012 continues to unfold. Focusing on delivering content (instantly usable information) to the user should always remain a high priority, if you’re really serious about generating more leads as well as staying ahead of the competition. With the ever-increasing population of mobile device users, delivering content to consumers based on their location becomes even more important.
The biggest benefit of location-specific marketing is that you can immediately increase the rate of conversion for your business. To improve your location-based marketing, you can follow these tips.
Buy country-specific domain names (.co.uk for UK, .com.au for Australia etc)
Create a mobile-friendly version of your website
Use Facebook ads to target audience by demographics, interests etc
Master the usage of free tools like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc
Use services like foursquare and Gowalla to engage consumers
Don’t forget to claim your Google Places page (Google Places Optimization)
#2. Video Advertising Leads the Way
According to a recent report by emarketer, online video advertising spend in the US will cross the $3 billion mark in 2012. Online video marketing is an emerging trend due to two major reasons – better reach and better measurement. Since more than 1.3 billion videos are watched in the US per day, video advertising happens to be a rich medium to establish an emotional connection with consumers, engage them quickly and achieve a higher conversion.
#3. Gamification Drives Social Momentum
Yes, it’s not just the latest fad. Though adopting this marketing approach depends on the kind of business you run, gamification can present some of the most potential opportunities you wouldn’t want to miss. To get started with it, you should first of all get the concept pretty clear in your mind. Gamification is not entirely similar to games. In fact, the concept that underlies the term is the application of gaming principles to non-game experiences in an effort to drive social momentum among the audiences. Several brands have gamified their marketing strategies to engage customers (by offering incentives) and provoke them to take action. Start-ups can benefit from this concept the most.
#4. Privacy Concerns are Growing
User privacy is another burning issue that digital marketers should pay careful attention to. Today, consumers are more vigilant about the usage of their personal data by businesses. Whether you’re an advertising agency, a retailer, a trader or an OS creator, you can never keep consumers in the dark about how you’re going to handle their personal data. The more knowledge and control (over personal data) you provide, the more trust you can gain from users.
There are many more trends that you’ll need to watch out for, to bolster your digital marketing strategy further. What’s really important, however, is that you don’t get distracted while getting the basics right.
Please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions on other upcoming trends in digital marketing. The comment section is all yours.
5 Ways to get more guest posts on your blog
These days everyone keeps looking for guest bloggers to write guest posts for their blogs. Getting guest posts isn’t a hard task in fact it can be the easiest thing if you’ve have a high traffic blog.
If you look at my blog, you’ll see I get bunch of guest posts every day and many bloggers keeps asking me what I’m doing to get guest posts? Today I’m sharing 5 effective strategies that I’ve used to get guest posts on my blog.
1. Add Guest post Page
This is far one of the easiest way to get guest posts on your blog. All you need to do is to create a “write for us” page on your blog. If you never created a guest post page than here’s what you need to add:
So, you want to write for Blog Name? We love to publish your guest post. Now don’t ask for benefits, because we Blog Name is one of the fastest growing blog on the planet. The benefits are just much more then getting traffic or backlinks, you can gain exposure and introduce your blog to our fastest growing community.
Some simple Requirements
- Posts are at least 450+ words.
- Interacting and replying to comments is must.
- Posts have a basic structure and are at least broken down into paragraphs.
- Posts must be in good English.
- Please don’t add more than two links.
- The post you submit to us is unique.
How to guest post to Blog Name?
- Register an account here
- Add your Full name, second name and fill out a short profile Bio info, feel free to add a link or two to your blog/site (use HTML)
- Visit Gravatar.com, having an image is a must in your profile
- Write your post, save it and it will be reviewed and published asap!!
2. Invite Bloggers
You can contact bloggers with a good pitch and why you’d like to get the guest posts from them. This is very effective strategy and I’ve good success with it. You don’t have to contact high profile or A list bloggers, contact an average blogger.
You can use blogging communities to find bloggers, who may be interested in doing guest posting on your blog.
Blokube is one of those communities which can help you find great bloggers who can write guest posts for your blog.
3. Join Social Media Networks
This may not be very effective way but still a useful one. I did found few guest bloggers who wants to do guest posting for my blog through Social Media Networks like Facebook & Twitter. In order to get success from Facebook & Twitter, you need to be very active in those networks.
You can use free/paid tools to automate the process – Dlvr.it, Triberr, Bufferapp,Tweetdeck, etc.
4. MyBlogGuest
I’m sure most of you already know about MyBlogGuest, most awesome marketplace for finding guest posts for your blog. It is a forum community where bloggers give info about their blogs and then ask for guest posts from other bloggers/users.
MyBlogGuest is a unique community that is based on one simple principle: if you provide quality, you don’t need to pay to be heard. It is not just about getting more guest posts, it has forum, marketplace, gallery, find blogs for guest posting and much more. It even has a Premium Feature & Ann did great work in branding it.
5. Run a Guest blogging contest
Last but not least – Run a guest blogging contest, like I’m doing on Blokube Blog. Give away cash/ebooks/tools as prizes to the contest winners who do most number of guest posts on your blog. This can be a very effective strategy but to be very successful with guest blogging contest, you need to market it properly. Here’s what you can do to make sure your contest is a success:
- Contact bloggers/marketers and ask them to write a post about the contest
- Get a banner designed and ask the participants to put it on their blogs.
- Promote the contest on Forums like DigitalPoint, Warrior Forums & Webmaster Forums.
- Use Buysellads to do some paid promotion.
Over To You
All the above factors contributed effectively my blog in getting quality guest posts and will work for any type of content in any niche, in case you find something to disagree with in this post or have an opinion on this topic, please do share it with us below. If you find this post useful than please share it on Twitter or Facebook!
Email marketing that works
This is a guest post from Denise Gabbard. It is part of The “Bad Ass” SEO Guest Blogging Contest.
Most people think that spam, Facebook, blogs, and other social media like Twitter killed email marketing as a means to communicate online. However, most people are wrong. Businesses today engage in email marketing because it gives them a return on investment hovering over $40 per $1 spent, and outperforms all direct marketing channels. In a Forbes Media survey in the February/March 2009 issues, it was reported that business owners and executives say email marketing is second overall to SEO when it comes to converting lookers into buyers. Impressive, and tells you why businesses use it—it just works!
An email campaign is an ongoing marketing venture whereby you send out regular communications to customers and potential customers. The traditional email marketing approach was to build a huge list and push lots of messages out to the masses. This doesn’t work anymore, as it brands your company spammers, and can get you booted from your domain, and facing government sanctions.
The new way of doing things is targeting those who want to hear from you. Put together your list by asking your customers if they’d like to receive ‘newsletters’ from you on a periodic basis. You can ask them in person, over the phone, or on your website by embedding a “Sign Up” button for convenience. When you invoice a customer for a project or product sale, always include a CTA (call to action) for them to sign up for your newsletter, and even put a sign up link in your email signature. You can convert that happy customer into a lifetime customer if you keep in touch regularly. The point is making the effort to create a targeted, personalized list for your company will pay big dividends.
There are a number of online business tools that are useful for your email campaigns. Sites like Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, and Campaigner can help you set up your campaigns quickly and easily, and most offer a free trial so you can compare functionality.
When designing your email templates, readability should be your priority. Keep your paragraphs concise, with just a few sentences for each, and write compelling contact to encourage them to finish reading. Another great idea is to keep your design less than 620 pixels, so that it can be viewed in email preview windows. (Also, large images take too long to load and can be abandoned easily.) An important step is validating your code before mass mailing it. Email types interpret code differently, and you want to be certain there will be no glitches on their end and they can open and read your message.
Clearly, increased sales, brand loyalty, and reputation are the goals of email marketing campaigns. Your aim is to have a high percentage of recipients open your email and click-through any links that you placed in the email. Average rates of opening marketing emails have been shown to float around the 20-30% range, so do not expect everyone to open your mail. However, do continue tweaking your messages to appeal to more people and get a higher open rate. For instance, a great graphic and web design company can create and execute a stunning email campaign that will make people take notice.
6 Kick-ass Ways To Market Your Blog
This is a guest post from Devesh. It is part of The “Bad Ass” SEO Guest Blogging Contest.
If you are trying to market your new blog, chances are you’ve already looked into search engine optimization then here are 6 Kick-ass ways to market your blog:
1. Building Mailing list
My single biggest mistake was not to build a list from beginning. I did not realize the power of list building until later on.
Building a list is an extremely popular aspect of the internet marketing industry. Everyone says repeatedly all the time, “the money is in the list!” And it is totally true.
Here are 5 reasons why you should build your list
- Connect – Emails give you an opportunity to make your fans feel more closely connected with you.
- Referrals – Put you in a position to receive regular referrals.
- Easier – Make your sales process easier and more productive.
- Sart conversations with people you are targeting.
- This gives you a chance to build a good relationship with them and to show them that you will only provide them with quality products that can really help them
2. Blog Commenting
Blog commenting, one of the easiest and most effective way to market a new site/blog and get targeted traffic and backlinks. If people can see you being so active and commenting everywhere they end up, they will be more inclined to comment on yours, because you become memorable. Take the time to leave a useful comment often enough, don’t just write “great post” or “thanks”. Don’t SPAM or self-promote when leaving blog comments. Another added benefit to blog commenting is that if you leave useful comments regularly, the blog owner will eventually notice. This greatly increases your chances of establishing a great new business relationship that could result in more links, traffic, and more subscribers to your list.
3. Guest posting
This is one of the best ways of getting website traffic to your squeeze page and/or blog. Make sure it is very high quality, and is something that provides genuine value and your chances of your request being accepted will increase.
Here are 5 Reasons why you should do Guest Posting.
- Drive targeted traffic.
- Build contact with other bloggers.
- Increase your brand awareness? (How to Build a Great Brand for Your Blog).
- Build high quality Backlinks to your blog.
- Get new subscribers.
2 Bottles of Wine +Some Books + Greeting Cards=Outside the Box Marketing
Sending gifts and promotional products has always been a powerful marketing tool. It can be used to improve client retention and to reach out to prospects. The Guinness Book of World Records Most Successful Salesman in the World used to send out greeting cards to every customer and prospect on a monthly basis. He was sending out more than 16,000 cards each month, and it worked. Customers knew him by name, and they came to him for all their car-buying needs.
photo credit: Adam Swank
But now, with the power of social media, gift giving as a marketing tool can make an even bigger splash than before.
I want to share a couple of stories with you of my experiences with receiving promotional products from some of my friends on Twitter.
- 2 Bottles of Wine from St. Supery Winery—I’ve been following @RickBakas, Director of Social Media for St. Supery Winery, for quite a while now. We had a little interaction with each other, but it wasn’t on a regular basis. Then, one day Rick reached out to me for help pushing some content on Twitter. I obliged, and next thing I know, I’m receiving 2 bottles of wine in the mail. By the way, the wine truly was amazing. Thanks again Rick!
So, why did Rick send me the wine? Well, I think there are a couple of savvy marketing reasons he did so.
- To cement our relationship. See, you can only build a relationship through Twitter so much by @replying and DMing. Rick decided to think outside the box by sending me 2 bottles of his companies wine, knowing I’d be forever grateful and pay much closer attention to him.
- To spread the word. After getting the wine from Rick, I of course thanked him through Twitter, and now even felt compelled to write an entire blog post about his company’s effective social media marketing tactics.
- Books from my followers—Rick isn’t my only Twitter follower who has reached out by sending me a promotional product. On a few occasions, my social media pals have sent me books they’ve authored or co-authored. The 2 most recent examples that come to mind are @ConvertBond and @AlisaBowman.
The book I received from @convertbond (Lawrence McDonald) was called A Colossal FAILURE of common sense(a New York Times best seller), and it took a look at the fall of Lehman brothers. Lawrence was a former VP at Lehman Brothers, so he had an interesting story to tell.
Alisa Bowman, who gives marriage advice at her blog, and has also collaborated on five New York Times best sellers, sent me a book she co-authored called The Skinny: On Losing Weight Without Being Hungry.
What’s my point? The point is that you need to do something different to stand out from the crowd. Sending a promotional product or a simple greeting card can put you on a first-name basis with influential social media users and your customers. It can also create a buzz, getting your name out there and driving sales.
Do you have a “outside of the box” marketing story? We would love to hear about it in the comments.