Digital Marketing Lessons Learned in 2012

2012 was a big year for online marketing. On the SEO side, Google’s [not provided] continued the trend towards organic tracking becoming almost impossible. For E-Commerce, Google shopping became pay-to-play, and Bing thought that sounded a little scrooge-like. Social Media saw the rise of Pinterest, as Facebook crossed the 1 billion member mark.

So yes, it was an eventful year. What were the biggest lessons learned in 2012? We asked some of the top marketing minds across the country, and put the responses are below:

As online marketing professionals, I learned we need to be diligent about maintaining our various skill sets to stay on top of changes in our field. Changes such as Link building was devalued, and Social Media became more important than link building while developing our clients’ online authority.

With the increase in mobile search, local SEO became even more important, especially for any business that has a physical location or whose business is tied to a specific geographic area.

Written by Adam Donkus, Social Media Director of Baldydog.com

Because there are billions of mobile phones in use across the world, all are capable of receiving and sending text messages. If you send a text to someone with a mobile, you can be pretty confident that you will be able to reach them. SMS marketing is going to be the next big thing. Of course, it has some of the same dangers that online marketing has, so make sure to update your virus definition. Learning how to best take advantage of SMS marketing was the best thing we learned this past year. 

Written by Liam Further, Digital Editor at Further

And of course, we’ve got to add in our two cents as well. The biggest lesson that Online Optimism learned this year was the importance of always taking risks. It was a bit of a plunge for us to decide to start our own company, but we’re happy we did. And we continue to use that risk-taking methodology for our clients. While we’re not saying to go out there and make crazy comments, or take unsubstantiated risks – it does help to start conversation. So try new things, in life, and in your digital advertising. Only by being innovative, do you truly have the chance to begin making changes.

Written by the Online Optimism team.