Digital Marketing Predictions : What will Small Business adopt in 2012 Article first published as Predictions for 2012 : What Will Small Business Adopt? on Technorati. It’s a brave new world that we live in and one that is exciting if you buy into all the new technology trends. The year 2012 is going to be another big one for marketers with a whole lot more focus on mobile and the likely emergence of Augmented Reality. But this will not filter down to small business. Economies of scale often sees the little guy amongst the last to adopt new trends. So what will the small business owner find the time and muster the enthusiasm to cover in 2012? What will he/she choose not to ignore this time around and invest resources in the name of marketing? Advertising Small business will begin to realize the absence of a return on investment with their local newspaper advertisements. They will start to buy into the online environment, even if they don’t sell, and start to uitilise the opportunities. Facebook Advertising Obviously Facebook is a big thing.. just about everywhere. We just about all have a profile page, many small businesses even have a business page but 2012 will see a rise in small business advertising on Facebook. Facebook is a great opportunity for small business to compete against the big boys but sometimes a kick-along will be needed, particularly when first starting a Facebook page. It is still reasonably cheap and if your campaign is effective, not only do you get them (customers) for a second whilst they read your advertisement, they’ll click ‘Like’ and you’ll have them much longer. Mobile Advertising The adoption of smartphones has been significant and 2012 sees another groundbreaking year. It won’t take small business too long to start thinking about mobile, perhaps because everyone has one. Unfortunately this may not mean that small business will rebuild their websites to ensure they’re optimised but they will look to advertising. But what small business will do will be to recognize the ability to target local people whilst they’re out and about, and perhaps even more appealing the really cheap prices. StumbleUpon Advertising In the three advertising trends I have noted, i’m certainly less confident that small business will start to really adopt StumbleUpon Advertising. However, I really hope they do. StumbleUpon advertising can be as cheap as mobile and direct some significant traffic to a business’ website. If small business do take up StumbleUpon Advertising it will be the price point being the contributing factor. Social Media Small business has certainly been aware of social media and many have even created business pages for Facebook, less have created Twitter profiles and LinkedIn company pages. In general I see them engaging much more with social media across the board more so than taking up networks introduced in 2012. Facebook I definitely see small business optimising their Facebook business pages. This might mean a number of different things, including: pages not groups, customising...
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