The past year will be marked as the year that search marketing matured. In 2011, mobile became one of the largest growth components, achieving an overall share of the search market of 20 percent. This year will be the year that the SEO as we know it will drastically change.
Here are top 3 mobile marketing trends that experienced great growth in 2011 and will continue to grow through 2012 and beyond.
QR Codes
Quick Response or QR codes will become ubiquitous both online and offline. The past year has seen a massive increase their use on everything from advertising campaigns to product packaging. QR codes are being increasingly used in magazines, on the web, on billboards and other signage. Smartphone usage has already reached 50 percent of U.S. mobile users and continues to grow. QR codes will allow merchants the ability to easily send people with mobile devices to online destinations.
Expect QR codes to eventually replace or to be used in tandem to URLs on all offline advertising. This will cause search engines to rely less on text links and factor in interest from QR code use. Expect to see a lot more QR codes in 2012.
Location Based Marketing (LBM)
Location-based marketing is dishing out content based on where the precise location of the recipients. Imagine entering a restaurant and then receiving a SMS offering you some freebies once you order something from them. It can be achieved using a number of technologies including Mobile Phone Tracking, WiFi and RFID (a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data from an electronic tag.)
Infographics
The way we consume information can vary greatly. Different audiences prefer to get their info in different ways. Infographics became a hit in 2011 and should become even more popular in 2012. Surveys have shown that people were spending less and less time with the written word and more time with visual aspects of the products.
Infographics are simply visual communication. Successful infographics tell a story with a quick glance or read. More and more articles or blog posts that contain numbers, dates, locations, measurements or comparisons, are reformatting that information into easy to read and understand infographics.
Summary
The explosive growth in the mobile web is expected to continue through 2012 and beyond. It is becoming (if it hasn’t already become) what desktop Internet became in the 1990’s: the standard platform for anyone doing business.
