By Alex Veiga

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by Daniel Burstein

Predictions, especially technology predictions, are fraught with peril.

From…”Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments,” by Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus in 10 A.D. to… “Next Christmas the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput,” by British entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar, in 2005, we humans find it notoriously difficult to gaze into that crystal ball and discover what lies just over the hill.

Yet so many of you took our challenge, stuck your flag up on that mountain, and tried to peer into a place no one has yet ventured into…the future.

In a way, it makes sense. As Internet marketers, you stake your career on a constantly evolving technology that shapes the way we live as we shape it. Every day in the office, you build the metaphorical airplane not only while it is in flight, but with parts that have never been used before.

So as a new decade dawns, take a moment to contemplate how you will leverage this awesome technology that has humbled so many a great thinker and how you can make your web site smarter.

And then take a look at what your peers had to say. They certainly didn’t make it easy to choose, but here they are…in no particular order…our 10 favorite Internet marketing predictions for 2010 as submitted by the MarketingExperiments community…

Integrated digital campaigns

“Last year was marked by the extensive use of social media and viral videos and the trend will definitely continue, but since these domains will soon get saturated with only the most creative and radically different initiatives managing to garner the audience’s attention, companies will finally realize that using social media and viral videos just for the sake of using them will never work. This year will probably be the time for integrated digital campaigns; campaigns that make sense to the brand and the target.

Also, when it comes to emerging nations (and especially India), I hope marketing professionals will introduce more and more mobile-based applications to leverage the tremendous opportunities that such a mobile-savvy population presents.”

– Gauri Nawathe, Assistant Advertising Project Manager at BNP Paribas

It’s all about local

Social CRM (customer relationship management) is not a word that’s quite on the mainstream radar yet, but one I believe will in some form or another show up more and more in 2010. A lot of local businesses I talk to struggle with understanding how they should use social media to drive more business, and more importantly have overlooked how it can tap into the clientele they already have. Promoting your business to people you already have a relationship with is easier than ever, and new tools and methodologies will help business owners take advantage of that fact.

– Phillip Rather, Manager Director at PandaMedia and CEO of HomePros

Think beyond the desktop Web

“We saw 2009 as the year that most companies tried out social media as a platform where they can connect to costumers. We saw a lot of experimentations, ‘one offs’ and small tactics in the past year (e.g. online promotions, short-term gimmicks, etc.). I’m seeing 2010 as the year when most companies will start to integrate social media in their overall marketing strategy with a more long-term objective.

Also, I’m seeing 2010 as year when we’ll see more convergence of the mobile and online platforms. More companies will now think beyond the desktop Web and put more effort on the mobile Web. They’ll start to focus on how they can create a seamless Web experience (from desktop to mobile or vice-versa) to their customers.”

– Paulo del Puerto, Digital Projects Head at ABS-CBN Interactiv

All linked. All cohesive All unified.

“Leading up to 2010, we were introduced to many different platforms and strategies for marketing. I’d like to think that – instead of talking about SEO or banner ads – we are talking about more unified and coordinated marketing strategies. Social media integrated with highly usable web designs, leveraging rich mobile, meshed with SEO and paid click – all tracked and managed in a unified manner.

And perhaps a resurgence of offline marketing in coordination – like direct mail pieces and other media. All linked. All cohesive. All unified. Maybe this is the true Web 2.0?”

– Stephen Harris, Founder/Managing Director at Cross Sea Strategy Advisors

The lost art of creative, targeted direct mail

“I think that as more and more people are going to the Web people will become more de-sensitized to this type of medium. Therefore, a well-crafted, dimensional direct mail package will get opened because the lost art of creative, targeted direct mail will have a big impact.”

– Derek Miller, Owner, ProPrinters

Small businesses can drive a huge impact

“I believe 2010 will be the year that local business will be able to succeed online. In the past if you were a restaurant, hotel, or doctor’s office in a small market, it just simply was not worth your time to be
interested in anything beyond a website. Now, with Google displaying the map before the normal search results for local queries, the opportunity for you to ask one hundred of your friends on Facebook what they would recommend, and the power of review sites, small businesses can drive a huge impact to their bottom line just by being involved in the conversation.”

– Andy Corp, CEO at Local SEO inc

Mobile marketing and local listings

“Mobile marketing is the next major step in the digital space. In the past year, the mobile application industry has grown exponentially and given the consumer the power of finding information at their finger tips while they are on the road and around town.

Now web-based local listing services (there are over 20 of them from Google to Yahoo to Bing to Ask to Yelp, etc.) are pushing local business listing information to these devices.

Businesses can use QR Codes for their coupons. They can get their products and services onto the local listings that include photos, videos, coupons, offers, discounts, and promotions. This will effectively take the traditional Yellow Pages out of the picture once and for all. Keep in mind that this is not only for the local small business, but for any business – large franchises, restaurants, banks, drug stores, hardware stores, electronic stores, etc.”

– Melih Oztalay CEO, SmartFinds Internet Marketing

Twitter will lick its wounds…

“…wondering why it didn’t capitalize on a spectacular 2009. It will still be unprofitable. More companies will embrace social media, especially big companies. The big companies will still be behind the curve but their money and sheer size will make them players and influence the direction that social media takes, especially in the B2B world.”

– Luke Brown, Owner of Luke Brown Marketing

Scent Marketing

“I predict impressive brand scent campaigns within 10 to 14 months for Canada. Europe, specifically London, has already gained strength and Spain is not far behind. The USA will join in within 16 to 18 months and will push the trends. Watch and smell, people! Social media may be considered strong but you never forget a smell. The impression of social media lasts less than a second or until the next blog shows up.”

– Tracy Pepe, Nose Knows Consulting

If your small business doesn’t rank…

“Use of Geolocation means that in 2010 small businesses can no longer rely on the Yellow Pages to generate traffic to their businesses.

Already, the Yellow Pages has been relocated to a closet corner (at best) or the recycle bin (more likely), and has been replaced by local search. This trend will continue, and the increased use of smart phones will make local search results even more important in 2010.

Already, when driving through town, I can pop open Google Maps on my Blackberry, hold the talk button, and ask for a list of service providers. Maps tags my location via GPS and feeds me results. If your small business doesn’t rank… then you’ll be missing out on a lot of traffic.”

– J.R. Augustine, Owner/Copywriter at J.R. Augustine

As you build that plane in flight, we’ll be here for you – studying this morphing machine called Internet marketing to continually discover what really works so you don’t have to fly blind. Use your own tests, combined with our experiments, to take advantage of real-world data and proven principles to help guide your online marketing efforts. Because, as computer scientist Alan Kay has said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

via 2010 Internet Marketing Predictions From Your Peers: Twitter will lick its wounds, think beyond the desktop Web, scent marketing, and more.

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Granted, this is just one research firm’s report, which will most likely vary from reports by other firms, but compare those December numbers against the ones from November 2009:

• Google: 65.4 percent
• Yahoo: 15.3 percent
• Bing: 10.7 percent

According to Nielsen, both Yahoo and Bing seem to have lost ground to Google heading into the beginning of 2010. It could be a monthly fluctuation. But it could also be perceived as a potential problem for Microsoft, when you consider that November-December timeframe saw the company launch a whole host of new features for its search engine designed to bring it into more direct competitive alignment with Google.

If Yahoo’s percentage is also falling, then that potentially spells trouble for the success of the Microsoft-Yahoo search-and-advertising agreement, which was supposed to radically boost Bing’s market share in 2010.

Specifically, I’m talking about features such as the beta version of the new-and-improved Bing Maps, which introduced an option for viewing local terrain at eye level, and a new Bing Bar for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

In conversations with Microsoft spokespeople at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I was given the impression that Bing’s engineering team would continue to refine the search engine throughout 2010. No doubt some new features will be rolled out, as well. But if data from other research firms comes back with a similar dip for Bing, and if that incremental downward trend continues through the first months of the year, then Microsoft may need to think very hard about what it needs to do to continue the slow search-related momentum it managed to build over the course of last year.

Posted by Nicholas Kolakowski on January 13, 2010 5:10 PM

via Microsoft Watch – Advertising & Search – Bing’s Dip Could Be a Blip or Oncoming Trouble.

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RESTON, VA, January 5, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released November 2009 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, showing that more than 170 million U.S. Internet users watched online video during the month. Online video viewing continued to reach record levels in November with nearly 31 billion videos viewed during the month, and Google Sites accounting for 39 percent of all videos viewed online in the U.S.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Videos Viewed

Google Sites continued to rank as the top U.S. video property in November as it delivered 12.2 billion videos viewed with YouTube.com accounting for nearly 99 percent of all videos viewed at the property. Hulu ranked second with 924 million videos viewed (3.0 percent) followed by Viacom Digital with 500 million (1.6 percent) and Microsoft Sites with 480 million (1.5 percent).

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Top 10 Video Content Properties by Viewers

More than 170 million viewers watched an average of 182 videos per viewer during the month of November. Google Sites attracted 129 million unique viewers during the month (94.7 videos per viewer), followed by Yahoo! Sites with more than 55 million viewers (8.5 videos per viewer) and Fox Interactive Media with 50 million viewers (8.9 videos per viewer). The average Hulu viewer watched 21.1 videos during the month, representing another all-time high for the property.

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

Top Video Ad Networks by Potential Reach

In November, Tremor Media ranked as the #1 video ad network with a potential reach of 85 million viewers, or 49.8 percent of the total viewing audience. Advertising.com Video Network ranked second with a potential reach of 80 million viewers (47.1 percent penetration) followed by YuMe Video Network with 73 million viewers (43.0 percent).

Other notable findings from November 2009 include:

• The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: Tremor Media Video Network with 20.0 percent penetration of online video viewers, BBE with 17.5 percent, and BrightRoll Video Network with 16.6 percent.
• 84.8 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The average online video viewer watched 12.2 hours of video.
• 128.1 million viewers watched more than 12 billion videos on YouTube.com (94.3 videos per viewer).
• 38.6 million viewers watched 333.4 million videos on MySpace.com (8.6 videos per viewer).
• The average Hulu viewer watched 21.1 videos, totaling 2.1 hours of videos per viewer.
• The duration of the average online video was 4.0 minutes.

via November Sees Number of U.S. Videos Viewed Online Surpass 30 Billion for First Time on Record – comScore, Inc.

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RESTON, VA, January 14, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world today reported the top 15 ad networks based on their reach among U.S. Internet users in December 2009. The ranking showed that AOL Advertising remains the top ad network, reaching 187 million U.S. Internet users, or 91 percent of the total audience, followed by Yahoo! Network (180.9 million) and Google Ad Network (178.1 million). The fastest growing ad network by audience reach among the top 15 was Microsoft Media Network U.S., which grew 31 percent versus year ago, followed by Collective Network (up 22 percent) and Audience Science (up 16 percent).

“Ad networks continue to be a powerful mechanism for delivering a large audience online, with eight different networks reaching at least 75 percent of the entire U.S. online population,” said comScore senior vice president Jeff Hackett. “Increasingly, however, ad networks are improving their capability for reaching more targeted audiences as well, which delivers enhanced value to advertisers and helps sustain higher CPMs for the channel. 2010 should bring us continued innovation and performance from this growing online sector.”

via comScore Releases December 2009 Ranking of Top Ad Networks – comScore, Inc.

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Apple could build its entire iPhone strategy on this one Arabian proverb. The combination of the rising smartphone stake held by the iPhone, and Microsoft’s dominant position among enterprise communications and productivity applications could create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

My PC World colleague David Coursey has already pointed out how Apple seems to be embracing Microsoft in an attempt to combat its new arch-rival, Google, and the rising threat of Android-based devices like the Verizon Droid and the rumored Nexus One. While Apple has been seemingly dragging its feet on approving various Google apps for the iPhone, the Microsoft Bing app sailed through.

Mutual Benefit

That may just be a coincidence rather than a sign of any larger strategic initiative. But, if Apple and Microsoft haven’t considered the strategic value of a smartphone partnership with each other, they should step back and take a look at the benefits such an alliance could bring.

For Microsoft, there is no reason not to wholeheartedly embrace the iPhone. It is a solid and popular smartphone platform. For its part, Microsoft should be actively developing apps for, and fostering partnership with, all of the smartphone platforms. Regardless of which smartphone you choose, Microsoft benefits from the continued reliance on Exchange Server, and Microsoft Office applications.

The Windows Mobile operating system has been languishing, and Microsoft recently reported that the already-late Windows Mobile 7 will not be available until late in 2010. With its own platform being relatively stagnant, Microsoft could strike smartphone gold by riding on the iPhone’s coattails.

Enterprise Credibility

For Apple, the ability to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft’s server and productivity applications would fill a void in the iPhone and lend it instant enterprise credibility. The iPhone is already gaining on BlackBerry in the smartphone arena, but the lack of a viable enterprise management tool to rival the BlackBerry Enterprise Server is an Achilles heel that will prevent many businesses from adopting the iPhone.

If Apple were to also create an iPhone management tool that works in conjunction with Microsoft Active Directory and Group Policy to allow administrators to manage and maintain iPhones internally, it would provide some ammunition to attack the enterprise dominance of RIM and its BlackBerry devices.

Common Enemy

Google would be the glue that would bind together any alliance between Apple and Microsoft. Apple and Google formed a united front against Microsoft until recent months. That alliance has quickly devolved into a bitter rivalry with Google competing head-to-head with Apple in a number of areas.

Google seems to be stealing a page from the Apple playbook. Apple is notorious for tightly controlling all aspects of its equipment–from software to hardware, to sales, and support–in order to ensure the best possible user experience. Recent reports suggest that Google is working closely with mobile handset and netbook hardware manufacturers to develop Google-branded devices to serve as platforms for the Android and Chrome operating systems.

Google is competing in the Web browser, mobile operating system, netbook operating system, search engine, email and instant messaging, office productivity applications, and many other areas that encroach on either Apple or Microsoft territory–or in many cases both.

An alliance between Apple and Microsoft to deliver seamless Microsoft integration with the iPhone could create a smartphone tour de force that could fend off the rising threat of Google, and crack the enterprise armor of the BlackBerry all at the same time.

via Apple and Microsoft: Tour de Smartphone Force for iPhone – PC World Business Center.

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They randomly sampled the public timeline between 11:00 AM and 5:00 PM Monday to Friday for a two week period.

They analyzed a total of 2,000 tweets and found that they fell into six different categories:

• News – from mainstream sources, such as CNN, Fox, and others (niche news sources were not counted as part of this group
• Spam – these were the agonizingly common “See how I got 3,000 followers in one day” type of tweets
• Self‐Promotion – businesses tweeting about their products, services, and Twitter-specific promotions
• Pointless Babble – the “I’m going to meet my friends for some drinks after work today” type of tweets
• Conversational – everything from genuine “instant messaging” style tweets between people to efforts to engage people with questions or polls
• Pass‐Along Value – these were retweets

The following chart shows what percentage of tweets fell into each category.

Breakdown of the Content of Twitter Tweets

Personally, I was a little surprised to see the low numbers for spam and self promotion. Although, in the case of the former, it seems that many spammers attempt to target their “victims” directly by using direct messages.

The lack of self promotion may be a function of the fact that many businesses are still dismissive of Twitter as a business tool and still others haven’t quite figured out how to use it as a business tool.

Where would you say the majority of your tweets fall?

And if you are part of what seems to be a Twitter minority – businesses using it for self promotion – how, exactly, are you using it and how is it working for you? Please share your feedback in the comments section.

I’d also be interested in hearing about key categories that you feel are missing. Some of the surprises for me were: humour, how-to, events, and so forth. What surprised you? Please share in the comments section.

And if you’d like to improve your “score” in the pass along value category, one great way would be to retweet this post (and it might also be good karma to bookmark it…lol)!

Author: Dawson Barber, Internet Marketing Specialist

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Take a moment and share what your internet marketing intentions for 2010.

And please feel free to elaborate and share your thoughts in the Comments section.

Many thanks!

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And while it’s perfectly understandable that someone would want to know how much of an investment he/she will need to make before making a commitment, an equally valid question – one that’s often considered but rarely asked – is “how much is it going to cost me if I do nothing?”

In fact, when you really think about it, the question about the cost of doing nothing may be even more important because that cost is meant to be a productive cost that will bring you a return many times over – just like any other investment – so delaying or forgoing such an investment means you are actually robbing your business of revenues and profits.

Know How Your Website Measures Up

Before you can begin to get a handle on the cost of doing nothing, you’re going to need to get clear on the purpose of your website. And while there are many possibilities, for the sake of simplicity we’re going to assume that you are a strictly commercial enterprise and that the purpose of your website is to provide:

• Sales – customers not only find you online, they can also complete full transactions online
• Leads – prospective customers may find you online, but sales are made/concluded in the “offline” world
• Sales and leads – customers can engage with your business either way

Now that we’re clear on your website’s basic purpose, we’re going to need to gather some data on how well your website fulfills that purpose (you should look back at least one quarter’s worth of data, but preferably get your hands on a full year’s worth).

And while there are a lot of data you can and should track, we’re going to focus only on a handful that will serve us as the high-level key indicators of website performance:

• What is the dollar value of an average sale?
• How many sales do you make, on average, every month?
• What are your average monthly sales?
• How many of those sales, on average, come as a result of someone first connecting with your business by visiting your website?
• What are your average monthly sales that are attributable to your website?
• What is the average number of visitors to your website every month?
• What is the average conversion rate (% of visitors who become customers)?

Clarity on these key performance indicators (KPIs) will provide you with clarity on your starting point, which will enable you to set realistic and achievable goals for website performance improvement and track your website’s progress towards the achievement of those goals so that you will know at any point in time whether you are on-track or not.

Setting Website Performance Improvement Goals

The next thing you’re going to need to do is to set some targets for performance improvement in the two areas that will have the most impact on how well your website fulfills its overarching purpose – producing sales and/or leads for your business – which are:

• Traffic – the total number of visits and unique visitors to your website
• Conversions – the number of visitors who take the next step in the sales process after visiting your website (e.g., buy a product, subscribe to a newsletter, download a white paper, submit an inquiry form, visit your store, and so forth)

And while increasing either traffic or conversions – all other things being equal – should, logically, lead to a commensurate increase in revenues, you should really target both because the cumulative effect of achieving improvements in both areas will exponentially impact on results.

In the table below (click on the image to enlarge it), which is a fictional example for the purposes of illustrating key points, you’ll see that we’re using all of the high-level KPIs described earlier. In the column titled “Current Traffic + Conversion” we’ve added some data for a fictional website based on current traffic and conversion performance.

Example of Key Performance Indicators for a Website

In the next column – Increased Traffic – we’ve made a single change: we increased the traffic by 20%. As you can see – assuming other variables remain stable – this has the effect of increasing the revenue attributable to the website from $5,000 to $6,000 per month.

In the next column – Increased Conversion – we’ve left the traffic at the current level but have increased conversion by 20%. This also has the effect of increasing the revenue attributable to the website from $5,000 to $6,000 per month.

When you look at the final column – Increased Traffic + Conversion – you’ll see that we have increased traffic and conversion by 20%. This has the net effect of increasing the revenue attributable to the website from $5,000 to $7,200 per month.

Not surprisingly, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Calculating the Cost of Doing Nothing

The table to the right (click on the image to enlarge) summarizes most of the key elements you should take into consideration when weighing up virtually any investment decision:

Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator

• Projected benefits – because the improvements to your website’s performance will continue to pay dividends over the mid- and long-term, you should based your calculations on 12 months of results
• Total costs – factor in upfront costs as well as any ongoing costs if applicable
• Net benefits – the net benefits are simply “benefits – costs”
• Return on investment (ROI) – is calculated by dividing the net benefits by the total costs
• Breakeven point – the breakeven point is calculated by dividing total costs by projected benefits then multiplying the result by 12 (as in 12 months)
• Monthly cost of doing nothing – is calculated by dividing the net benefits by 12 (as in 12 months)

As you can see, doing nothing is actually costing our fictional website owner $1,575 per month.

And while it is obviously not always true that doing nothing will cost you money (very often doing nothing – or doing something else – is the right thing to do), the key takeaway is simply to be more inclusive when weighing up decisions and look at both the cost of taking action as well as the cost of not taking action.

Your bottom line will thank you.

Author: Dawson Barber

Send me an email at dbarber@dawsonbarber.com or use the handy contact form and let me know if you’d like a copy of the Website Key Performance Indicator worksheet and the Cost of Doing Nothing Calculator and I will be happy to send them along.

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