Informal & humor
The internet is a self-service environment and websites are impersonal. Due to the lower price and the convenience, we still choose to buy via the internet. The personal touch of a shop is something we miss. An impersonal, business text on a website does not really help to create that feeling.
I am increasingly asked to write in the 'you' form and notice that light-heartedly written texts are more appreciated. Informal texts create a more friendly atmosphere and that is what the reader needs in 2012. Of course, this does not apply to all visitors and websites, but this is becoming the trend for more and more products and services.
I also tested what gets clicked on more by using different titles. Things like 'The worst SEO advice' and 'How do you make sure visitors click away quickly' were more popular than '5 tips for a better website' and 'how important is web text for search engine optimization?'.
Honestly
Write about mistakes
“Marketers, copywriters and salespeople are liars.” That is true, no doubt about it! In other words: either I am lying, or I am not a marketer and copywriter. Many people agree with the above statement. In fact, we take most sentences we read with a grain of salt. We actually expect that the umbrella from 'The best umbrella' does not have to be that good, certainly not because it only costs €14.95. In texts, we are not surprised by lies. What we are surprised by, is honesty.
I once blogged for a company in filtration solutions. I interviewed employees with certain expertise and then wrote a piece about it. These were conversations with a lot of technical terms. Because I am not familiar with filtration and a lot of technical texts flew past my eyes, I sometimes mixed up the terms and my pieces sometimes missed the point. You cannot expect someone who interviews you to list all the technical terms in chronological order. For this reason, I belize phone number list started recording the conversations, so that I can listen to everything at my leisure and also the technical parts are now completely correct.
Everyone makes mistakes and you learn from mistakes. When you read the example above, do you think : okay, I'm not going to hire him to write a blog ? Or do you think: okay, he'll never make that mistake again, I have to take it ! Being honest, writing & talking about your mistakes, fortunately happens more and more often and I expect that this will only increase in the coming year. So don't be afraid to admit your mistakes, but do write down what you learned from them.
Neuromarketing
NeuromarketingThe last trend for 2012 cannot be left out of the rise of neuromarketing. This form of marketing has been gaining ground in recent years and, thanks to increasingly better techniques such as fMRI (a special MRI technique that makes brain activity visible), EEG (a method that measures brain activity) and eyetracking (a way to measure what people are looking at), more and more is being learned about what potential customers experience on your website and you can influence them increasingly better. There is a growing interest in neuromarketing and I expect that this will really become the trend in 2012 .
So far my expectations for 2012. There are quite a few, but it will also be a very interesting year. What are your ideas about 2012, do you have any additions, or do you disagree with something? I would love to hear it in a comment!