Opinion: 5 things digital marketers must pay attention to in 2013

2012, a year marked by accelerating change, draws to a close. We saw the launch of the Facebook Exchange, the continuing rise of DSPs (demand-side platforms) into mainstream digital media buying, the rise of Pinterest (the fastest site to reach the 10 million per month unique visitor mark), and significant changes in Facebook’s newsfeed optimization algorithm. The list could go on and on. Given the quantum and complexity of change, what should marketers focus on in 2013? Here is my list:

1. Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) in Google Analytics

The fact that consumer journeys are complex, fragmented and involve non-linear loops was first formally postulated by McKinsey in 2010. This truism has been repeated ad-nauseum since then. However what was lacking was a simple, lollipop-easy-to-use technology that enabled a very simple understanding of the interplay between these various touchpoints. Prior to the launch of MCF, measuring multi-session or multi-touchpoint behavior at the unique consumer level required huge investments in technology and a small army of rocket scientists. With MCF, Google has done what it's so good at doing: “long-tailing” technologies that were previously accessible with limited functionality to a select few. MCF can also quantify the impact of offline media, such as TV and radio into consumer journeys, with a little imagination and tagging.

2. Newsfeed optimization in Q3 of 2012

Facebook implemented changes in its newsfeed algorithm that resulted in reach per post dropping from 18 per cent to 10 per cent in three months. No, this wasn’t some evil plot enabling the substitution of organic posts with ads. I believe is was an attempt by Facebook to make its newsfeed more relevant and meaningful as consumers interact with more and more pages over time. Besides, Facebook more than compensated by offering marketers some really serious granularity in terms of post targeting. Posts, which previously could only be targeted based on the user’s country and language of browser could now be targeted based on seven incremental variables, including sex, age, relationship status, education and city. Marketers need to take advantage of such granular options to get more intelligent so that consumers don’t get spammed with unintelligent posts that decrease the brand’s EdgeRank and reduce reach as a consequence (I for one get regular updates about ladies' shoes and accessories from various e-commerce sites). The scale achievable by newsfeed optimization can be significant: cumulative reach can be grown from 10 per cent to 20 per cent. Calculate the value of that to a brand.

3. The Facebook Exchange

Talk about DSPs is at all time high, with a new DSP emerging almost every week. Yes, programmatic buying is going to alter the buying ecosystem, but what I am bullish about is the rise of the Facebook Exchange, which lets marketers re-target consumers on Facebook based on their behavior on the brand website. A person visiting an e-commerce website from Google can be retargeted on Facebook and potentially converted. Facebook Exchange will enable greater ROI on Facebook, in addition to lowering prices by adding close to 25 per cent extra liquidity available to buyers.

4.  Pinterest

I see social-media sites sprouting every other day, but it’s not often that a juggernaut like Pinterest comes along. The site’s claim to fame in web history is being the fastest site to reach the 10 million unique monthly visitor mark (in December 2011). The very next month it sent more referral traffic to ecommerce sites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. Marketers need to get “under the hood” of this emerging animal to get some of its huge base of visitors to convert into buyers, leads or referrals.

5. Mobile readiness

Building a microsite or a social-media app is no longer easy. Marketers now need to contend with myriad platforms and devices while designing brand experiences. As an example, a simple social-media app can be accessed through three broadly defined methods: Browser on desktop, browser on mobile device, and native app. The app needs to work across all interactions on all devices, and in situations where the app cannot work, offer gracefully articulated error pages. We recently launched an app, thinking that we had all bases covered. But with 60 per cent of interactions coming from mobile, had to rethink all our assumptions. The learnings from that experiment alone are enough to fill a small best-practices manual.

What are your focus areas for 2013? Share your thoughts below.