MOBILE

Mobile marketing was a big talking point for 2011 and is predicted to be even bigger in 2012. Mobile technology has become more sophisticated, more affordable and a lot more accessible over the past few years and with the growth in smartphones and apps, hundreds or even millions of people are beginning to rely on their mobiles for day-to-day activities, including shopping, entertainment, organising, planning and locating places.

For E-tailers, now is the time to start making your site mobile friendly to keep up with prospects and customers that are always 'on the go'. Integrating website's with mobile functionality is a must, if retailers really want to take advantage of such an exciting, fast growing marketing channel. Customers can use mobile to locate, contact, research and even buy your products or services anywhere, at the click of a button, from the palm of their hand.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media sites have been around for a while now, and millions of people use them all over the world for networking and sharing content. Only recently has the world of business opened its eyes to the overwhelming potential of growth and opportunity through the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Whether it's a corporate Facebook page or a company Twitter or LinkedIn account, social networking is a great way to communicate with customers and clients and engage with potential prospects, spreading the word about your brand, promoting your products through marketing campaigns and generally getting people talking about you and what your company has to offer.

CONVERSION RATE OPTIMISATION

A recent study by Econsultancy showed that for every £1 spent on increasing online conversions, £92 is spent on increasing web traffic. Marketers are spending millions of pounds, pouring their budgets into website traffic, when the real opportunities exist with customers who are already on their website but are failing to convert. Average Shopping Cart Abandonment rates for ecommerce merchants have hit a record 75% (SeeWhy), which means that all the hard work and investment put into increasing website traffic is being wasted, and thousands of pounds in lost sales revenue is slipping away, unnoticed.

This year, Marketers and E-tailer's need to crank up their conversion rate optimisation efforts, by tracking online shopping activity and analysing checkout processes in order to identify and remarket to shopping cart abandoners and customers who have experienced online transactional issues.

ONLINE ENGAGEMENT and CUSTOMER SERVICE

Not only do online merchants need to get a good grasp on visitor checkout activity and web browsing behaviours, but they also need to have the right resources to be able to react to online problems, alerts and requests appropriately, in real-time as it happens on their website. There are lots of fresh, effective ways to engage with customers on your website, including online chat functions, live webcam discussion and call back request buttons, which allow online prospects to submit their contact details in order for a company representative to call them back. The newest form of innovative online engagement involves remarketing to customers who have shown an interest into products and services online but failed to purchase, or customers who have entered the checkout but abandoned their transaction before buying. If customers have shown a significant level of commitment to a purchase, and get to the stage where they enter their contact information at the checkout, if for some reason they then abandon the purchase, E-tailers can remarket to those customers to remind them of their shopping cart, or to offer them customer support via email, SMS or telephone. Remarketing technology is a fairly new concept but seems to be working wonders for ecommerce merchants, effectively recovering lost revenue, increasing conversion rates and enhancing customer service.

So, in summary innovative technology, online engagement, mobile and social media are crucial areas to consider if online marketers want to move their businesses forward in 2012. Today, shopping online isn't just about a pretty website and low prices or offers, customers want a solid, seamless online experience with plenty of channels to be able to interact with an advisor or get help quickly, if they can't find what they are looking for. Otherwise, the outcome is simple, they'll go elsewhere.

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For more information on conversion rate optimisation solutions and online engagement technology visit http://www.leadcall.co.uk.