As I sit in a very crowded airport over the Holiday weekend, I find myself reflecting back on this past year. For the Interactive Marketing/Search industry, 2010 was very active with mergers/acquisitions, partnerships, innovation and constant change. Although it’s been a wild ride, as we look toward 2011, advertisers should leverage the knowledge learned this past year and prepare for what’s ahead.
Here is a sampling of some of the more eventful happenings from this year:
- Google Caffeine, Instant & Preview
- Partnership between Yahoo & MSN/Bing
- Promoted Tweets
- Facebook Pages to “Like” not ‘Friend/Follow”
- LinkedIn Company Page Feature for “Products/Services”
- iPad and entry of the Tablet
- Introduction of Droid and Windows Phone
- Remarketing Ads
- Invasion of all things Mobile
- Enhanced features (extensions) in AdWords for more robust ads.
As we finish out the year and prepare 2011 marketing budgets and goals, here are the areas I predict will be on most company’s radar:
- Measuring Social Media Results and Monetization of Those Efforts
- Crafting Multi-Device, Robust Mobile Strategy Beyond Basic Visibility
- Improving on Analytics and Integration With Other Important Data
- Refining Paid Search Campaigns – More Experimentation With Other Engines, Portals, Networks, etc.
- Multi-Channel Strategy Development & Execution … Holistic Marketing
- Content Maximization for Enhanced SEO Value
- Experimentation – Multivariate Testing
- Identification of Metrics & Goals
As an incentive to companies who are looking to get a Jumpstart on 2011, we are offering 10% off any consulting program initiated by December 31, 2010. Let us help with a laser-like focus on search and interactive marketing.
Contact me for more details.