Simplogy’s principal consultant – Hasnain Zaheer – will be speaking at ad:tech New Delhi on 22 Feb 2012.

The topic of this session is content as a brand building strategy and he would be speaking about the importance of web presence, and not just website, in the context of Vivek Bhargava’s article on this topic in Clickz. He will describe how to create and implement a content strategy with case studies / success stories.

The digital business masters at Simplogy are back with a compilation of the best of previous year’s reviews, and predictions, and trends for 2012 & beyond in the world of digital business, marketing & media.

Note, this is an article written for business people, not just for techies.

What we think

The digital world is growing relentlessly and is innovating every hour of each day.

2011 saw an accelerating investment of time, attention and budgets in digital platforms, technologies and business models.

Social media went mainstream in the (Australian) corporate world as increasingly, large companies finally started to abandon their social training wheels and put in place teams and processes to manage their social media initiatives. Among platforms, Google+ has a winning feature-set, is backed relentlessly by Google and we are very upbeat on its Business Pages.

Facebook Ads currently offers effective low cost advertising will get expensive but will continue to provide one of the best advertising ROI.

Smartphones finally crossed their tipping point (about 50% Australians now have a smartphone) and is fuelling a rage in iPhone and Android apps. The future is mobile: Smart businesses are building a mobile future and the smart people in the ‘interactive’ industry are embracing the world of mobile.

Search, and especially pay-per-click search advertising, is going steady with Google AdWords still powering most of Google’s revenue, even as the search queries are now originating from a mobile browser rather than a desktop. DSPs (demand-side platforms) are gaining momentum but the negotiated display and banner deals, a relic of distant past when we actually negotiated deals face to face, will finally hit their downward slide.

Affiliate marketing, a great tool, will unfortunately continue on its downward journey, weighed down by spin-masters exploiting it to sell all types of dodgy products, although great affiliate marketing cases exist.

Growth in desktops and laptops is expected to languish as smartphones and tablets power ahead. In both these categories, style and profitability will remain trendsetter Apple’s forte but Android will lead the volumes game, as Google fulfils its hardware ambitions with Motorola and Samsung latches on with its great products running Android.

Among the major players, the four key players – Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple are raring for a fight to dominate the search-social-mobile landscape.

At Simplogy, we love all four but we never hesitate to back the horses we believe in and we think that Google, with its extremely sophisticated and elegant systems and engineering will be the ultimate winner. It has its fingers in the most online pies with analytics, mobile, search, social, cloud applications sewn up. (At Simplogy, we remain intensive Google users and use every single Google’s business product that we know of, for ourselves and for our clients).

After Google, we put our faith on Amazon, which has built infrastructure and systems that has positioned it at such a tremendous advantage in the world of cloud computing.

Facebook has huge traffic and reach but a narrow product line. Apple’s ‘walled garden’ approach is not liked by the open source fans at Simplogy but guess what, we go and buy iPhones and iPads, and admire their interface and the way they work, rather grudgingly. Yes, their products are beautiful, it’s just that some of our philosophy don’t match.

So, without further ado, here are the best of 2011 review and 2012 trends and predictions:

(Each link is a gem, open in a new tab so you may go through several of them in a session)

Business & Marketing

1. Top blog posts of 2012 (in Harvard Business Review blog)
2. Top 10 tech trends for the decade (by Sramana Mitra – 1M/1M)
3. 2015 Marketing Predictions: Adapt to the digital future (in Australian Direct Marketing Association blog)
4. 7 Digital Trends You Should Know (in Media Post)
5. AMI: Senior marketers upbeat despite modest budget expectations (in Marketing Magazine)
6. Planning for Next Year? Get a Fix on These Numbers First (in Entrepreneur)
7. Four Event Marketing Predictions for 2012 (in Marketing Profs)
8. SME business trends to watch out for in the New Year (in Australian Anthill)

 Digital business

(With inputs from Meraj Huda)

1. 2012 Digital Planning Guide (in Clickz)
2. Digital Marketing Trends To Watch Out For In 2012 (in Search Engine Land)
3. 12 New Year’s Marketing Resolutions You Can Actually Keep (in Hubspot blog)
4. How to Increase Conversion in 2012 (in Marketing Experiments)
5. Marketing wisdom for 2011 (by Marketing Sherpa)
6. Six Predictions for Digital Business in 2012 (in Harvard Business Review blog)
7. Top 12 Customer Loyalty Trends for 2012 (in Marketing Profs)
8. Top Online Marketing Books for 2012 (in Top Rank Blog)

Sales

1. 8 Ways Digital Will Improve B2B Sales in 2012 (in Mashable)
2. Predictions and the New Currency of Business for 2012 (in Ari Galper’s blog)

Mobile

(With inputs from Rob Marston – Mobile Marketing Experts)

1. 2011 and Mobile: 5 things to look for (by JT Klepp)
2. Mobile Year in Review 2011 (by Mobile Future)
3. Must-have stats for 2011 (in Mobile Marketer)
4. Mobile to hit 15% of ad spend by 2016 (in MediaPost)
5. Use QR Codes so You Don’t Get Thrown Away After Tradeshows (in Marketing Profs)
6. What mobile trends can we expect in 2012, according to Australia’s mobile elite? (in Australian Anthill)
7. Search 2012: The Mobile Effect (in Website Magazine)

 Search

1. 2011′s Key Developments in Paid Search at Google (in Website Magazine)
2. Best of Wordtracker 2011 (by Wordtracker)
3. Google Is 2011?s Top Web Brand (in Mashable)
4. Search 2012: The Mobile Effect (in Website Magazine)

Social media

1. Social media: 5 Facts to Bank on in 2012 (in AdAge)
2. 2011: Looking back & Learning (by Position2)
3. 10 Social Media 2011 Highlights (in Clickz)
4. Top 5 Linkedin social media resolutions (by Jennifer Bishop in Content & Copy)
5. Facebook 2012: What the Future Holds for the Social Media Powerhouse (in Mashable)
6. Google+ Predicted to Have 400 million Users By End of 2012 (in Marketing Pilgrim)
7. Today show: Social media and technology trends for 2012 (by Ross Dawson)
8. What a Google+ Brand Page Could Mean for Your Small Business (in Inc magazine)

Start-ups

1. 2012: Top trends and opportunities (by Sramana Mitra)
2. 6 Important Startup Trends that Defined 2011 (in Mashable)

Digital markets

Google Sees India Web Explosion (in Wall Street Journal)

Digital People – 2011 Roll Call (in Digital Ministry by Denise Shrivell)

Personal technology

(with inputs from Sibtain of Tabletworld & Easytech)

The 10 stories that defined tech in 2011 (in Gigaom)

10 cloud start-ups to watch in 2012 (in Gigaom)

The mobile apps that changed our lives this year (in Gigaom)

The Most Important Gadgets Of 2012 (in Techcrunch).

Any other reviews or predictions? Share with us all in comments.

External coverage of this article:

PRLog

Newsmaker

PRWire

Simplogy is proud to announce that our client NB Financial Planning has gone live with their website and also with a range of marketing strategies, online marketing systems and search campaigns, all hand-crafted by Simplogy’s digital services professionals.

NB Financial provides a range of financial planning services such as investment planning and wealth management, retirement planning, estate planning, cash flow management, risk management and insurance for its clients in Sydney CBD, inner city, North shore, northern and eastern suburbs.

The financial planning practice is led by Nash Balaghee.

We are very excited by this achievement, one of our first clients to go live on our ready-Start-UP product. We hope to work with Nash to continue to advance his business.

The next 2 days training course in Implementing a Digital Strategy for your Small Business is scheduled on 24-25 November 2011 at University of Sydney – Centre for Continuing Education.

Simplogy’s director and principal consultant – Hasnain Zaheer presents this course and is co-presented by Rob Marston.

The course content was revamped recently to present even more updated information.

Check more details and register.

Course coverage

1. How to build a digital-focused marketing strategy
2. Overview of current landscape of digital tools, channels, platforms, website building options, trends and techniques.
3. Creating and managing a website – Digital project management, domain name, hosting, selection of vendors, tools and platforms, crowdsourcing, open source software
4. Digital marketing: Building an online media plan, best practices and guidelines in search engine marketing, search engine optimisation, e-mail marketing, and social media.
5. Using web analytics, marketing automation and social CRM

Check more details and register.

Simplogy is moving from a primarily home-office and client-site based set-up to our new office in Ultimo, located on the fringe of Sydney CBD.

Our new address is level 2, Harris Street, Ultimo, NSW 2007.

We are located just a couple of buildings away from ABC and are in ‘UTS territory’. In fact the floors below us are occupied by UTS Insearch. If you are planning on visiting us, please do call beforehand and here is a map:

View Larger Map

We are seeking help in re-designing and re-building Simplogy. It is already running WP+Thesis.

Please have a look at the wireframes of templates for home page, inside pages (pages linked from menu) and landing pages (self-sufficient pages catering to users from outside advertising or links).

I am convinced that WP+Thesis, when used well, can build compelling business websites and want to unleash the full power of Thesis with use of feature box, multimedia box, Thesis based CSS etc.

I will provide the developer, the designs PSDs and logo etc so your scope is limited to WP+Thesis. Ideally, the use of the three templates will streamline the design of the entire website but you may be needed to individually edit any stubborn items on the website’s 70 or so pages.

Please let me know your interest in this task or call me on (61) 403569410 or fill the contact form for any questions you may have.

Hello friends of Simplogy,

It’s been a great journey over the past couple of years, proving Simplogy as a digital services company with a difference and we are entering the next stage of its evolution when we begin to scale.

I have been planning a revamp of Simplogy’s branding and design for quite some time.  Here are a few questions that I have been pondering on and would love to have your comments (confidentially):

1. The name: “Simplogy” and “Simplogy Web Business Pty. Ltd” – It’s short and simple and easy to go with the idea of Web business technology made simpler by us. However, the name has to be spelled out every time when talking to someone. Should we possibly look at a change of name?

2. If yes, what may be better alternatives:

• Simpology – an extra “o”
• Digital Success Strategies www.digitalsuccessstrategies.com.au
• Digital Success Stories www.digitalsuccessstories.com.au
• Any other suggested name from you

3. What tagline do you prefer:

• “Trusted advisers in Web business” – Existing
• “Web business technology made simple”
• Any suggestion from you.

4. We have a product – Rent-your-Chief Digital Officer which is doing well with the customers and prospects. It is aimed at medium business and the higher end of small business whereas everything else is targeting micro-to-small business. Should it be a Simplogy product or hived as a separate brand with its own Web site?

5. Another product I am struggling to name is an end-to-end / comprehensive start-up package to help a new solo or small business set up and implement a digital strategy aligned with their business plan, website design and development, cloud infrastructure, online marketing collateral – templates etc, complete media and promo plan, set-up and first few months of search, social, email and CRM. I have tentatively named it WeBeginnings but looking for a better name.

6. Any comments on this proposed layout (please click) of the new, improved Web site

I look forward to your comments. Please add in comments below or email me at hasnain@simplogy.com.

Thank you very much for your support.

The next 2 days training course in Implementing a Digital Strategy for your Small Business is scheduled on 14-15 September 2011 at University of Sydney – Centre for Continuing Education.

Simplogy’s director and principal consultant – Hasnain presents this course and is co-presented by Rob Marston.

The course content is revamped to present even more updated information.

Check more details and register.

Business is marketing…
Marketing is going digital.

The next 2 days training course in Implementing a Digital Strategy for your Small Business is scheduled on 15-16 June 2011 at University of Sydney – Centre for Continuing Education.

Simplogy’s director and principal consultant – Hasnain presents this course which is co-presented by Rob Marston.

Why attend this course:

It is essential for business owners, entrepreneurs, sales and marketing managers to be able to harness the power of the Web. This course teaches you how to build a solid digital-focused marketing strategy and provides you the knowledge and resources needed to implement it.

The course has received excellent feedback from previous participants. It has a mix of classroom lectures, discussions and demos to help you build a digital strategy, choose vendors to build websites and run digital marketing campaigns, manage digital projects and choose digital marketing channels. There is a special section on mobile strategy and marketing.

• How to research your online market, customers and competitors?
• How to research and map the keyword marketplace to your business?
• Who has positioned their business successfully in the online marketplace (case studies)?
• What to keep in mind when choosing a designer, a developer or an agency?
• How to ensure your digital projects complete in time and within budget?
• What can we learn from successful social media marketing cases (case studies)?
• How to make your Web site a magnet of relevant traffic using content marketing and search engine optimisation?
• What are the best practices in building a great search marketing campaign on Google AdWords?
• What is mobile marketing and how to benefit from the upcoming smartphone revolution?

And more….
Check more details and register.

Simplogy consultant – Hasnain Zaheer – has just launched 7 Steps to Building a Winning Digital Strategy: An Executive Guide to help Australian businesses design a digital strategy for their business.

This e-book on online strategies for executives is now available for download.

Why did we write this executive guide?

In the age of Google, Facebook and Groupon, every business organisation needs to build a solid strategy to:

1. harness the power of the Web in reaching, influencing and engaging with their customer;
2. bring efficiency in their business processes; and
3. enable conversations and collaboration with their partners, suppliers and other stakeholders.

This guide is intended to help business owners / executives have a systematic process and a guiding framework when they embark on the exercise of creating a digital strategy for their organisation.

We would publish this guide in 8 parts on this blog over the next few weeks. However, you may download the latest version of the entire guide (PDF file) here.

Help us improve this guide

To help us make this guide more comprehensive and useful to future readers, put in any comments, tips, links to other articles and resources, tools and methods in comments below. Let us together make this executive guide the best it can be. Thanks in advance from the writer.