Today’s Internet MarketingWhere have we been and

where will we go!

Why is online activity so important?

People now spend more time online than watching television and the audience is getting younger all the time.

• Getting the right content to users is an ongoing challenge faced by us all.

• Growing social awareness is now a prime focus.• Blogs and micro blogs, such as Twitter, now have a

greater impact and include more individual contributors.

• User Generated Content is growing fast.• Text communication has expanded substantially.

The Power of Search

The shear number of searches performed continues to increase over time. People want answers and they want them quickly and efficiently.

• Paid search such as keyword buys has been one of the fastest growing segments of online advertising and will remain one of the key factors because of it’s accountability in proving ROI.

• Search Engine Optimization will remain a core necessity to maintain any organizations visibility.

Google - 5 Year’s of Growth

Improving Search Results

• Serving relevant content becomes more challenging as the search results grow. – Contextual Search – Semantic Annotations– Personalizing Search

• Search improvements must move to a customer centric design to display targeted/meaningful results from so much data being mined.

• As an advertiser, getting your content in those results is of course the ultimate goal.

The rapidly changing budgets

• Where will advertisers spend what isn’t cut from their budgets moving forward?Paid Search – Display – Video – Text Links – SEO – Social

• The rapid growth of online media buys may slow but companies will continue to invest as online provides an essential element in tracking. The ability to show success of a campaign will be the key to continued spending.

Pricing ModelsPay Per DisplayPay Per Click

Pay Per Action

Technology

Distribution is the art of sharing with anyone who cares to participate. Technology provides the mechanism to easily share information not only from B2C but also from consumer to consumer.

• Widgets• Rich Media• Mobile Applications• Mashups• Data Feeds

Social Networks

The players are pretty set for the networks. Who will come out profitable in end may be up for debate.

• MySpace & Facebook are set as direct competitors. • YouTube remains dominant for video. • Twitter has gained too much attention to ignore. • Substantial increase in common themed sites. Examples

include LinkedIn for business contacts, match.com for dating sites, CafeMom for parenting issues.

• Many new sites will show up as the ability to create your own community draws attention with a variety of providers such as Ning.

Open Social

• Social profiles will become much more universal with OpenID. The question remains of what will happen to all that data being generated. – Google Friends Connect – Facebook Connect – MySpace adopts OpenID

• Many other communities will add functionality of one or more of these sources to enable sharing of profile information across sites.

The Latest Buzz Words

Idea’s continue to be labeled with buzz words, yet not much has really changed from the core concepts. While the tools to achieve the goals may have expanded it’s still about creating recognition and sharing it with others.

• Buzz• Word of Mouth • Guerilla Marketing • Viral Campaigns• Social Marketing

New Era of Branding

• Organizations can no longer rely on high volume advertising purchases alone to create their brand and guarantee an image.

• Social participation will be essential to create visibility and solidify reputations.

• Personal branding of individuals will be key in proving people’s skills - you must be visible, available, and trusted in today’s marketplace no matter who you are.

What will happen to advertising?

With budgets slashed and consumers no longer reaching for their wallets what will happen to advertising?– First, prices for advertising will be reduced from the

majority of providers to remain competitive.– Second, only the best implementations will continue

as campaigns come under more scrutiny. – Third, organizations relying on displaying ads for

revenue as a business model will need to find a new source of income as the base prices for media buys decline therefore reducing publisher payouts.

How does advertising affect you?

• With recent economic impacts do you click on ads less than you used to?

• Does your television viewing now mean you skip ads altogether with DVR products such as TiVo?

• Do you ignore online advertising in general?• Do you spend more time on social sites, which

traditionally have less advertising click through rates?

• Do you spend more time researching specific items that you may be considering for purchase?

Laura Kimball is the author of Getting You Online

and Keeping You There

Follow me on Twitter

www.keepingonline.com