As has been reported, online marketing is continuing to grow across most industries. Both B2B and B2C companies are investing more of their marketing dollars into the various tools and sites available on the web. To be competitive in this growing market, business owners need to understand where to focus their efforts to make the most of theirspend. There are three specific trends that will provide focus to any company’s web marketing plan for 2011:
Content
Ok, so we’ve all heard “Content is King”. With the increases in web marketing competition on the horizon, businesses need to take a serious look at the message their content is sending to their prospects and contacts, across all channels. This means having a strategy for the content you offer and watching the responses from your audience to gauge their interests and need. Offering engaging and informative content aimed at a specific target audience will help build awareness and trust for an online brand.
Metrics
Monitoring the ROI and response rates for a marketing campaign is not a new concept, but in the coming year, with the inclusion of Social Media and mobile marketing in a lot of marketing strategies, the need to monitor each aspect of an online marketing strategy will drive new tactics and the implementation of more metrics tools. Products like Radian 6 or Trackur offer powerful tools for Social Media metrics integration to an existing Customer Relationship Management system for in-depth tracking.
Mobile Marketing
Smart phone use had driven the speed of the mobile marketing industry, and 2011 will continue that trend. Like all other online media, the competition is going to continue to increase for mobile marketing, so businesses with a mobile target base need to offer their content in mobile-friendly formats, to maintain their aesthetics and functionality on their clients’ iPods, Blackberries and Androids.
In an increasingly mobile world, businesses need to move with the times, to offer their content and news in a multitude of online venues for the best response rates. More than norm than anomaly in today’s business marketing, the sophistication and implementation of online marketing tools will continue to grow.
Talk to a web marketing consultant today to learn the tools available to enhance your existing marketing plan and put your brand in front of the expanding online target market.