e-Marketing under the magnifying glass

As the number and range of e-devices increases, the strategies to reach potential customers with relevant information and offers hots up. E-marketing is at the forefront here analysing how people relate to information, predicting the trends in use, and trying out new ways to entice positive reactions from people. Marketing is driven by statistics and analytics and we should be grateful for their analysis. However, traditionally iMedia companies groan when marketing departments get in on the briefs for new products. They are demanding, no doubt about it.

If we understand where they are coming from, it'll make it easier to work with them. So, what's happening?

Marketing efforts for mobile, smart-devices and digital display are increasing in line with increasing ownership. Furthermore, more online video is a trend. This move away from traditional TV ads and transferring digital display budget to online video was a key finding of a recent report into European Digital Video Output by Adap.tv and Admonsters.

But, the biggest problem for such migration of use seems to lie in the lack of the tools for planning and measurement for such campaigns. Sounds like an opportunity for someone? Because, as we say, marketing is driven by stats and analytics, this shouldn't surprise us.

People appear to be spending less time on sites before they buy: almost two minutes less than last year. This means they want fast, efficient, transparent sites. They reject anything else as wasting their time, so be warned. Added to that, with the range and number of devices increasing, as well as the willingness to buy from mobile sources, it's not just web sites that have to be well designed and efficient or sales will be lost.

It might surprise you to find that revising your tag words for your sites can be more effective than you'd think. That's the gist of an analysis of shopping trends from Mother's Day (March 10th). Were you one of the online buyers? Has your own behaviour changed? Are you monitoring your own evolving strategies for online use within your company? You should be ahead of the general game and predict trends. See: 10 online shopping trends for Mother's Day from Netmarketing (March 7th).

For the bigger e-marketing picture, see what you think is coming true from the analysts' 2013 overview of trends they predicted in December 2012. There's quite a variety that'll tease the little grey cells. See: Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013