Projecting the Top 10 Internet Marketing Trends for 2010
Internet marketing is constantly evolving and as 2009 ends, it is time to take a look at what will be leading the way in 2010. It is important to not only know what lies ahead, but what you can do to position yourself for success.
Here are the top 10 internet marketing trends to keep in eye on in 2010.
1.Bing Makes a Stand
Bing has made big moves by signing exclusive contracts with multiple online publishers for their content. If this trend continues, Bing will continue to grow its market share for the simple fact that it has content available that Google can’t get their hands on.
Signing a deal with Yahoo was a great step because it gave Bing access to all the innovative search technology. While many people disregarded the importance of Yahoo several years ago, they were making big breakthroughs in search technology.
What to Do?
Sign up for your Bing webmasters account as well as get to know their ranking criteria. It may only grab around 10% of the total search market right now, but this is already a boost from earlier in 2009, and chances are, they continue to gain ground in the future.
2.Video Marketing
I know that video marketing is not the newest of ideas, however many internet marketers will still not have produced their first video by the end of 2009. Every search engine is placing more weight on video than any other form of online media and will continue to do so in 2010. Video sharing is already easy, and many companies are still looking for ways to make it even easier in 2010. The “experimentation period” is over. Video marketing has proved to be successful at gaining traffic and adding profits.
What to Do?
Video, Video, Video. Every word on your website could be used in a video. Even if, for some reason, you do not integrate video into a majority of your site, it is still a great advertising tool. Make videos for online sharing galleries like the ever popular YouTube. People want to see you and hear you, not just read what you write. A good Indianapolis online video firm to connect with is Cantaloupe. They actually have a special holiday deal going on that looks pretty good.
3.Mobile Marketing
A large segment of the Asian market already uses mobile payment technology. However, many Western countries, including the United States, have been lagging behind. Look for mobile payments to make their way to Western markets by the end of 2010. Keep an eye on companies and programs like Square (enables merchants to accept payments via the Apple iPhone), PayPalX, and the Amazon Mobile Payment platform for developers.
What to Do?
Make sure that you are ready when mobile payment technologies gain traction in your market. In addition, begin spending some dollars in mobile marketing. With the surge in smart-phone devices, particularly the iPhone, surveys show that there’s a huge potential in the mobile marketing arena where penetration is at its peak.
4.Shift in Freelance Costs and Talent
Freelancing hit it big in 2009. Websites like Odesk saw record high numbers of willing freelancers, many of them new to the online marketplace. A large reason for this is the job loss experienced in several large economies but most notably the United States. This has given rise to a large number of online freelancers with little to no experience. With such a large amount of lower end experience and talent, many middle-level talent freelancers have taken this opportunity to raise their rates because they look like comparatively better talent and can now charge more. More talent is also being outsourced, especially to the Philippines, because of the low cost.
What To Do?
The first thing you need to do decide what level of talent you are willing to pay for, from writing articles to designing websites. Then find the best provider possible. Many low-end providers do not focus largely on continuing relationships, they focus on creating as much as possible as quickly as possible with little regard to quality. The best bet is to build relationships with mid-level talent, as they tend to look for work from buyers that want a long term relationship, thus a long time paycheck. If you need top-tier talent, then an economical choice is to pay mid-level talent to create what you need and then you can pay top-tier talent to edit and revise instead of create.
5.Emphasis on Social Prominence and Search Engine Rankings
Search engines are starting to focus more on social data. Indexing and crawling social sites like Twitter or Facebook is only the first step. This data will soon have a much larger impact on search engine rankings.
What to Do?
Have a social presence. Create profiles on top social sites and become a prominent figure in your niche or community. To do this, understanding the online social dynamic and ways to effectively engage and participate in the community will be critical.
[Photo Source: BrandAnywhere.com – Agency specializing in Mobile Branding]
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Great list. I am writing a similar list today for my predictions and trend watch for 2010. I was holding out, but too many of my clients were asking for it. I also believe video marketing will one of the top mediums for 2010. With the ease of nto just taking videos, btu also posting them to YouTube, anyone can do it.
Dr. Dave Hale
The Internet Marketing Professor
Great work, Ben. The article looks great! – Just got two extra monitors for my computer, but having some issues using both monitors. I think the macbook limits me to one external monitor; I guess it’s just another reason to buy an extra computer…
Dave, thanks for reading. I look forward to reading your article. Be sure to drop a link here when the article is up. I agree, video is strong and continues to gain traction because I think agencies are understanding how to use it properly. In my opinion it’s lost that ‘twitter confusion’ that business clients often experienced when trying to figure out how it benefits their business. In addition, I think we’ll continue to see more video management software aimed specifically at small business. Here’s to 2010
Thanks Mike! You should check out Matrox Dualhead2Go to see if their dual monitor adapter is compatible with the mac. I wanted one of these devices a few years back. It looked like it would work perfectly for extending your laptop to two monitors instead of one. Let me know what you find out.
Great list Benjamin!
I agree about the Video part, that will be interesting. Video is so much more personal.
One thing I am putting on my top 5 list is the new website technologies being enabled by the new browsers. I think that the quality of the best sites will be VERY high and cost for these sites will continue to go down. This will happen at the same time as Internet grows very fast, which means lots more crappy sites. This will force the search engine algorithms to become much smarter which will be a challange for us all.
What do you think about this? Could it make it into spot 11?
Thanks Robert!
You make a great point about new technologies. I already have my list completed but I may have to modify it, ha ha. I’ll definitely throw some credit your way if I do. I agree, with the emergence of HTML5, that quality can only improve (HTML5 example). However, I’m hesitant to throw it on the list for one big reason… Internet Explorer 8. I don’t think they currently support the HTML5 standard that will power a lot of this new technology. Which means that web developers will have to create fallbacks for non-supporting browsers when using HTML5. I don’t know if they’ll be willing to do that as much in 2010. I see it happening more in late 2010 that will be a strong push in 2011.
It’s definitely debatable. Thanks again for the comment. You got the wheels turning….
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You have a very valid point regarding IE8 and the so far poor HTML 5 support. Until that is resolved, which I have high hopes it will soon(I am an optimistic soul), the new technology will not reach the masses.
The question than remains about how the search engines will interpret the HTML 5 sites that do exist?
I love all the examples of what can be done.