SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/18/12 -- Sitecore, a leading web content management and customer experience management software company, today announced a top ten list for marketers to succeed in retaining, growing and increasing lifetime customers in the new year.

"The initial thrill of securing single transactions and interactions can leave customers and marketers feeling unsatisfied and yearning for more," said Suzy McKee, Director Demand Gen, Sitecore. "It's time to re-examine our goals. As marketers, the initial boost to revenue is never unwelcome, but it's easy to get lulled into a false sense of success when we fail to leverage that investment into a relationship that contributes to revenue over time. To renew your commitment to customers and secure a long-term relationship that lasts well beyond a single click or download, we put together a top 10 list to help drive more deeply satisfying and rewarding customer relationships in 2013 and beyond."

The Top 10 Things Marketers Need to Know in 2013

1. Talk to your CIO and CTO - 2013 will be the year that marketing's budget approaches or passes IT's budget as the importance of driving the customer experience across the entire customer lifecycle becomes critical. Analytics and customer data that includes all interaction points will provide increases in conversion and sales revenue.

2. Automate the mundane - Big data for marketing purposes will begin to move into the actionable stage. Already one-third of all big data is marketing related, coming from browsers, transactional systems, ad networks, tagging, ecommerce, social data, devices, apps, and more. To succeed, marketers need to automate the process.

3. Support channel partners - 91% of national brands say they plan to spend more/the same on local marketing in 2013 than in 2012, with mobile marketing, local blogs, and online customer reviews as their top 3 digital priorities for the coming year. Create consistent, localized content and campaigns across all digital markets.

4. Cater to the small screen - By 2013, there will be 1 billion smartphone users globally and by the end of 2013, the global smartphone and tablet installed base will exceed the PC installed base. Companies will spend more than $3.3 billion in 2013 on marketing in the mobile channel. Know how your web content and campaigns will display on devices.

5. Be more relevant and immediate - Marketing will become more personalized with customized content and tailored experiences to meet growing customer expectations. 80% of consumers surveyed were willing to provide personal data if it yielded a better experience for them. Develop personas and use analytics to get real time profiles of your customers.

6. Get pinning - Pinterest will become a critical component of social media marketing plans thanks to its dramatic rise to become the third biggest social network in the U.S. This becomes another interaction point for marketers to use content to drive engagement.

7. Use video to improve SEO - Videos are 53 times more likely than text pages to appear on the first page of search results and YouTube is the second-largest search engine on the web and attracts 157 million unique viewers per month. Estimates are that 90% of all web traffic will be driven by video by the end of 2013. Video does not have to be expensive and/or labor intensive to be successful.

8. Don't kill your email campaigns - Email is still the most utilized channel by marketers and consumers and will continue to grow. Test, optimize, and improve your campaign results with analytics.

9. Stop using clickstream metrics - Customer and engagement analytics will continue to grow in importance, as 51% of companies use it to drive customer satisfaction. Engagement analytics tools can accurately predict behavior and whether your website and campaigns engage customers.

10. Think more global - 56% of U.S. based CMOs and VPs plan to add 2 to 5 more languages for their websites. Automating the process of localizing and translating web content and marketing campaigns can yield higher conversion rates and support regional sales.

Resources:

• Carnival Cruise Lines Builds Significant Brand Loyalty
• Connecting Integrated Marketing with Business Growth
• Marketer Wary of Single Transactions Seeks Long-Term Commitment with Customers this Holiday Season

Follow @Sitecore on Twitter to join the conversation on building lifetime customers.

About Sitecore
Sitecore is a global software company that creates products to deliver the most relevant experience and content to customers at any moment of interaction and via any communications channel -- the web, email, mobile, social and offline. Our customer experience management platform combines proven web content management with customer intelligence to create a single view of a customer that drives meaningful interactions, increases conversions and builds lifetime customers. Global brands, including American Express, Carnival Cruise Lines, easyJet, Heineken, LEGO, Microsoft, and Nestle, rely on Sitecore to get and keep loyal customers who engage more and drive revenue growth.