What 2012 meant for Online Marketing

Looking back at all the changes that took place in 2012, I can say with certainty that 2012 was a great year for Online Marketing. And I'm not just affirming this because it was the first year which I spent entirely in this industry or because the Mayans launched the "2012 Apocalypse" marketing campaign :) (which I really enjoyed), but because a great number of industry updates shaped how we will do online marketing in 2013.

Below are the major modifications (in no specific order) that I believe will have an impact on the industry at least for the upcoming year:

1. Google Authorship. I wanted to list this first because it is my personal favorite and it shows Google's attempt to model its search engine algorithm after how we trusted information in the "real world before Google". What I mean is that we all trust what experts in certain fields tell us regarding particular topics, right? And even if the majority of us often don't remember their names, we all remember faces. In any case AuthorRank will have somewhat of an impact on SEO as well, because AuthorRank will be 2013's PageRank. I found this article on SEOMoz particularly interesting on this subject.

2. Google Penguin. I believe you'll agree with me when I say that this Google update created a lot of fuss in the SEO world. Google's little black furry creature changed a lot of things in the line of Search Engine Optimization, which lead to increased focus on Content Marketing, especially in the second half of 2012. So I expect this trend to grow wings in more businesses in 2013.

3. Facebook IPO. Even if this is more a business decision than a product related update, Facebook being listed on the stock market gave birth to more than a couple of product changes, in order for the company to better monetarise its "social network". Sponsored Posts and the EdgeRank algorithm change, Global Pages, Facebook Nearby, the announcement of Video adds and so on are all the result of the company trying to get better quotations on the stock market. Some even speculate that the company will release Premium Facebook Pages in the near future. Although, I have to admit, as a user, I kind of like the Google updates I mentioned, but where Facebook is concerned the user really had to suffer from an experience point of view. So I wouldn't be amazed if users will emigrate to other social platforms, especially if Facebook keeps this up.

4. Google+ Local and the focus on local. I think we will see more changes from Google in this direction (especially because we are still waiting to be able to answer reviews as businesses - it would be about time). Additionally, local has got a big role when it comes to ranking in SERPs. And this takes us to the next item on the list ...

5. Mobile Marketing. The number of people owning a smartphone and using it to navigate the World Wide Web has skyrocketed and we started to see great marketing campaigns that integrated mobile. I hope to see more businesses having mobile-optimized sites and great apps in the upcoming year. If you want to get ideas in this direction, check out the MobilePlayBook, a great mobile guide with examples put together by Google. Apart from advice it has a couple of great examples of how businesses designed their mobile website or how they used apps successfully. Some are really creative.
Even though 2012 has been the year of mobile, 2013 will probably be the year of the tablet, so keep that in mind when you put together your marketing strategy for this year.

6. Search Plus Your World. Social is starting to be even more intertwined with SEO, and SPYW is definitely a sign of this. If you think about it, it does make sense, apart from the fact that a particular piece of content has been written by experts, the buzz it creates on social media platforms is another indicator of its quality. And in the end the AuthorRank is supposedly measured taking social signals in consideration as well. So, this fact adds to the pressure of having to be successful on social networking sites.

7. Focus on data. I left this for last, because every year there is more and more focus on data than in the previous one. Thus, 2012 brought the inclusion of the Social tab in Google Analytics, to help measure the ROI of social media marketing, together with focusing on conversion, instead of more mediocre metrics. In 2013 I hope to see more ways to measure multi-channel conversion, including offline touch points.

What are your thought on this list? Which change you like the most and which do you dislike entirely? Both from an user's and an online marketer's perspective? Do you think semantic search will have a significant evolution this year, I mean Google's Knowledge Graph is just the first droplet in the glass.

3+1 main differences between Outbound and Inbound Marketing

The first main difference between the two is essentially the way you get your brand known to the potential customers. While outbound marketing about buying (advertising), begging (PR) or bugging (sales) your way in to customers lives, inbound marketing involves earning your way in, by increasing visibility through information or content related to your activity and industry, which is considered to be valuable to your target audience, which includes your target market. Sometimes in B2B targeting your audience might be a hard nut to crack, or it might seem that way, but the only thing you have to consider is the personnel of the department you'll have to be dealing with from start to finish and the person that will make the decision.

While word of mouth was considered important before as well, marketers couldn't really "get a hold of it", not to mention analyse it's effects and results. Now with the technology that's out there today it is easier to monitor the word of mouth activity that unfolds on the net. Of course this is just a part of the whole WOM phenomena, but we do have to consider two aspects in this case:
A. The time spent on the internet - an eResearch Corp study shows that 71% of the questioned population (the study had included 16+ year old's in the Romanian urban environment) uses the internet in an average of 3 hours daily.
B. The interaction happening on the world wide web - another study (sorry I don't really know who conducted it) shows that 95% of the respondents are unsatisfied with the real time spent with friends and family and 58% prefer meetings with F&F on the internet, due to time-effectiveness.
As you can see the results are in favour of WOM that goes on the net, and I believe that these figures will increase in due time.

Inbound marketing is much more data driven than outbound marketing and this is thanks to, again, the technology out there, so do not forget to analyse, analyse, analyse. Of course outbound marketing uses and tries to monitor the impression of a campaign, but with inbound marketing it's much more easier to gather the data you need to, let's say, categorise you marketing activity of a given period as successful or stillborn. But, it is not enough to collect the data, it is vital to understand it and to act according to it. When it comes to data you might like to check out Avinash Kaushik's blog, as it is one of the essential marketing analytics blogs out there.


As you might have guessed it's all about tech - inbound marketing being more technology based and technology driven than outbound marketing, although the latter is changing as well due to technology developments. This is mainly due to the fact that the majority of inbound marketing actions are linked to the world wide web and presume that the target market uses "technology platforms" (if we can call it that) that are more spread like the PC or laptop and/or the latest entries in this domain like smartphones, tablets etc. Additionally, it uses blogs, social media, QR codes while the reach and impact of paper-based newspapers and magazines, of the telly and other traditional channels is decreasing. It is important to note that I am not saying that inbound marketing will replace outbound marketing any time soon or ever in fact, a successful marketing campaign will include both in different rates, according to the end audience.