By Ken Robbins, President, ResponseMine

Here's what you'll learn in this article:

1. What the top five marketing trends are for the coming year;

2. That's it. Nothing else. Just the top five trends. But these aren't just trends, they're TRENDS.

Here are the five most important marketing trends happening right now:

Trend#1-- The iPhone phenomenon:  Mobile marketing has been a big dud up until the fourth quarter of last year when the iPhone hit the market. Even though Apple/AT&T have only sold 4M units out of the 130MM phones in use in America, the iPhone is close to producing as much data consumption (surfing) as all other devices combined.  It's not a phone as much as it is the first ever, mass-adopted, pocket computer. Web ads can be seen. Google is beta-testing paid search delivery. Applications and mini-games are exploding. The G1 Android and Blackberry Storm are having the same. Mobile impressions are exploding. The mobile opportunity is much more about the B2C as opposed to the B2B end of the market, but what is interesting is that people tend to use the iPhone to search for the exact same things, in the same proportions as they do on a desktop. This means it's truly a general use device and will eat into notebook/laptop share.

Trend #2 -- Decreasing Cost-per-Impressions: Media properties are constantly under siege for being fragmented. Impressions and places to get them are increasing much faster than budgets. This puts chronic pressure on CPMs to go lower over time. Three years ago Facebook was nothing. Yahoo and AOL were the place to buy. Now, there are hundreds of nicely-sized properties for getting in front of a wide variety of audiences. Google's content network is massive and targeting is improving all the time. The size and scope and emergence of new properties AND the new-found sensitivity that paid search has instilled in the advertisers means most digital media must "perform" and when it fails to deliver clicks or sales, then make-goods are easy to get and CPMs get priced lower.

Trend #3 -- Increased Spending in Paid Search and Direct Response: Traditional media dollars appear to be pulling-back in the near term, while search budgets and direct response budgets are increasing. This is due to the current financial meltdown – businesses are only willing to spend on media that can provide specific, measurable ROI.

Trend #4 – Online Video: One huge under-performer with massive share of impressions and audience is video. YouTube is now the world's #2 search engine, yet it delivers almost nothing in terms of ad revenue to Google. Only an elite few large-scale advertisers (mostly media and entertainment) and the experimental fringe know how to use it. If you want to sell music or promote a TV show or a movie, YouTube is a great place.

Trend#5 -- Increasing Costs-per-Click: Paid search is still the dominant, consistent channel within the digital marketplace but costs-per-click are increasing. One recent report indicated that PPC click costs are up 15%-20% over last year but of course, this varies by category. Search marketing has gone mainstream and many companies are spending on search as a brand imperative instead of just as an ROI, direct marketing spend.  If I am Sears and appliances are a strategic category for me, I do not care about the ROI and am willing to pay whatever it takes to remain in the top spots on Google and Yahoo.  This mandate makes it tougher for ROI-based marketers to keep up. Businesses drop the bids when the ROI stops making sense and that means we cut volume.
 

Ken Robbins is the Founder and President of ResponseMine, a search, affiliate and interactive agency that helps some of America's best-known brands grow their sales and revenue online.

Comment