December 16, 2009
3 Ways To Get Marketing Trends Approved in 2010
Going into 2010 it is important to think about your overall marketing strategy. I have outlined a few ways that I am advising my clients to take advantage of market trends and grow their business. I’d love to hear your feedback and suggestions.
Time to Harness the Real Time Web
The “Real Time Web” was one of the most trendy topics of 2009. All of the big dogs in the game came out with their interpretation of the technology. Twitter / Facebook paved the way with their incredible popularity. Google realized this was a trend that was undercutting their performance and wanted to jump on board as well. Over the last few weeks Google has been opening up access to its real time search results. They have also put together many strategic partnerships with Facebook, Twitter, etc to index this content. So its fair to say that this trend is here to stay. It doesn’t replace traditional search but it definitely compliments it nicely.
According to the most recent statistics , 17% of consumers are already using Social Media to help with their holiday shopping. This could include finding deals, researching products, making lists, etc. With the increased usage of these social / real time tools it is only smart to prepare your company to take advantage of this. The first step you should take is to register for most of the major social networks and create accounts. If you find that you don’t have the time to use the web on a daily basis then I recommend using a tool like http://su.pr in order to schedule posts to your social networks. These tools are incredibly valuable as they inject your voice into the web on a daily basis. These posts can be the staples in your social media strategy. The goal of your input should be to create value and benefit for your readers.
With Social Media and Real Time Search becoming popular it is essential to ask yourself what you are currently doing to prepare your marketing departments. Most customers are seeing their attention spans decrease as time goes by. This is because the average consumer is faced with so many purchasing decisions throughout the course of the day that everything has to be extremely relevant to have an impact. If you sell Tennis Equipment, are you active in the conversations that flair up on Twitter during the US Open? Those are your customers so I hope you would be.
Smart way to position this Investment: Tell the people in charge that you can reach far more people in a short period of time by using Social Media. Tell them that in the past they had no problems with spending money on trade shows and big events that only happened once a year. It is important for them to realize the importance of communication based on real time events. Have them imagine trade shows happening 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and unless you get the OK you are forced to pass up on the potential market opportunity.
Search Is Getting Local
Just as Real Time Search is beginning to get off the ground, there is another trend that is becoming very popular. This trend is Localized search. I would highly recommend investing your time and capital into this because it is the new long tail on the net. In the first phase of the Internet Boom, most people saw unlimited opportunity in the growth of the Internet because it allowed them to sell their product/service to millions of new people. This was an amazing opportunity for some businesses, but for others they were forced to sit on the sidelines and watch others reap all of the benefits. If you have not seen extraordinary success with your website because you are a local store or a restaurant, or a brick and mortar service that requires a local presence then this is all about you. In the past a website did little for Contractors, Plumbers and traditional businesses. That is all about to change.
Peoples search behaviors are changing as their method of searching changes. In 2010 Mobile Device usage will be at its highest number ever. Companies like Apple and Google are making it extremely easy for people to search the net with their phones. This new behavior brings along various new abilities for advertisers. Advertisers can now localize their advertising to people that are near their store, restaurant, or shop. This a dramatic shift from the static advertisements of the past. Imagine being a restaurant being able to provide coupons for people who are already looking for a local restaurant and are in the neighborhood?
Two of the biggest location based services are FourSquare and Gowalla. Both of these services allow for users to check into locations which in other words simply means that a user visited that location. As these services continue to gain in popularity, advertisers and local business owners must take advantage of the market opportunity. Take some time to make sure you are registered on Googles Local Business Directory, Yelp, Citysearch, etc. Also make sure that your location is added in FourSquare so others can visit you. Maybe its time to put advertisements together pushing these technologies. Local establishments are pushing Yelp! because of the dynamic it has on the business. If your company is currently managing a PPC campaign, I would advise you to set aside a piece of the budget to geo target your traffic. Google and Bing are both putting additional emphasis on their local search pages in 2010 so its time you do too.
Smart way to position this Investment: Inform the bosses that you think you found a new way to market to the Internet with much less competition. Explain the benefits of local search and point out 1-2 case studies of how you personally used Google or the Internet to find a local business. Present some of the ways that you are currently deficient in this area of marketing and how you plan to change that.
Create Quality Content
Creating quality content is perhaps the most important of all three items that I pointed out today. This is because as the search engines become more efficient, they will place more weight on the quality of the content over the amount of inbound links. Anyone can create content but is the Search Engines job to return the most relevant information. People are finding your business in more ways now than they ever have. You must also remember that the content you create does not disappear, this content is going to be around potentially forever. The content that you create should be brand building and provide value to your users.
There are so many web pages out there and so many social media accounts out there.
- Why would they read yours?
- What value do you add to your market?
- Do you provide an added benefit over the local businesses online?
- Can you provide better customer service using social media?
One strategy that I have put in place with several clients is making their blog serve as a general Question/Answer forum. I advise them to answer all of their e-mail questions on their blog. This is a great link building strategy that creates quality content but also a potential time saver in the future. If you get the question often you can point them in the direction of the Blog with hopes that they explore a lot of additional content and convert to a customer.
Smart way to position this Investment: I would position this investment as being absolutely critical. Tell your boss that you have tapped into the core of what the Internet is about and that you are able to provide a strategy that will help you grow beyond your wildest imagination. I know it sounds huge and fluff filled, but back it with facts. Show how you creating content means that you have more permanent advertisements on the Internet. That the blog post you write tomorrow may get you a customer today, tomorrow or 3 years from now. The more QUALITY content the better.
Tags: local, marketing, real time, tips, trends
