A New Year in Marketing

Are you Ready?

It's not unusual for the marketing industry to evolve with the times, but never in recent history has so much change occurred in such a short time. And I'm not just talking about the economic recession and the new president.

So what am I talking about? Well like any other time, marketing has always been about going where the people are – sending your message down the right rabbit holes to produce the best results. Since technology is the name of the game, those rabbit holes move, change, and collapse just as quickly as they are created. This makes it extremely difficult for businesses – and even marketing professionals – to keep their marketing efforts relevant and effective.

In 2009, one of the most significant changes to the marketing landscape will be Google's newly revised algorithm and ranking priority protocol. Translation: search engine marketing is going to be knocked on its ear. With the new algorithm, search results will be served based on a user's "behavior" – their search history and even physical location – rather than on just Google's ranking. For those businesses that practice search engine optimization, the fundamentals will stay the same – but successful results will be based on traffic not rankings. No more quests for first page rankings because each user – and each computer – could potentially serve up different first page results. Google has brought the focus back to the user, so it's vital you give them what they want; videos, user reviews, personalized messages, transparent pricing, etc.

Google is not the only change that will shake things up in 2009. Most interactive marketing outlets are going personalized. Sure you’ve heard of MySpace and Facebook – but there are other social networking outlets that are pulling some heavy weight now. LinkedIn and Twitter come to mind. Even Google's new algorithm mentioned above will include a weighting on whether or not users leave reviews or comments about your website on Digg, Del.icio.us, and other "contenting voting" services.

That's just the beginning. Even email marketing has upped the ante with more accessible niche email address databases. Instead of pulling numbers from just a geographical area and range of income, you can pick behavioral aspects like "dog lover", "sports enthusiast", and "gamer". This gives you the ability to market to groups with the proven behavior of having an interest in your particular product or service.

And don’t forget that in February, 2009, television in the United States is going digital. After more than half a century, nearly all American analog TV transmissions will cease. This move will free up a tremendous and quite valuable chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum for use with new interactive technologies. Already, companies like Verizon and Google are getting a slew of new products ready to use that bandwidth. Translation: dramatically increased wireless network speeds and larger coverage areas. As the explosion of high-quality mobile devices accelerates, it will be more important than ever that your website looks good (and is user-friendly) on an iPhone or a BlackBerry as well as a traditional computer screen.

Let's go one step further. The new breed of GPS and broadband enabled cell phones like the iPhone and the Google Android make it possible for businesses to serve up content –deals, ads, locations, maps, etc – in relation to the cell phone user's physical location. Think of it like running a PPC campaign, but instead of being based on keywords, your bidding on geographical areas.

Marketing is evolving, so hold on to your marketing plans. This year is going to be a wild ride. Are you ready?