What You Should Be Doing This Year
I’ve always believed the real winners in marketing play a game of basics PLUS. Those who survive are the ones who master basic strategies and skills, but those who excel are the ones who go beyond the basics – that’s basics PLUS.
In 2010, the marketers who embrace “plus” opportunities will weather the economic storm and enjoy lasting success. Here are some of the primary “plus” areas to consider this year.
Is social media part of your plan?
What’s the best way to make use of it for your business? You need to evaluate which social media tools to use, what strategy to employ, and how best to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Ask yourself a lot of tough questions about social media. Do “fans” translate into sales? Is the time you spend with social media paying off? Are your tweets helping to boost awareness and response?
Are you positioned to take advantage of the new, more sophisticated world of real-time search?
Both Bing and Google now have relationships with Facebook and Twitter, and Google recently struck a deal with MySpace. It’s all designed to provide immediacy and relevancy to search. Search results pages will be increasingly dynamic and information will stream into the pages as it becomes available in real-time. How does that affect your business? Getting more of your information out there via blogs and social media will be more important than ever – and using relevant keywords will be crucial.
Where are you on the video spectrum?
The online video market has exploded and will continue to grow this year. Amateur videos populate news websites. Celebrity videos can destroy or launch careers – Susan Boyle became an Internet sensation and sold close to 3 million albums as a result. Using video to publicize, promote, and advertise an online business will become a standard practice, and you can’t afford to be left behind in this key area.
Have you discovered mobile advertising?
According to eMarketer, mobile ad spending will grow from $416 million in 2009 to $593 million in 2010, reaching over $1 billion by 2012. Mobile and social media are quickly converging. The youth market lives, breathes and eats holding onto their cell phones. The rapid development of apps for smartphones creates a prime business opportunity, even for small businesses.
Are you stuck in an old ad model?
Combine the influence of social media with real-time search, then add in video and mobile advertising, and you see a very different advertising model emerging. Chances are paid content and advertainment will become more effective than standard banner and text ads. You’ll need to be ready to provide high-value, relevant information in a smartly packaged format if you want to one-up your competitors.
Yes, this will indeed be an exciting year. Are you ready for it?
