In the early days of email marketing, blasting the same offer to a few hundred people seemed like a perfectly sound strategy. Not so much anymore!

As we’ve learned, it’s all about catering to our customers’ habits and ever-changing modes of communication. What does that mean? Studying up on past purchase patterns and realizing that not everyone is reading from a desktop anymore.

Bypassing the dreaded junk mail folder requires careful contemplation of what to send and when. “The Email Marketers Success Kit: Five Trends for 2012” article from MarketingProfs gives some great insight. One helpful tidbit: event-based messages like a response to someone leaving her cart mid-order can have up to 70% higher open rates and five times more ROI than your everyday newsletter.

As one of the most cost-efficient tactics available, email marketing isn’t something to give up on in 2012 … it’s something to adapt to!

Now that 2011 is officially in the books and we’ve had a chance to reflect on some of the year’s top news and events, it’s time to consider what’s in store for 2012.

Bring on the trend talk!

We’ve scanned several articles about what to watch for in marketing and picked this excerpt to share from Landor on the American Express Open Forum.

It raises some good points and some even better questions, like: 1) Are you marketing to baby boomers – the large-but-often-overlooked demographic which makes up over half of all discretionary spending? 2) In your marketing efforts, where does creativity rank? Is it a big factor in telling your brand’s story?

We want to know what you think. Are there any marketing trends you foresee for 2012? Is your company ready for them?

There’s been a lot of talk about the value of adding video to websites this year, but how exactly does that translate to small business? What can video do to enhance your online efforts? Here’s a quick look at how building a video library for your business can have great benefit.

• Show off your company’s personality – “Video briefs” – typically 45- to 75-second clips – allow you to add a little flavor and infuse your company’s fun, folksy or funky personality
• Show off those products and services, too – Great copy is one thing, but with video, people have a chance to actually see your solutions at work; this is your chance to highlight some unique features or show some inventive uses for your product
• Engage and interact – Customers want to feel connected and video makes it possible to do so from a more interesting, visual perspective
• Add SEO value – We’re all looking for ways to maximize our SEO efforts and amplify our site’s findability; video provides a strategic way to affect rankings

Video libraries are just a start. Small businesses everywhere are finding new ways to get creative with footage and interact with their target audiences. Find inspiration with a few case studies from Mashable.

In today’s marketing world, getting your content to go viral is pretty much like hitting the jackpot. It can have huge benefit – more people chatting about your brand and checking out your website. Best case scenario? The viral content you create (including videos, newsletters and stories) can eventually lead to new business.

But with the information overload that exists on the Web, it’s helpful to first understand the type of topics that grab people’s attention. In other words, what do they consider worthy of sifting through to: 1) read and 2) share with their network of friends?

According to a recent Marketing Profs article, Facebook numbers for 2011 show that it’s a big mix of things, but mostly stories with some sort of human interest angle.

From weather-related topics on the Japanese earthquake/tsunami and predicted California winter storm to parenting issues and animals in the news, here is a look at the 20 most viral Facebook articles of the year.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2011/6521/most-shared-stories-on-facebook-in-2011

Posted by Dave Willems, President & CEO

It all started with Black Friday and the huge door-buster deals shoppers could find the day after Thanksgiving. Next came Cyber Monday with extreme savings for online bargain hunters. Now there’s a new shopping day squeezed between the two that’s designed to promote the “buy local” message during the big holiday spending weekend: Small Business Saturday.

If you haven’t already heard of it, Small Business Saturday was introduced in 2010 by American Express with the goal of boosting sales at area businesses and recognizing their community influence as it relates to job creation and economic growth. You may not find your holiday gift items at discounts of 70-80% like the big box stores can provide, but shopping local will help your community in more ways than you may realize.

www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/story/2011-10-27/small-business-strategies-small-biz-saturday/50965874/1

Apparently it’s catching on. With incentives for business owners and consumers – from marketing toolkits and free advertising to gift cards and credits – everyone benefits. American Express reports a 28% increase in sales for Small Business Saturday in 2010 over the previous year and is joined by 200 sponsors this year and many big-name participants, including Fed Ex, Google and Facebook.

So how can you show your small business spirit? Simple! Join more than 1.85 million people who have taken the “I Pledge to Shop Small” challenge on Facebook and check out the page to find info for buyers and business owners: www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday.

Then, make it a point to get out on Saturday, November 26, and open up your wallets at some of the fine local retailers in your community. It feels good to buy local!

Before the Facebook for Business tool launched last summer, there was a whole lot of head-scratching over how to create a new business page or enhance an existing one. Now that the basics have been covered and people are digging deeper, a new question has surfaced: how do you maximize page effectiveness?

Our clients have been asking this, too, and it seems that small businesses everywhere are searching for some ideas and inspiration. They want advice on everything from growing their fan base to starting conversations with would-be customers and initiating meaningful interaction.

While there’s obviously no one-size-fits-all solution that fits every business, we found some good stuff to get the creative juices flowing in a recent Social Media Examiner article. It features the top 10 picks for Facebook pages by small business.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/top-10-small-business-facebook-pages-2011-winners/

Take a look at the winning businesses and maybe you’ll be inspired by some clever ideas for:

• Welcoming visitors to your page
• Ways to promote more page “Likes”
• Incorporating mini testimonials
• Adding customer reviews
• Creative photo usage
• Featuring Facebook-only specials
• Interaction through polls

Posted by Brenda Timm, Director of Strategic Communications & Online Services

With so many businesses pushing the “less is more” approach today, it’s easy to see how the virtual world is exploding. There are the at-your-desk webinars, onscreen tradeshows, staff conferences via instant messaging … the list keeps going.

These web-based solutions might save time, travel and money, but what about direct, in-person contact? Has it become a thing of the past? Before you pull the plug on face-to-face communication, consider its importance with these two stats:

• 40% of prospective clients converted to new customers through face-to-face meetings (Meeting Professionals International, MPI)
• 84% of people prefer in-person communication over virtual (Forbes Insight Study)

What it really comes down to – as with anything in marketing – is finding the right balance. Not every interaction calls for an organized sit-down, but sometimes people need that one-on-one conversation to feel connected, interact more freely and build relationships.

The next time you’re about to check in with a customer through instant messaging or Facebook, think of the value a simple handshake might have.

For an in-depth report on the trends in face-to-face communication, check out this whitepaper from MC2: http://www.mc-2.com/documents/Is%20Face-to-Face%20Old%20School.pdf

It’s an age-old topic that’s been debated since ads first started hitting the printing press centuries ago: what do readers really want? Short copy, long copy or something in the middle?

As a writer and serious word lover myself, I can be easily persuaded by the “tell more, sell more” argument. But the time-pressed consumer in me can also relate to the need for keeping things simple in today’s on-the-go society.

So what’s the answer? As this article by MarketingProfs shares, and we continue to learn first-hand, that pretty much depends on what it is you’re selling.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2010/3413/the-end-of-the-long-copy-vs-short-copy-debate

Here’s a quick look at some things to consider when strapping your sales cap on and penning your next ad:

Keep it short and sweet
• Your brand/product has limited competition
• The purchase price is minimal
• There are few features to differentiate among competitors
• The main goal is a quick-hitting message

Go long with more details
• A new product or service introduction
• The purchase price is higher
• There are more brands to research and compare
• The main goal is to build awareness or communicate a need

Here at Willems Marketing, we’re often approached by new clients who have tried to get some PR brewing, but have yet to see their business make the headlines. Once we get to the bottom of what’s been pitched, where and when, it’s usually as simple as this: they’ve been selling instead of telling.

This got me thinking about an article from MarketingProfs that gave some excellent how-to tips for PR success a few years back. I started digging through the archives, and sure enough, here it is:

http://www.willemsmarketing.com/blog/mktProfsArticle_PR_091311.pdf

Take a look to see what makes telling a compelling story (all companies have one!) such an integral part of PR. And remember these other little tidbits, too:

• Do your homework first
• Make sure your story is relevant
• Follow up
• Be accommodating
• Stay in touch

We’ve all had – or at least heard about – our share of horrible customer service experiences. Who can’t relate to the one where you call a toll-free number looking for technical support, get sent to about three different departments (all being the wrong one), sit on hold for 45 minutes and get hung up on in the final transfer process?

To some customers, these less-than-ideal situations may not be the ultimate deal breaker. But as it turns out, this group of overly understanding individuals represents the minority these days. Poor customer service has more power than ever to cost you current and potential clientele. Just consider a few of the more surprising numbers compiled by Customer1 in its 20 Customer Service Statistics blog post.

• 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with your organization again (Source: Lee Resource Inc.)
• 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company because of a bad customer experience, up from 59% four years ago (Source: Harris Interactive, Customer Experience Impact Report)
• It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience (Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner)

The next time a customer has a beef, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem, don’t just brush it off. Remember this one last stat Customer1 shares: Attracting a new customer costs 5 times as much as keeping an existing one.