Brands looking to use their print and digital customer publications to reach a worldwide audience must strike a balance between cost and country-specific marketing messages.

Many brands have launched customer magazines in the UK to increase awareness of products and services, boost loyalty, and ultimately, to improve sales. But now the likes of Ikea, WeightWatchers and Land Rover are looking at opportunities to take this content overseas.

For the full story please visit the Marketing Week website.

Successful marketing strategies in 2012 will need to be thought through carefully. The developing nature of social media, the decline of traditional marketing as an effective method of reaching customers and the increasing sophistication of ways to communicate with consumers mean that marketing needs to keep pace in order to thrive. What are the predictions for trends in 2012?

1. Out with the old. It is becoming accepted that the old-fashioned outbound marketing methods are less and less effective. Spam and cold-calling are often treated with suspicion or disregarded by customers. The world of social media has a very different face and the power of the individual is growing. If consumers are to be reached effectively, marketing strategies need to take into account the new rules of engagement.

2. User-generated marketing is one of the new buzzwords. Over the last year, customers have become more and more powerful by writing reviews or sharing experiences using social media. There are many examples of such videos on YouTube or comments and discussion on one of the social-networking sites. A key to the marketing response to this tendency is to strategize to influence and trigger users to generate positive content about products and services. For instance, some companies such as Klout are rewarding targeted 'influencers' to promote their brand with incentives and other 'carrots'. It's worth thinking through a coherent strategy to use this tool successfully.

3. One size does not fit all. In the past, marketing has often focused on a couple of approaches to reach their audience and target market. However, one of the key (and potentially lucrative) characteristics of today's market is the ever-growing spectrum of marketing channels. To keep up with competitors, marketing experts will need to streamline their presence over the variety of channels to create a persuasive brand experience.

4. One thing that many of the marketing commentators agree upon is the explosion in the use of the mobile as a marketing tool. Almost all consumers now have access to a mobile phone and they can make purchasing decisions and browse shopping opportunities on it. Since the number of people who own and use a mobile, smart phone or tablet is skyrocketing, the savvy marketer will make the most of this phenomenon.

5. Video is also a key marketing tool for the current market place. There has been research into its efficacy and the reports are that those businesses who appeal to potential customers with a video clip have had impressive rates of conversion. The video appeals to emotions and websites such as YouTube are becoming increasingly popular. The design of the sites is also becoming more user friendly to facilitate this sort of promotion.

6. It is a tried and tested technique, but even before the explosion of social media, one of the most persuasive ways of enticing a potential customer to try your goods or services was to let a satisfied customer do the work. A testimonial or recommendation from a third party works wonders. Coupled with the increasingly vocal voice of the consumer on a variety of online media, a canny marketing strategy can use this to good effect. Those who can manipulate and capture consumer recommendations are on to a good thing.

7. This leads to another perceived trend in the market place – the personalisation of marketing to a consumer. There are more and more niche and specific online communities and this can be used to the advantage of a marketing expert. These communities will have a character and specific requirements which tailored marketing strategies can take advantage of to generate business. 8. As well as tailoring to specific consumer groups, there has also been the observation that the nature of social media is such that brands are targeting a global market. There are suggestions that marketing will start to take this into account in 2012. Rather than focusing on, for example, the American market, companies will increasingly turn their attention to the wider global audience to capture their attention and interest as well.

9. Given the essential nature of social media, companies will also have to take particular note of the technical side of their business. Of course, in the past there has been much attention directed towards Google's algorithm, famously updated last year, but it is also necessary to pay attention to the feedback about brands on social media, such as how often the brand is referred to on Twitter and other sites.

10. There is expected to be a much closer relationship between social media and corporate marketing strategies. The plan must be to engage and target the social-media market. Consumers' voices are becoming more prominent and they have also been described as having more clout in determining product or service value. As such, online interaction with consumers is essential to generate the marketing buzz which, in a perfect world, would go viral.

In one respect, data is similar to air. It's hardly noticed, until there's a problem with it.

There are many reasons for this, one of which is that it’s of vital importance to any organisation is often underestimated or misunderstood. Consider this: Walter Wriston, the then chairman of Citigroup, once said, "Information about money has become almost as important as money itself". Bob Crandall, the CEO of American Airlines, said that if he had to choose between the airline and Sabre (American Airline's booking system), he'd choose Sabre. So what is it that made two hard-nosed businessmen in effect state that information about their business was as important as what most people would consider to be the business itself?

It's often said that knowledge is power, yet knowledge is derived from information. Imagine how difficult it would be to manage an organisation if you had no information about it. Information in turn is derived from data, the raw material of the knowledge economy. Data in and of itself is not the crucial element, however. What is crucial is the knowledge an organisation has of all the elements (customers, products, suppliers, contracts, stock levels, personnel, etc) it has to deal with in order to achieve its objectives. Data provides the facts that need to be known in order to deal with these elements effectively. Good-quality data is the foundation stone on which effective control of an organisation is built.

Data is a key asset yet its importance and significance is rarely appreciated. An organisation's finances are invariably centrally managed and controlled. Imagine saying to the Chief Accountant that money should just be distributed to spending departments and they should be left to sort things out. It's hard to imagine a more incendiary statement. Yet isn't that generally the way an organisation's data is managed? It's kept in small pockets with little concerted effort made to keep it up to date and accurate, let alone coordinated as an organisational asset.

Imagine what it could be like if the data was maintained and managed as a central pool, with all parts of the organisation being able to see all the information they needed in order to achieve their objectives. They all see the same things and so there are no cross-departmental arguments as to which items of data are accurate. Even if data items were found to be inaccurate, they would only need to be changed in one place, once. Just how effective would such an organisation be? How much more synergy would it have? How much more knowledge growth could it achieve? How much better would it be in achieving its objectives?

It's often assumed that the data an individual department collects and uses is its own property and none of anyone else's business. However, if the department is part of the organisation as a whole, its data belongs to everyone within it and should be known and visible to all relevant parties. The department is really only what is referred to as a `data steward'.

Data Management is a growing sector. Unfortunately, it's too often thought of as being "something to do with IT" and regarded with indifference, as not being relevant to the mainstream, or with horror as being too technical. But it's important to think of IT as just an enabler for an organisation and not a black-box bolted on to it. The key question to be asked of IT is: "How will this help set and achieve the organisation's objectives?" In the case of data, the answer is, "It can impair or improve the organisation's effectiveness at all levels, depending on how badly or well you manage it". It is important, though, to ensure that data isn't fragmented and distributed for an individual IT project's convenience.

One of the key elements in Data Management is Data Quality. There are many aspects to it, some of which are:

Integrity Can the data be trusted? Can we safely make decisions based on it? Even apparently trivial pieces of erroneous data can have a large impact if tens or hundreds of decisions are informed by it on a daily basis.

Consistency Is the data consistent for all of its users around the organisation? Just how much do you enjoy going to meetings with Accounts to thrash out discrepancies between your data and theirs? How often have you mused on how much better it would be if you could spend the time on more productive activities?

Appropriateness Is the data available to a department useful and relevant to them as it stands? How much effort does its staff have to expend to trawl through data acquired by other departments in order to obtain information that is useful to them? What data do they need that isn't available to them?

Timeliness How much data is collected by an organisation too late to grasp a lucrative opportunity? Just how cost effective could it be to actively and even aggressively acquire such data, even if it meant setting up a separate unit to do so? For the marketing professional, some statistics worth considering are that 35% of customer data becomes outdated each year. Some 30% of managers change their jobs each year. 32% of B2B emails are sent to non-existent email addresses. Over five million employees and business details change every year. How seriously could these facts affect how your organisation operates?

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According to a new report in Media Week, the majority of marketers still fail to see the value of involving social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, into their marketing campaigns.

More than three-quarters do not believe that social media adds much value when acquiring new customers.

According to research conducted by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, only 23% of marketers believe that social media resources will help draw in new customers.

The report, which looked at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn, also found that a third (34.5%) of the 1,500 marketers polled said that their social media activity in 2011 was “not at all effective”, with only 13.7% reporting it was “extremely effective”.

The majority of marketers asked see social media as a tool to engagement (37%), or as support to other channels in a campaign (46%).

Take a look at most of our advertisements from television adverts to large billboards and you will usually find a celebrity endorsing the brand. You will find most brands from the well-established to the recently launched will use a famous celebrity, from familiar TV personalities to glamorous film stars, in order to help sell their products.

This is not a new idea, as celebrity endorsement, whether obvious through a TV campaign or less obvious through sponsorship, has been happening for years. They have been used to sell every branded item possible from beauty and hair products to coffee and food.

The idea behind celebrity endorsement is to choose someone that best represents the brand image created for its target audience and shares similar values in order to increase sales. For example, sports stars such as football players are often chosen for sportswear advertising and sponsorship as the link is believable. Such marketing campaigns can often continue for years and create a positive celebrity endorsement link between the brand and the star. A non-sportswear campaign example is Walkers crisps advertising and Gary Lineker (pictured), which has run successfully for a number of years. Although the adverts have evolved over the years Gary has remained a popular character.

Celebrities are often used to endorse luxury and well-known brands. Aspirational and glamorous stars are used to sell the products to the audience. Beautiful Hollywood stars and supermodels, for example, are often used to sell large global beauty brands and perfumes. They sell the idea that these beautiful women use these products in order to retain and enhance their looks.

Brands also look to people that are currently trending and in the public eye in order to raise their profile. For example, when Cheryl Cole enjoyed a prime Saturday night television spot as an X Factor judge, she also endorsed L'Oreal hair dye with heavy advertisements to take advantage of her popularity.

When the endorsement is believable and the audience believes that the celebrity uses and supports that product, the campaign is a success. Both the celebrity and the brand gain from the potential of a successful brand marketing campaign. As well as the pay cheque, the celebrity can also achieve positive exposure and greater status helping their career as well as sales of the brand.

It will come as no surprise to know that celebrity endorsement does not come cheap and that the higher the star, the higher the cost. For example, Beyoncé Knowles was once rumoured to have signed a five-year contract for just under $5 million to promote L'Oreal hair care products. For this she was expected to keep her hair in fantastic condition with no drastic changes and to work just 10 days at photo shoots and personal appearances during that time.

It's easy to see why celebrities are willing to promote these brands when these large sums of money are great additional earnings on top of their careers for relatively little work. These costs have meant that the more recognised stars are usually found endorsing luxury, high-end brands that are willing to pay high advertisement costs in order to protect the brand.

Negative publicity can be a pitfall Celebrity endorsement, however, does not always mean success for a brand. There are times when a celebrity's personal life takes over the positive link with the brand and the endorsement fails, reflecting badly on the product.

One negative example of a celebrity endorsement was when Kerry Katona became the face of the Iceland campaign following her crowning in the jungle on 'I'm A Celebrity, Get Me out of Here'. This was a successful campaign and as a 'down to earth' celeb mum, it was believable that she shopped there. The media even snapped her taking Iceland deliveries at home. Press coverage then emerged detailing her addictions and the infamous interview on 'This Morning' followed, showing her speech slurred. Iceland no longer wanted this negativity attached to their brand and dropped her from the marketing campaign.

Another pitfall that has recently been highlighted is that some high profile stars admit they do not use the products that they advertise. Some argue that it does not really matter if they do not use the product, as long as they are matched correctly and are identified with it, creating a believable campaign.

One recent example has been Jamie Oliver admitting that he uses independent suppliers for his restaurants rather than Sainsbury's. He has been involved in a successful campaign for the supermarket for the last few years, even creating recipe cards for shoppers. With such a high profile campaign, shoppers expect him to buy from there.

Another example is Helena Bonham Carter fronting the Yardley cosmetics campaign and then admitting that she doesn't wear make-up. This had a far more damaging effect on the brand, as the campaign was no longer believable.

In order to create successful campaigns, marketers are looking at celebrities that won't bring negative press to their doors. Many are turning to techno-celebrities such as Lara Croft, seen in the Lucozade adverts, in order to protect their brands. At least that way, there is no chance of them publically debunking the brand they represent.

Photo by Litonali

In this digital age, entering the domain of e-commerce is unavoidable. Not only that, but any business which is not looking to capitalise on the extensive opportunities on offer in the electronic domain may as well be steering their Titanic operations straight for the nearest iceberg. In this day and age - it's not just a matter of keeping up - it's a case of staying in business.

In a nutshell, e-commerce or 'electronic commerce' is the method of doing business using the internet. Many would instantly think about buying and selling goods online, but the e-commerce opportunity goes much deeper than that. Selling services, receiving electronic payments and online marketing are all examples of e-commerce at work. Play the game right and you could be enjoying increased profits, boosted sales and a worldwide reputation.

As well as the ability to reach the world's biggest market base 24/7, e-commerce offers businesses a range of other benefits, most notably in the reduced costs associated with marketing in this way. As an online retailer you are instantly cutting the cost of employing in-store staff, running a building and keeping the store's image up to date. Indeed, while professionally producing an e-commerce website and keeping it maintained may cost a few thousand pounds each year, these costs pale into insignificance when compared to the cost of running and maintaining a customer facing store.

Now 2011 has drawn to a close, e-commerce marketers are beginning to look towards what the next 12 months will bring in terms of opportunities. Looking back over the last decade, online retailing has changed the face of the retail market and has seen companies like Amazon, eBay and Play.com appear from nowhere to become retail giants and household names in a very short space of time. However, even these internet monsters are beginning to feel the pinch, with Amazon reporting sales down in the second quarter of 2011 and other operators such as Overstock.com reporting drops in profits in the same period.

There may be a number of reasons for these reported drops in sales. With the current economic climate leading to pretty much stagnant incomes in most of the Western world, it is hardly surprising that this is starting to have an impact on online growth. In addition to this, with so many new businesses moving into e-commerce every day, online retailers are constantly battling with their peers for the lion's share of the market. In order to stay afloat you not only need to miss that iceberg, you also need to do it at -50% RRP.

» Read more: The e-commerce opportunity

Everything in marketing is changing at the moment, and no one is really sure which way it’s going, the only thing that we can be certain of is that it’s an exciting time.

In order to prepare you as best we can for the year ahead, we’re taking a look at some of the emerging trends that we believe will be big this year in the marketing world and whether the trends will have an impact on the hiring process.

Mobile The digital marketing boom of 2012 has somewhat become a foregone conclusion. Businesses are already starting to move their marketing budgets away from ad and print channels and more to digital channels and we can expect to see this increase. We spoke to Kathryn Gallan from marketing recruitment specialists 2nd City Recruitment, who reiterates this point, stating: “We’re expecting a continuation in the growth of skills surrounding digital channels.” It is therefore important for marketers to know the latest developments in this area - as well as develop specialised skills.

Mobile and tablet marketing is really set to take off this year. If you stop to think how many people now have one or both of these then it’s a key marketing area. It’s estimated that 44% of last-minute online shopping searches in 2011 came from smartphones and tablets. Whether you decide to connect with the audience via an app, QR codes, targeted offers (more on that later) or more simply, by making sure websites and landing pages are optimised for mobile screens, it’s definitely an area that marketers have to develop. This in turn, could see mobile marketing manager roles becoming key positions in companies.

Social Engaging your customers has always been key to marketing but never more so than in this age where the customer has more flexibility to choose what they wish to read or view. This year will see greater interaction between marketers and customers in order to develop business brands.

As Kathryn Gallan goes on to say: “So many businesses have focused on strengthening their online acquisition activity; they will need to focus on online retention.” Developing customers who can act as brand ambassadors will be important. This can be through social media, which in 2012 will be about creating and sharing information with employees and influential customers to help define their brands from the ground up. This can also be through user-generated content which has more credibility with customers than anything marketers produce.

Data Last year, was the year that businesses developed single and complete views of their customers, 2012 will see businesses trying to gain meaningful insights from that data, with more brands using econometric modelling.

Kathryn Gallan says; “Roles that combine IT systems, data and marketing will start to emerge in response to how quickly businesses are amassing data, and learning how to use this data to engage on a mass yet personal level.” Marketers will need to learn how to collect and interpret data, and no doubt specialist roles will develop in this area also.

Data enables marketers to become even more targeted with their marketing. This is especially the case when it comes to offers. New technology such as mobile phone tracking, WiFi, RFID, is allowing the growth of location based marketing (LBM). This means that business can deliver content to consumers based on their location such as targeted ads, specialised offers, or even directions to their nearest store.

Content Content will return next year as more companies skip traditional media and publish consumer news and information themselves. Kathryn Gallan suggests that: “As more information can be found online and more individuals and organisations take to self-publication, we should expect to see a decline in copywriting roles. However, just because there’s lots of content available it doesn’t mean that it’s good.”

Content can come in a variety of formats from blogs and white papers, to infographics but it’s video that seems set to boom in 2012. Video already makes up 40% of consumer internet traffic and looks set to reach 62% by 2015 with the growth of smartphones and tablets. There are so many options to consider with video - from video brochures, video newsletters, and video training on products. This could mean the promotion of content strategists into senior positions where they can collect and authorise all the different strands of content from user-generated, to video, and infographics.

Next year seems set to have a growth in new types of marketing jobs and a decline in the more traditional roles. This is the year marketers need to retrain and retool - but don’t worry, key marketing skills will still apply.

Photo by Judy Breck

Marketers are making the most of multichannel opportunities by enrolling on formal training courses designed to improve their digital skills, according to Marketing Week.

With the number of media channels that marketers oversee growing at an ever faster rate, there are few roles in the industry that do not demand online expertise, from social media and pay-per-click to search engine optimisation and content creation.

Read the full article on the Marketing Week website.

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker

Technology moves so quickly that it’s difficult to say what 2012 will hold for us – but there’s certainly one word that’s going to sum it up and that’s integration, according to Fourth Source.

Innovations within the online advertising industry have been rife for several years - retargeting, lead generation, mobile and video to name but a few.

Read the full article on the Fourth Source website.

Photo by Tara Hunt

Marketers are amongst the most confident, ambitious and hardworking of the professional services, according to Marketing Week. It found that marketers are some of the most confident professionals, with 84% feeling that their work has a broader impact on the business success. Only 68% of bankers feel that their work impacts the businesses broader success.

Read the full article on the Marketing Week website.

Photo by o5com