Duct Tape Marketing

We know the world of marketing is changing at all times, and in this constant state of flux, we see both positive and negative changes. For example, when email first began to be used on a large scale as a marketing tool, its results were so impressive that the masses rushed to use it for their own marketing and it quickly became an abused tool. On the other hand, this spawned the use of RSS as a marketing tool largely in part because it is virtually impossible to send an unsolicited marketing message any more than once or twice. As 2006 draws to an end and we prepare for 2007, we can expect to see a number of changes, some positive, some negative and some neutral. Here is a short list of what I predict for 2007.

• Internet marketing will continue to grow dramatically, taking market share from traditional mediums like newspapers and television. There has already been a lot of buzz about advertisers utilizing online advertising to increase their brand awareness and more businesses will take advantage of this in 2007. Advertisers already have a lot of control in who their ads are shown to but I believe that they will be able to be even more precise in who they target very soon. We're also going to see the landscape of search engine optimization change dramatically as the algorithms used by the search engines mature and as new services are provided, such as local search.
• Direct marketing will continue to grow both because it is generally much more effective than other traditional mediums, and because of its supporting role in a successful internet marketing campaign. However, rather than the old standard of massive direct mail campaigns based on volume, the campaigns that will succeed this year will be those that are targeted and personalized. Reaching the right prospects is more important than ever before, and when coupled with variable data printing, your results can be tremendous.
• Networking will become more important than ever. As technology has brought business owners the ability to reach out to a larger number of prospects at a lower cost than ever before, the number of marketing messages we receive each day has increased to the point of overload. As a result, the personal relationships that can only be developed by putting in face time with our prospects and clients have become critical to the success of our businesses.
• Consumers will expect you to differentiate your product or service on factors other than price. They’ve had the ability to compare prices on the internet for over a decade and now they expect more. What makes you different and better than your competition? If the answer is nothing, you'll need to take steps to change that right away. Differentiation could range from quicker turn around time to higher quality, or better yet, a completely customized product or service.
• Consumer generated content will become more prominent and more important. If you want to climb to the top of the food chain, you'll need to work on ways to allow or help your consumers generate content that will benefit themselves as well as your business. This can be a tough area for most businesses to navigate though, because it can be easy for even the most carefully crafted plan to backfire. Your success depends on providing a legitimate way to provide something of value that is beneficial to your consumers (without a catch) that will also benefit your business.