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

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