27 Marketing Wishes for 2012

Inside the Minds of 27 Marketers

Want insight into how marketers think? To find out, I asked twenty-seven marketing experts across a range of specialties what their wish was for 2012.

While it sounds like an easy question to answer, I was surprised by the responses. Read these twenty-seven marketing wishes for 2012 and you’ll discover marketers are eternal optimists as well as learn where their frustrations lie.

1. I wish that 2012 will be the year where there isn’t a single article written in a major publication talking about how email is dead.”  Matt Blumberg – ReturnPath @MattBlumberg
2. I hope we see a few more, large social networks. I’m concerned about the power of Facebook, the lack of innovation displayed by Twitter and LinkedIn. Google+ is a start, but I’d like to see more genuine competitors. Nobody has really cracked local social networking yet, and that’s the big one for SMEs and local businesses. Luke Brynley-Jones Our Social Times  @oursocialtimes
3. My marketing wish is that businesses stop abusing email marketing as a marketing tool and think outside the box. Lisa Buyer – The Buyer Group – @lisabuyer
4. In the mobile-connected social media ecosystem, marketers finally understand that consumers (including the public) own their positioning and brand. As a result, they’re forced to stop distributing Teflon marketing messages across media channels and be more transparent in their communications. Heidi Cohen – Riverside Marketing Strategies, @HeidiCohen
5. My greatest wish is that people in the online world who may not have a background in marketing will attain a better grasp of what marketing words really mean. There is a lot of misinformation being passed around. Margie Clayman – Clayman Advertising, Inc., @margieclayman
6. Agencies to develop a stronger expertise around content curation and social integration into existing properties. Right now agencies competencies and positions are biforcated between standard creative and broadcast strategies and in-network community management. The future is integrating the social sphere into the overall marketing strategy, programs, properties, and campaigns. Sam Decker – Mass Relevance – @samdecker
7. More organizations realize the need and power of one-on-one marketing, and in the process, create new value. Ric Dragon – Dragon Search @RicDragon
8. Right now less than 20% of American  companies have social media integrated with their online newsrooms.  My marketing wish for 2012 is that 80% of these companies realize just how important it is to have social media elements in their online newsroom. Sally Falkow, APR- PRESSfeed @sallyfalkow
9. My biggest wish for marketing in 2012 would be for marketers to have the courage to link the social media activities they are funded to deliver to the business’ bottom line: profit. Sam Fiorella – Sensei Marketing  @samfiorella
10. My one big wish for 2012 is that advertisers begin to truly understand the power of consumer choice. We can watch, share, like, tweet, and recommend nearly any ad or brand practically anytime we want. The advertisers who understand the power of this choice are creating better relationships with their customers and potential customers. I think the more advertisers who embrace this new dynamic with consumers the better it will be for the advertising industry as a whole. Matt Fiorentino – Visible Measures @FiorentinoM
11. My wish is that more small businesses start taking advantage of the possibilities within social media. The tools are available and need to trickle down to the Mom & Pop shops. Peggy Fitzpatrick-12 Most -@PegFitzpatrick
12. In my “fantasy world” it would be easy to tell a client “Yes, we can directly track exactly who bought your product based on which tweets they read and which things they liked on Facebook or Google Plus. Privacy concerns aside, we could know exactly which “fans” are the ones that purchase and influence others to purchase, without any doubt. We’d be able to give you exact, to the dollar Return on Investment for your social campaigns.” Of course we can’t do this yet, but I’m always looking for tools that make parts of this easier and more accurate. Howard Greenstein– Harbrooke Group  @Howardgr
13.  Facebook’s open graph will deliver a net new source of traffic to retailers (greater than 10% of total traffic) Cathy Halligan – PowerReviews, @CathyHalligan
14. That companies embrace Content as the cornerstone of their marketing, and start producing stuff that’s more about quality than quantity: Content that’s enjoyable, empowers or educates. (Or sometimes all three.) Ann Handley – MarketingProfs, Author with C.C. Chapman of Content Rules  @MarketingProfs
15. Marketers will stop talking about market fragmentation and start focusing on market segmentation. The search, social, video, and mobile markets aren’t fragmented. They are segmented. When you focus on the segments that generate the most traffic, leads and sales, then — and only then — do you increase your return on marketing investment. Gnashing your teeth about market fragmentation is a nostalgic attempt to turn back the clock to the good old days of mass marketing portrayed in AMC’s award-winning series Mad Men. Get over it. Greg Jarboe – SEO-PR author of YouTube and Video Marketing An Hour A Day – @gregjarboe
16. Companies will get smart about QR code use and only use QR codes to drive customer value. Dave Kerpen – Likeable Media and author of  Likeable Social Media, @davekerpen
17. That organizations recognize the value of content marketing and take a considered, deliberate, strategic approach to incorporating it into the existing marketing mix. By all indications, this is beginning to happen. Google search results for “content strategy” rose 156% in 2011 over 2010. Results for “content marketing” were up 875%. Content marketing is definitely on radar screens. Getting it right, from both the strategic and tactical perspectives, is the challenge I hope marketers will meet creatively and courageously. Rebecca Lieb – Altimeter Group, author of Content Marketing – @lieblink
18. My wish is that a segment the most active and influential women in business from around the globe will unite and rally around a few key endeavors that will enable the world to define a new era of marketing from outreach to engagement through to measurement.  Jeanniey Mullen – Zinio and VIVmag, author of Email Marketing An Hour A Day – @empg
19. To not have to explain to anyone, anywhere, any time why social media needs to be part of the marketing mix. It’s just marketing, not magic. Onward. B.L. Ochman – What’s Next Blog – @whatsnext
20. My biggest wish is that the book and magazine publishing industry manages to reinvent themselves, and avoid the brutal chaos that hit the record business. This also ties into creating new types of advertising – digital magazines represent an opportunity to reinvent magazine ads, and it would be nice to see publishers escape the diminishing value of web banner ads.  Michael Pinto – Very Memorable, Inc. @MichaelPinto
21. In 2012, I would like to see marketers focus more of their efforts on integrated “pull” marketing campaigns instead of actively pushing their messaging at their target audience. Brian Rice – B2Community – @BrianSRice
22. That platforms, gadgets and content begins to consolidate.  Mark Schaefer, author of Return On Influence – @markwschaefer
23. I long for a quality all-in-one tool for tracking and measuring search, social, and conversion analytics. Angie Schottmuller, Search Engine Watch, @aschottmuller
24. Similar to other nonprofit organizations – for a high level of success in fundraising. Jim Siegel,HealthCare Chaplaincy – @MeaningComfort
25. Personalization starts working so well that all privacy concerns shrivel up and waft away. Jim Sterne eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit Author of Social Media Metrics – @jimsterne
26. My prime marketing wish for 2012 is that more companies will get serious about training employees and empowering them to harness digital and social media for communication, collaboration and innovation.  Dr. William J. Ward – S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University – @DR4WARD
27. Prime Marketing Wish would be to develop/establish industry standards (as if!) for Social Media Measurement that could/would be used to establish a program’s success of failure. AND that Brand Marketers would understand the need to integrate everything they do across all channels, including internal & customer service, to achieve optimal results from the outset of their planning process. PR is too often called on/in to sweep up random, aftermath debris. Deborah Weinstein – Strategic Objectives, @DebWeinstein

Like participants in a Miss America pageant, these marketers want the world to be a better, fairer place where customers are respected and businesses efficiently use new and emerging tools to accomplish their jobs.

What’s your marketing wish for 2012? Please share your views in the comment section below.

Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen

Big tip of my hat to all of the contributors!

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