METIA 2 S0 G1 T3 I N I H S

SOCIAL MEDIA MOBILE

RECOMMENDATION CULTURE
T E C H N O L O G Y, D E V E L O P M E N T, A N D E N G A G E M E N T
MESS AGING UX AND DESIGN SEO AND ANALY TIC S

Annual Predictions for the Ever-Changing Landscape of Digital Marketing

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tAbLe of coNteNtS
3. 8. 11. 14. 18. 21. 24. SOCIAL MEDIA MOBILE RECOMMENDATION CULTURE TECHNOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND ENGAGEMENT MESSAGING UX AND DESIGN SEO AND ANALYTICS

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SOCIAL MEDIA

high five

HigH five
1. content strategy that addresses Seo and mobile users, including location-based targeting 2. Use of memes, humor, and pictures to encourage sharing 3. Personalized paid content promotion 4. Integration of web and social analytics for predictive data analysis 5. cross-functional social teams

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The Networks

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We can all finally agree that social media is here to stay. Its also a highly dynamic field where new channels pop up just as others die away. Most marketers are aware of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr continue to gain footing. There are also emerging social networks for specific groups of people, such as JustFamily.com, which is a social network for family members only, and proprietary B2B networks like Yammer.

in large part because of the intense legal restrictions that are specific to the banking, finance, and insurance industries. The food consumer products industry has the highest Twitter penetration with 93%, followed by the specialty retail and aerospace industries, each with 86%. A partial list (below) shows those industries with the greatest presence on Twitter:

Say Goodbye to Google+ and FourSquare

Corporate Twitter Accounts by Industry

Industry
Aerospace & Defense Chemicals Commercial Banks Food Consumer Products Insurance: Property & Casualty Motor Vehicles & Parts Specialty Retailers Telecommunications Utilities: Gas & Electric

Google+ simply didnt take off. This is not Googles first failed attempt at launching a social channel, and it probably wont be its last. There were aspects to G+ that were well-liked, and there will definitely continue to be Google+ users through 2013, but the fact is that G+ is not gaining momentum and its not producing significant results for brands (outside of SEO). Its harmless to keep it in your mix, but when marketers are making tough choices about resources, Google+ has a hard time justifying a place at the front of the line. In this age of digital Darwinism, social channels must constantly adapt to users and opportunities. Only a year ago, it seemed that FourSquare was the dominant new social channel (after beating alsorans like GoWalla). However, its offering was easily replicated and users found similar benefits from Groupon and Facebook Places. Bye Bye, FourSquare.

#of companies w/ Twitter accounts

12/14 13/17 15/20 13/14 13/16 7/16 24/28 12/15 16/22

%
86% 76% 75% 93% 81% 44% 86% 80% 73%

Are You Normal?

Fortune 500 social stats: 73% now use Twitter (have an official corporate account with tweet activity in the previous month), up 11 percentage points (or 17.7%) from the 62% that did so in 2011. 66% have a corporate Facebook page, up 8 points (or 13.8%) from the 58% that did so a year earlier. 28% have a corporate public-facing blog from the primary corporation with posts in the previous 12 months, up 5 points (or 21.7%) from the 23% that did so in 2011. The Fortune 500 companies with Twitter accounts come from a crosssection of industries. Banking continues to lag behind other industries,

Enterprise Networks

Lots of businesses want to foster a social community, but they want to do it in a closed and managed environment. Thats where enterprise social networks come into play. What can we learn from Microsoft and Yammer? Yammer is Microsofts new internal social network, and it is seeing higher adoption and satisfaction rates than previous attempts by Microsoft. Its not just because of the platform its also because of internal communication and incentives such as ties to career development goals. If weve learned one thing from the vast wasteland of failed intranets, its that internal communication tools need a lot of support to succeed. The same holds true for enterprise social networks.

Fortune 500 social stats

66 73 28 FACEBOOK TWITTER
% %
USE USE
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CORPORATE PUBLIC BLOG

4

have a

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Paid Content Promotion

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With 60 million status updates on Facebook and 200 million tweets per day, brands need tools to cut through the clutter, and social networks need money to operate. In 2012, these factors have inspired Facebook and Twitter to offer content promotion products such as Facebooks sponsored posts and Twitters promoted tweets. Both of these pseudo ad inventories have cost-per-click (CPC) rates that are similar to other social ad formats but they appear in-line with other, non-paid content. This trend toward blurring the lines between paid and non-paid content will continue in 2013 and will require marketing departments to pay in order to reach more than 510% of their Facebook fans.

Content Is Still (and Will Always Be) King

If social media does one thing for marketers, it brings the content strategy (or lack thereof) to light. Social media should be used as a platform to support the content strategy, and marketers who are winging it will quickly recognize that the absence of a content strategy results in the presence of a problem. Content creation is an ongoing challenge for marketers, and the daily content creation demands of channels like Twitter and Facebook will finally drive marketers to formalize content plans and initiate content calendars, strategies, and assignments. Social happens faster than real-time, and marketers must be responsive and proactive. Theyve also got to eliminate barriers such as legal review and arduous internal processes that stand in the way of engagement.

and visual hacks. Pinterest is still refining its offerings for brand marketers, and it continues to fall short on critical analytics, promotion, and advertising offerings. But it would be foolish to ignore the popularity of the platform.

Get Real

Social happens faster than real-time, and marketers must be responsive and proactive.
Pin This
Pinterest took brands by storm and became the third most-popular social networking site in the U.S. in 2012, according to Experian. Marketers experimented with ways to engage fans on Pinterest, including contests (like the one from Guess pictured above) puzzles,

The personal narrative is more important than ever. Social channels have become personal libraries of lifes details and detritus. Pinterest has released private pages, Facebook is integrating Instagram, and all of these channels are cross-pollinating the digital profile of users around the world. Branded content that successfully resonates with users as authentic, personal, and relevant is able to coexist with usergenerated content as personal as engagements, lovers quarrels, and photos of family members. Marketers who are not skilled at producing content that feels personal and relevant to users will fail to take advantage of social opportunities. Users have very little tolerance for uninspired social content. Smart brands are behaving less like generic spokespeople and more like people youd want to hang out with. When Richard Neill made a casual and humorous comment on the Bodyform Facebook page, the company quickly responded with a tongue-in-cheek YouTube video dispelling a variety of myths. As of the date of publishing, that video has gotten more than 3 million views on YouTube and has been featured on several influential social and news media sites. Similar exchanges have taken place between the brand Twitter accounts and customers, including O2, Old Spice, Taco Bell, Oreo, and AMC Theatres.

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Memes

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Savvy marketers will take advantage of memes and use them as an opportunity to insert their brands in popular online conversations -and pick up a little press.

Pictures Perform Better Than Words

Data from Buddy Media shows that photo posts receive 39% higher interaction rates than average on Facebook. Pinterest and Instagram were wildly popular in 2012, and the impact of visual social content will continue to rise.

Trust is the only thing that can compete with data protectionism.
Ready, Shoot, Aim
The connection between content, result, and value of social media is so strong that you cannot talk about one without the others. Marketers cannot afford to flail around social channels any longer. It simply takes too much time and effort if the ROI is hard to understand or track. Marketers will up the strategy ante in 2013.

Humble Brags

It has become common for brands to thank followers when they hit big milestones. Just because its a trend doesnt mean its a great idea. Yes, thank your brand loyalists for helping to achieve a goal, but marketers need to consider whether announcing that youve hit 10,000 likes is of value to your followers. If you do engage in a little humble bragging, make it good. After hitting 5 million Facebook fans, Old Navy made a complexly choreographed video that offered a coupon for 30% off at the end. AT&T made 500 customized YouTube videos thanking fans in song after it surpassed 2 million fans on Facebook in May, and Febreze gathered hundreds of team members to utter thank you to fans 1 million times over a video livestream in June.

Data/Targeting

Crowdfunding Leads to Earned Media

Kickstarter is more than a platform for crowdfunding its also an effective way to grab the medias attention and market a product ahead of its launch. Marketers will increasingly take advantage of buzzworthy social channels, cause marketing, and other unique strategies that build brand hype.

Why do Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram do well with brands? Because they have the most significant and relevant data flowing into them. Trust is the only thing that can compete with data protectionism, and the fear of Big Brother has gotten in line behind the desire for personalized content. The free exchange of data for a personalized ad is on the rise. Social media channels that understand how to promote highly targeted and personalized ads will be the best partners for the marketers and will succeed in 2013.

Cross-Functional Social Media Teams

Why do people retweet?

32% 26% 21% 66% 84% 92%

Interesting content Personal connection Humor Incentive Retweet request Celebrity status

As companies continue to embrace social media and move to a more comprehensive approach, the architecture of their social media teams is changing. Cross-functional social media teams (both internal and external) will replace ad-hoc and rogue social media initiatives to manage all aspects of social media (job postings, customer services, paid advertising, campaigns, content promotion, analytics, etc.). While some companies will struggle with which department owns their social media channels, companies that are successful with social media will develop teams of social media professionals that work across multiple departments.

Email and Social Converge for the Sake of Advertising

Facebook has made it possible to target ads at social users based on their email address (assuming that the address that you have is associated with the users Facebook account). The integration of

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social behavior with email addresses has obvious implications for CRM systems, and it will also be relevant for content strategies. The interplay of social content and email marketing will be stronger than ever. At the time of publishing, the metrics provided by Facebook for email targeted messaging were still buggy. By this time next year, we expect to see even greater integration of email data and social marketing. There are legal implications for this sort of advertising, and there isnt anything on the law books now that directly addresses the issue of email-targeted marketing on social channels like there is for email marketing (such as anti-spam laws). Laws may go into effect for sharing PII and receiving an ad on your social page. We dont think that the laws will stop email-targeted social ads any more than theyve stopped cookie-based tracking. Consumers may never know that an ad was targeted to them based on their email address, because the ads dont make it clear that they were targeted at all, let alone what the source of their data was.

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marketers, and their new conversion measurement tool has been a top customer request for a long time. Conversion tracking is nothing new, but Facebook is the first social network to offer it as a complimentary service.

Measuring ad effectiveness and outcomes is absolutely crucial to all types of businesses and marketers.
- facebooks ads product manager
In the past, social medias impact has proved difficult to measure, and many marketers arent seeing the ROI that they had envisioned when the world demanded that they get on Facebook. As analytics teams grow and bring social media data into the mix, there is huge opportunity to optimize social media efforts based on ROI. In addition, predictive analytics can be used to speculate on the outcomes from various advertising strategies. Brands are seeing improvements in customer service and support, even as incoming leads and sales hold steady. The struggle to measure social ROI and predict outcomes will continue in 2013 as marketers move out of the experimentation phase of social media and into the more mature next step of predicting value and managing outcomes.

Advertising Alliances and Streamlined Analytics

Social networks will increasingly play well together. Weve already seen social networks using Facebooks APIs to manage user accounts and logins. Facebooks biggest advertising partner, Buddy Media, was recently purchased by Salesforce. Facebooks advertisements from Buddy Media can now be integrated with Salesforce, along with any online mentions received. This can give sales teams greater visibility into the social impact of advertising on a B2B prospect. Salesforce also purchased Radian6, a social listening and engagement platform, to help aggregate reach and other campaign data across multiple channels. Having all this data in one dashboard gives marketing professionals a unique real-time perspective on the health and ROI of their programs.

Measurement

Facebook Likes dont necessarily have bottom-line implications. So how will you know if your social channel is working for you? Social ROI tracking is still in its infancy, but several recent announcements signal major changes ahead. In November 2012, Facebook began rolling out a new tool that allows online retailers to track purchases made by people who viewed their ads. According to Facebooks ads product manager, Measuring ad effectiveness and outcomes is absolutely crucial to all types of businesses and

Targeting and Privacy

Social media has put a face on the Internet, and people have shifted from using computers to just find data to using them to connect with other people. Marketers should pay attention to the personal relationships that are represented by data points and produce content that feels personal, human, and relevant. Marketers need to use email addresses, phone numbers, cookies, and demographic data to deliver advertising and messaging that is intended for individuals rather than market segments.

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MOBILE

high five

HigH five
1. mobile-optimized intranets and business tools 2. Increased mobile advertising opportunities 3. more web applications 4. Increase in cross-platform development using Htm5, JavaScript, and cSS3 5. mobile device fragmentation

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The Mobile Enterprise

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As more employees conduct business on smartphones, businesses will need to update intranets to be mobile-friendly. Juniper Research predicts that 350 million workers worldwide will use personal mobile devices at work by 2014, more than double todays figures. Its been rare for an intranet to be developed with mobile use in mind, and this year companies will see a drop in intranet adoption for those sites that are not phone-friendly. SalesForce has been leading the charge in mobile-friendly enterprise software for their customers, who are highly mobilized sales professionals. Speaking of salespeople, marketers need to keep mobile sharing in mind as well. Any demos, customer-facing applications, and sales tools should be designed and developed for smartphones and tablets. Consumerization will mean enterprises cant force users to give up their iPads or Windows 8 tablets without giving them something comparable. Enterprises will need to support a greater variety of devices, and let go of standardization for tablet hardware.

Theres no silver bullet yet for simplifying multiplatform application development.

in the short-medium term. International Facebook advertisers will need to take text-based feature phone advertising into consideration in order to succeed.

Social

Better Tools

When Facebook filed documents around its public offering, the company stated that mobile presented the biggest opportunity and threat to its business. This mobile-momentum inspired Facebooks decision to purchase Instagram along with a hiring push to bring in bright minds in mobile UX and development to the extent that Google had to start giving bonuses to employees who resisted the recruiting onslaught from Facebook. In 2013, were going to see more changes to the Facebook interface as they iterate on the mobile experience and look for ways to keep mobile users engaged (especially with advertisers). This doesnt just affect marketers in the U.S. More than 600 million people around the world use Facebook on their mobile devices, and as smartphone adoption and Internet access becomes more reliable in the second and third world, adoption of social media will rise with it. And its not just smartphones Facebook is big on feature phones in other countries, and thats where Facebook anticipates fastest growth

Theres no silver bullet yet for simplifying multiplatform application development, but the tools are improving. Developing for multiple devices has gotten easier, and well see more cross-platform mobile solutions in 2013. Gone are the days of having an iPhone app and not having the same app available on Android and Windows Phone. Development for multiple mobile platforms is also made simpler because of development frameworks, which finally got the spit and polish they needed in 2012. There are software packages and libraries that streamline mobile development across platforms (PhoneGap, Appcelerator, Corona, MonoTouch/MonoDroid, Sencha, Cordova, and Widgetbox). Developers can write code in a known programming language and deploy it to a native app.

Mobile Device Battles

of U.S. adults own a smartphone

Gartner predicts that by 2013 mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide and that by 2015 more than 80 percent of the handsets sold in mature markets will be smartphones. By 2015, media tablet shipments will reach about 50 percent of laptop shipments and Windows 8 will likely be in third place behind Googles Android and Apple iOS operating systems. Windows 8 is Microsofts big bet and Windows 8 platform styles should be evaluated to get a better idea of how they might perform in real-world environments as well as how users will respond.

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Mobile uses

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81%

77% 32%

56% 25%
Read news articles Visit brand or manufacturer websites

65%

Casually browse the Internet

Use a search engine

Look for workrelated info

Search for information when not in front of a desktop computer or other Internet-enabled device

Mobile Applications and HTML5

In 2013, the only reason to build an app is if it requires device support, such as the camera or location-based GPS, or the need to store data on the device. Historically, the trend was to develop apps rather than sites in order to exert tighter control over design and UX, but this is not necessary anymore because mobile sites are able to detect the device type, and HTML5 can access GPS. The market for tools to create consumer and enterprise-facing apps is complex, with well over 100 potential tool vendors. There is no clear leader in the tool vendor arena yet. Best practices are still being shaken out as tool partners come and go. For the next few years, no single tool will be optimal for all types of mobile application, so expect to employ several. Currently, Gartner separates mobile development tools into several categories. Six mobile architectures

native, special, hybrid, HTML5, Message, and No Client will remain popular. However, there will be a long-term shift away from native apps to hybrid apps (web apps running in an OS-specific wrapper) or straight web apps as HTML5 becomes more capable. Nevertheless, native apps wont disappear. Developers will also need to develop new design skills to deliver touch-optimized mobile applications that operate across a range of devices in a coordinated fashion.

Device-Based Personas

It will be important for marketers to understand how customers interact with content when using different devices. Those different interactions inform design and UX decisions to increase adoption. When creating UX personas, marketers should develop both desktop and mobile personas and identify the different user goals for each device.

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RECOMMENDATION CULTURE

high five

HigH five
1. Social media 2. RoI measurement 3. team integration 4. mutual benefit 5. create once, Publish everywhere (coPe)

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The Rise of the Online Recommendation Culture

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The way that people consume content has shifted, and the desire for a customer perspective is on the rise. Case studies are joined by customer quotes, testimonial videos, and social engagement. Specifically, video and social media are the big front-runners in 2013.

Customer Advocacy: You Have a Program Even If You Dont Have a Program

Many marketers are performing customer reference activities without realizing it. These activities may include the management of an online community, introducing customers to prospects, gathering client quotes, and publishing customer case studies on YouTube. Another example can be found within sales teams, as salespeople always have their own cadre of clients that they return to time and again. By formalizing this program and building a strong alliance between sales and marketing, marketers can deliver a stronger outcome. Sales teams rely on marketers to arm them with information that will speed time-to-revenue and build trust with prospective customers. Prospects will also expect to engage with your customers earlier in the sales process.

The way that people consume content has shifted, and the desire for a customer perspective is on the rise.
Lower Legal Fees
In some industries, marketing content often requires legal review particularly if it includes details about a client or case study. This is changing, and the change is picking up pace for 2013; there is a push to eliminate the cumbersome legal approval process for marketing content. Finding ways to simplify the process is increasingly important as organizations grow.

References and Revenue

COPE: Create Once, Publish Everywhere

The C-suite will have high expectations regarding the measurement of customer reference programs and their impact on revenue. Large companies started earnestly investing in ROI-tracking tools in 2012, and we predict a continuation of this trend in 2013. A reference manager can simply track deals where their references were used, as well as whether the deal was eventually won.

More channels means there are a lot more places to publish content. A critical factor for successful content marketing is to have content suitable for these different channels. Marketers are spending more time up front, gathering details from customers that can be leveraged for multiple forms of content. For example, when shooting a video, a detailed call sheet outlining different shoots for different deliverables will get enough content for multiple videos from a one-day shoot. That content can be used on blogs, YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as in press materials, presentations, sales-ready materials, and more.

Most effective content types for improving Sales/Marketing Effectiveness

SOCIAL MEDIA ONLINE ARTICLES E-NEwSLETTERS wHITE PAPERS BLOGS CASE STUDIES VIDEOS 80% 74% 65% 60% 59% 58% 57%

Where Do Customers Find Recommendations?

If you want to influence a buying decision you need to start by asking where buyers go for information. 87% of buyers seek advice before choosing a product or solution. Social media plays a role but more than two out of three start with a search on Google.

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RecommeNdAtIoN cULtURe
Keep It Simple and Social Incentivize Smarter

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Marketers need to make it easy for customers to be advocates. Sales and marketing pros need to minimize disruption to the existing customer, while maximizing the reference opportunity. Let customers know up-front what kinds of materials you want to get from them, and make it clear how that information will be used. Ask your customers how often they are willing to be referenced, and honor those boundaries. A software tool can help marketers to make those promises with confidence. Social media can connect customers and prospects, who need marketings help to make that connection meaningful. Marketers will increasingly be required to facilitate relationships between clients and prospects on social channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter.

Customers expect to be treated like partners, with benefits for both parties. You will see a rise in the activation of customer advisory boards and a fall in the demand for incentives. Clients no longer expect tangible incentives, and are shifting toward intangibles like publicity and credibility. The strongest advocates are the ones who feel they have a stake in the game, not customers who participate for free stuff.

Beyond Our Borders

For international brands, culturally appropriate content and marketing strategies are more important than ever. Produce content that is tailored with stories and clients that are local to your prospects. People trust voices like their own.

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TECHNOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT, AND ENGAGEMENT

high five

HigH five
1. enterprise goes mobile 2. Responsive and adaptive web 3. In-house desk space for outsourced talent 4. touch-enabled interactions 5. Intersection of app and device UX

tecHNoLogY, deveLoPmeNt, ANd eNgAgemeNt

Youll Spend More on Development in 2013

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Development budgets will be slightly higher, because it costs more to have content on more devices. This can be mitigated slightly by tools and frameworks that streamline mobile development, but marketers should not underestimate the effort to design, develop, deploy, and maintain multiple applications across a variety of platforms. Gartner predicts that global IT spending will top $4 trillion by 2015.

facilitate collaboration and speed up development without having to invest in staff or ramp up internal teams. This model also builds in-house knowledge and increases the benefits of the agency relationship.

Pendulum Shift from Mobile Apps to Responsive and Adaptive Web

The Relationship Between Apps and Hardware Will be More Important Than Ever

Mobile applications and sites define the user experience on mobile devices, and device and platform manufacturers are crystal clear on the impact that high-quality apps have on users impressions of a device. Weve already seen a trend where Apple and Microsoft provide significant support to application developers. In 2013, we expect to see those investments make their way to small app developers and startups as well.

Marketers invested heavily in apps in 2011, and that investment came to roost in 2012 with expensive and arduous application updates, device releases, and platform changes. 2013 will see an increase in demand for adaptive and responsive web development so that content can be distributed on a wider variety of devices, as well as maintained and updated easily. Whats the Difference Between Responsive and Adaptive Design? Responsive: the design and development of a site targets a specific device and all of the technical properties of that device. For example, if you have a browser window on your desktop and you are looking at a responsive website, as you shrink the browser the website will adjust to fit the window. Adaptive: the design and development of a site targets a specific screen size. With adaptive design, the site will snap to different sizes.

In-House Outsourced Dev

As internal development teams shrink and technical objectives grow, more businesses will seek in-house outsourced support. In other words, they will bring in agency teams for short-term projects to

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HTML5

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Even though HTML5 isnt scheduled to be fully baked for two more years, it is already important for information-heavy websites that use the new HTML-specific tagging system. When HTML5 is combined with CSS3, page elements become dynamic and can move in many directions, serving a variety of browsers and devices. Marketers should keep in mind that there is a compatibility challenge when using the built-in video player because it only works with specific video formats (Theora, H.264, and VP8). Support for these video formats is not ubiquitous and you should plan on encoding each video in each of these formats to ensure the widest range of support. Marketers planning to deploy HTML5 on their sites to play videos and interactions should make the site backward-compatible so that it defaults to Silverlight, Flash, or a video download if HTML5 isnt available.

its forward-thinking investment in touch interface. With the Windows Runtime (WinRT), developers can write code once and deploy it on a website, mobile app, or Windows 8 computer, all using the same code base. Programmers will be able to churn out high-quality apps and sites that run on Windows 8 with a very small learning curve. Marketers will see a cost savings on development of applications across multiple platforms.

The End of QR Codes?

QR codes will continue to be deployed, but overall we predict a decline in the use of QR codes. Although they perform well in specific circumstances, most brands deployed them ineffectively, and users have lost faith. One issue has been that QR codes are inherently mobile-friendly, and often the landing pages that they directed people to were not mobile-optimized.

Marketers will see a cost savings on development of applications across multiple platforms.
RIP Silverlight, and Maybe Flash
HTML5 was widely purported to be a Silverlight and Flash killer, even as early versions were being used and experimented with. Adobe has released Edge as a Flash replacement, and Silverlight still has specific uses where it is better than HTML5. We expect all of these technologies to commingle throughout 2013, and we dont expect a clear winner in the video/animation toolset for another year. Silverlight will be used primarily for long-form video (and even then it is displayed in an HTML5 code base), and Flash for short-form animations and interactions (including those on Twitter). HTML5 will continue to be in an experimental phase.

Marketing and IT Collide: Data Ownership

Several years ago, smart marketers recognized the important role of data in their marketing programs. Those marketers are making the leap to marketing automation, which is tapping into those CRM systems. Further, that marketing automation, marketing commitment to social media, and feedback are adding a layer of complexity to program analytics and the CMS tools. Client relationship management (CRM) technologies can bring together a cross-functional team including sales, marketing, IT, and support and those teams will be challenged to address data in new ways in 2013. Data ownership will increasingly need to be shared so that various groups can use the data effectively and for their unique purposes. IT departments work on priorities. Marketing departments work on opportunities. CTOs and CMOs recognized the importance of collaboration in 2012, and in 2013 we expect to see these disciplines gaining confidence in each other and innovating in how they deliver solutions that meet the needs of both teams (and the company they work for). The fantasy of having one data warehouse has burst and now organizations are recognizing the need to have multiple systems that play well together. This data, which will be managed by multiple stakeholders, must be cared for in terms of quality and accuracy, and it must be clear who has primary ownership over a contact relationship. The data is shared democratically, but the relationship is at risk if it is managed in the same way.

Windows 8

Windows 8 was released in October 2012, and well see early experiments with Windows 8 applications as the year wears on. The general consensus is that Windows 8 is pretty cool, especially given

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We expect to see more companies formalizing relationship hierarchies as they increase cross-functional collaboration. First-rate data management is integral to marketing automation, which is on the rise and will increase in importance through 2013 and beyond. Analytics also comes into play because having access to data (and the right data) is paramount to helping marketers optimize and make smarter decisions about digital activities. As marketing, IT, or other departments deploy analytics solutions (third-party or in-house), they need to communicate with each other on which types of solutions will best meet their needs.

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The Internet of Things

Personal Cloud

The personal cloud will gradually replace the PC for personal file storage and service access. The cloud will be the glue that connects the devices people use during different aspects of their daily lives. Users will see the cloud as a portable, always-available place to go for all their digital needs. The personal cloud shifts the focus from the client device to cloud-based services delivered across devices.

Mobile no longer refers only to the use of smartphones and tablets.

Enterprise Apps Bring More Responsibilities to IT Departments

The Internet of Things is a world where physical objects are seamlessly integrated into the information network, and where the physical objects can become active participants in processes. Services are able to interact with these smart objects over the Internet, as well as query and change their state and any information associated with them, all while taking into account security and privacy issues. Mobile no longer refers only to the use of smartphones and tablets. Cellular technology is being embedded in many new types of devices including pharmaceutical containers and cars. Smartphones and other intelligent devices dont just use the cellular network; they communicate via NFC, Bluetooth, LE, and Wi-Fi to a range of devices and peripherals such as wristwatch displays, healthcare sensors, smart posters, and home entertainment systems. Its an exciting time for marketers, designers, and developers, but mistakes will be made along the way. We expect to see more experimenting with interconnected devices in 2013, and this will be an important period of experimentation, testing, failure, and entrepreneurialism.

Enterprises face a complex future as some vendors will limit their app stores to specific devices and types of apps, forcing the enterprise to deal with multiple stores, payment processes, and sets of licensing terms. By 2014, Gartner believes that many organizations will deliver mobile applications to workers through private application stores. With enterprise app stores, the role of IT shifts from that of a centralized planner to a market manager providing governance and brokerage services to users and potentially an ecosystem to support apptrepreneurs.

www.metia.com | infoUSA@metia.com | 425.629.5800 | London | New York | Seattle | Austin | Singapore

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MESSAGING

high five

HigH five
1. mobile-friendly email versions moving past textbased or browser-based solutions 2. Real-time/live content versus static content 3. marketing automation 4. Honoring subscriber preferences 5. dynamic/relevant content that is targeted to users based on preferences

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Email marketing is consistently rated as one of the most highly performing digital channels in terms of ROI.
Email marketing is consistently rated as one of the most highly performing digital channels in terms of ROI. However, this longstanding digital marketing tool is undergoing a transformation.

marketing capabilities. ExactTarget, which in the past has focused primarily on email marketing, recently addressed this trend by acquiring Pardot, a B2C marketing automation company. ExactTarget had previously been meeting the B2B marketing automation trend by partnering with Marketo, which integrates directly with the ExactTarget platform. Marketers will need to invest time and energy into data normalization in 2013 so that their programs can function properly with minimal intervention. This is an outstanding development for the many beleaguered marketing departments that lost staff and funding following the financial crisis in 2009. Automation enables smaller teams to do more with less, all while delivering a better outcome for their customers.

Responsive Web in Email Design

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is finally here, and communications are getting smarter and better. Many businesses have made an investment into data collection and management, and those with CRM systems in place have the capability for marketing automation baked in. In 2013, more marketers will finally set up their triggered messaging, which will make personalized, timely, and relevant communication with customers and prospects more efficient and effective. A high-quality automated program requires that marketers integrate their CMS and their email programs, which can be a sticking point. There are stand-alone marketing automation companies, such as Eloqua, that focus on marketing automation and also offer email

Approximately 80 percent of people check email on their phone. 2013 will see a shift away from mobile optimization of email by designing and developing two different emails, each using the same content. Mobile optimization for email now takes advantage of responsive web design so that marketers can design and develop one email that serves up content based on the type of device that is being used. The design should be optimized for a variety of specific viewports - addressing phones, tablets, and desktop variations and then developed once. This adds complexity to the technical back-end of how email is built, but it saves time and money overall. Responsive web will make high-quality mobile email more pervasive, and businesses that arent optimizing for mobile in 2013 will see a negative impact on their campaign results.

Retail Buys into Integration

What kinds of email do people prefer?

Special offers Promos + vouchers Real-time delivery tracking New products Newsletters Other

2012 saw the wide adoption of messaging integration with Point of Sale (POS) as more retail stores started emailing receipts and opting customers into email programs. Well see increased collection of customer data when customers are in brick-and-mortar stores so that targeted and personalized content can be delivered via email and SMS. Customer loyalty programs make it easier for retailers to gather in-store behavior data and tailor messaging for users. Customers are willing to release their data to the brands that they trust, however in return they expect great content that is delivered at the time and cadence that works best for them. A lot of businesses successfully refined their targeted messaging in 2012, so customer tolerance for inadequate programs is only going to shrink in 2013.

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More Legal Considerations for Email Marketers

METIA 2013
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Real-time content has been used on the web for years to great success, and marketers are starting to see the benefit of it within email. The most obvious use for real-time content is with promotional offers, but there are opportunities in B2B as well, such as event registration for an event that is almost sold out. The most important thing is to stress urgency and to be thoughtful about subject lines in emails that have dynamic content. Test multiple subject lines with your offers to see what degree of urgency resonates best with your customers.

There are more communication channels available than ever. The addition of those channels, however, increases marketer risk for legal compliance. Take Papa Johns, for example. The company found itself in hot water when it collected phone numbers for pizza orders, and then treated those pizza orders like an opt-in for promotional text messages without an opt-out. At the end of 2012, Papa Johns faced a $250 million class-action lawsuit. Imagine if customers were as tuned into opt-in and opt-out in email as they are to SMS. All marketers who collect, store, and use customer data should refresh their knowledge on the laws and regulations surrounding those actions to ensure they are up to date and not in violation.

Customers Demand Even More Relevancy and Personalization

Nearly every email program in 2012 saw some type of dynamic or personalized content. If you are an email marketer, this shouldnt be anything new. But are you creating the right kind of dynamic content? Now that marketers have a grasp on the technology and data that supports it, its time to analyze and optimize that content to make sure youre getting the right ROI on your effort. Tune into what subscribers both are and arent saying in order to best serve up content for customers. If your email marketing program does not include dynamic variables to pull in relevant content for them, you have some work to do. This is the most important thing you can do for your email marketing program in 2013. Subscribers expect a personalized experience in all aspects of the digital world and if you are not providing that in the emails you receive from them, they will stop paying attention. Try using realtime content based on their preferences to customize the offer that they get, creating completely personalized and truly relevant content. Your subscribers will thank you.

The most important thing is to stress urgency and to be thoughtful about subject lines.
Real-Time Email Content Replaces Static
Real-time email content, or live data, involves putting content or images in an email based on live factors, including the time of day, number of email opens since the email was sent, number of clicks on the data, and more. There is a whole host of ways that real-time content can be used, including offering promotions that expire within a certain timeframe, or that are only available in a limited quantity. We have seen examples from 1-800-Flowers.com where the subject line says 24 hours for the deal, and the content within the email has a countdown clock of how much time is left until it reads 0:00:00. Home Depot uses a different tactic, with less specific subject lines about discounts, and then tailors the content within the email based on how many emails have been opened or discounts applied.

www.metia.com | infoUSA@metia.com | 425.629.5800 | London | New York | Seattle | Austin | Singapore

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UX AND DESIGN

high five

HigH five
1. Respect the white space 2. give users control 3. Users will scroll 4. content in bite-size pieces performs best 5. Keep load time short

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across devices. Well see more sites that abandon the traditional topbar navigation scheme and more sites that focus on discoverability with links embedded in the content.

The Rise of Voice and Gesture

With iOS, Apple showed the world how the graphical touch paradigm should work. Touch interfaces are characterized by responsive, fluid, and direct interaction, and the dominant gestures are tapping, swiping, and pinching. Apple led the way with touch, but Microsoft is a pioneer in voice and gesture since the release of Kinect, which has facial and voice recognition in addition to gesture interaction. Expect interactions to move beyond the screen, as both input and output increasingly use voice and gesture. Small dev firms and independent hackers have been digging into the Kinect SDK for more than a year, and early experiments are resulting in more sophisticated and user-friendly interactions. Expect to see new tools for hacking and, in turn, more Natural User Interface (NUI) in the world. The impact of democratized hacking is hard to predict. Designers and developers have a stronger understanding of UX principles now than they did during the .com boom, but UX for NUI is still being refined, and well see mistakes being made along the way. Precision and data entry are still big challenges for touch, gesture, and voice interactions. Further, consumers will expect more options for interactions, and there will be a rising demand for voice-activation and NUI in everyday applications. Despite this, we must remember that people like touching things and we arent predicting the death of the mouse and keyboard just yet.

Are You Ready for Touch?

In previous years, touch was a nice-to-have or novel feature. Now touch enablement is expected because there are too many devices that support touch to ignore it. Touch brings the death of the mouseover or hover state, and has fundamentally changed the UX conventions that have been in place since the mid-1990s. It is important to be clear about what is touchable and what isnt, because when users touch something, they expect something to happen. Touch interaction should be instinctual.

Adaptive, Responsive, Discoverable

2013 is all about design adaptability and flexibility. This trend is largely fueled by the convergence of desktop and mobile interfaces and responsive web design. This shift in thinking from designing disparate but similar experiences to creating one experience that is tailored to the device represents a fundamental shift in digital design philosophies. With adaptive and responsive design, marketers will have to ensure that the UX process considers site navigation and how it performs

flick

drag

two finger drag

tap

press

double tap

spread

rotate

pinch

splay

press and drag

two finger tap

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Less Is More

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Design will be simple, but not simpler.

Mobile UX Considerations

2012 already saw the trend toward clean design and away from overly ornate or complicated design schemes. The less is more approach to design will extend through 2013 as designers continue to remove extraneous details and elements. This trend benefits UX because there will be fewer elements to distract users from meeting their goals. The trend also streamlines development efforts because there are fewer hover colors and state changes to implement (and de-bug.) As designers focus on the use of white space and dramatic visuals, typography will increase in importance. You will see more designs where the typography and text take center stage, and images are actually the supporting players. Design will be simple, but not simpler.

Vertical scrolling is inherently more phone-friendly and will become a default scrolling scheme for most sites built this year. Fat fingerfriendly buttons. Every time users accidentally hit the wrong button on their mobile website, it throws analytics off-track and disrupts the user experience. Interfaces will be simplified, which will create space for bigger, more user-friendly buttons.

Higher VC Investment in UX

Venture capitalists are paying attention to UX in the startups that they are nurturing. Weve seen an increase in conferences for startups that focus on product and experience design. VCs understand the implications that high-quality UX can have for an applications viability.

The Parallax Conundrum

We love parallax and saw a trend toward the design element in 2012; however, parallax execution for touch and mobile has to be thoughtfully designed because of implications for UX. Microsoft released Windows 8 just as parallax was on the rise, and we may see a lot less of this arresting visual effect as touch takes off. The word parallax is derived from the Greek term parallaxis, which means alteration. The observable position of an object at any given distance is dependent on the viewpoint, or position of the viewer. Perspective shift occurs when a close object is observed from different viewpoints, and against a distant background. To create a parallax effect, you need to create several layers of design elements, and then put them together like a puzzle to create a whole visual. This process gives the visual a 3D feel while still only being 2D.

www.metia.com | infoUSA@metia.com | 425.629.5800 | London | New York | Seattle | Austin | Singapore

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SEO AND ANALYTICS

high five

HigH five
1. Identify marketing goals 2. Pick 3-5 key performance indicators 3. focus on your KPIs 4. deploy instrument tracking and tagging 5. Automate regular reporting

Seo ANd ANALYtIcS

Content Is King

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Well say it again marketers must have a content strategy in 2013. Marketers who focus on website visuals while ignoring content will struggle to achieve their SEO goals because content is searched first. Images still matter, of course, and marketers must pay attention to image load times to optimize organic site traffic. The emerging importance of dwell time drives up the importance of using social media to promote your site, because it affects the desired result of users discovering your site, liking it, and spending time there. Content needs to be both well-written and searchable. The old habit was to add more content to be SEO-friendly, but marketers need to focus on fewer, better words.

Social search is a game changer for SEO. Facebook changed the industry dramatically in 2012, and the impact of social media on brand discoverability is on the rise. Bing has Facebook integration when users are logged into Facebook and searching on Bing, they can share their queries with their Facebook friends and ask for recommendations. Marketers need to align their social strategy with their SEO goals using keywords. Incoming links from social sites are delivering more impactful search results than before. Connecting with people in the social sphere about those topics while using keywords that would normally link a search engine to your site (rather than keywords that would not) will be much more effective. When marketers use social media to promote their websites, they are also contributing to its search engine ranks, especially with retweets and reposts of those keywords.

UX Sells

In addition to content, search engine algorithms are placing more emphasis on User Experience as well as how long people stay on sites. Delivering content and high-quality UX will be as important in 2013 as keywords and back-end optimization.

Cookie Monsters

New browsers like IE 10 include features that disable the tracking of cookies and data, which in essence prohibits targeting. These features are optional, and marketers will need to demonstrate to their customers that there is value in disabling the anti-tracking features. There will be a push to convey the consumer benefits of targeting, and to get consumers to turn their browser settings to allow tracking. Its going to be a tough sell, and marketers will have to innovate.

well say it again marketers must have a content strategy in 2013.

Off-Page SEO

Social Strategys Place in SEO

There is a heightened emphasis on social media as an integral part of search engine marketing, backed up by increasing reliance on social media signals by search engines. Users are more accustomed to receiving targeted ads, and marketers and technology teams are collaborating more than ever to implement systems that track, manage, and use data in marketing and social programs effectively. 2013 is going to be a period of refinement and social integration. Remember that SEO is a process rather than a task, and results come in slowly.

Your off-page SEO should be in line with your on-page SEO. The way your pages are architected and the quality of your code can significantly affect your sites performance. For example, Metia increased traffic to Microsoft.com/case studies by 139% purely through back-end changes, without changing a word of text on the page.

Efficient Images

of users find a website via search engine

70%

of online purchases from websites are found via search engine

50%

Images that load quickly and have useful alt tags affect SEO more than ever. Alt tags should be effective and in alignment with the content on your page. Image-heavy sites are particularly affected. Marketers will need to stay focused on the SEO process and carefully track industry best practices. The SEO community is a great resource for these best practices. You can search for anything about SEO and there will be a reputable forum that discusses what is working.

www.metia.com | infoUSA@metia.com | 425.629.5800 | London | New York | Seattle | Austin | Singapore

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Seo ANd ANALYtIcS

Strategic Big Data Actionable Analytics

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Big Data is evolving from a focus on discrete projects to an influence on enterprises information architecture. Dealing with data volume, variety, velocity, and complexity is leading organizations away from the concept of a single enterprise data warehouse containing all information needed for decisions. Instead they are moving toward multiple systems, including content management, data warehouses, data marts, and specialized file systems tied together with data services and metadata. Data infrastructure will require scalability, collaboration, and embedded logic.

By now marketers are properly addicted to real-time analytics. Analytics software has improved to the point that marketers and IT pros can afford to perform analytics and simulation for nearly every action taken in digital channels. Marketers will be expected to deliver greater insight into campaign performance at near-real-time, in order to provide simulation, prediction, optimization, and other analytics. Marketers need to either sharpen their analytics skills or bring in experts to support the measurement effort.

15% 23% 62% 63% 40%

Users click a link on the FIRST PAGE of search results Searchers who progress to the SECOND PAGE Searchers who try a DIFFERENT PHRASE

Users click on one of the FIRST 3 organic results

Users click the FIRST RANKING site on search engines

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