Small Businesses – Beat the Economic Downturn With Digital Marketing

2009 is likely to be a challenging year for many businesses as the global economic slowdown takes hold. Digital marketing, however, looks set to continue its rapid growth, as its many solutions and advantages become even more apparent when marketing budgets are subjected to even greater constraints.

With that said there are 9 online marketing trends and how to attack them.

Keyword inflation will continue
The need for advertisers to improve the effectiveness and measurability of their advertising spend will become more acute.
Attack: Concentrate on improving conversion rates to offset keyword inflation.

Conversion optimisation will be key
Find solutions that can really improve your return on investment (ROI) by offering end-to-end optimisation for search, display advertising, affiliate marketing and email marketing.
Attack: Use controlled testing like A/B split tests and multivariate testing (evaluating the impact of combinations of changes simultaneously) to see what improvements need to be made.

Consumer thrift will shape online behaviour
As the recession bites, consumers will increasingly shop online in search of deals and bargains, especially through auction websites and ad listings.
Attack: Be aggresive, offer incentives and deals as standard operating procedure. Incentives for customers to come back will be crucial, in order to up-sell or cross-sell.

CPA buying will become more widely negotiated
Take advantage of unsold inventory on ad networks. Buy on a CPA basis!
Attack: CPA is great for advertisers because ad costs are directly proportional to action/acquisition conversion rates. It’s win win for you.

Qualitative analytics will have greater emphasis
Knowing what your website users did is nice, but knowing WHY they it did will become crucial.
Attack: It’s all about getting the right message from your analytics – and reporting it clearly – so that you can make informed decisions. Qualitative measures of website performance will enable you to optimise with greater certainty.

Mobile advertising will flourish
With Google supplying mobile hardware (G1) and software (Android), and bidding on the wireless spectrum, it is clear that this they are going to market to its full potential.
Attack: If you’re not already thinking about your mobile strategy, now is the time to start. Those brands that get into this channel early on will benefit most from its massive growth potential.

Local search/localised services will grow
Search engines, browsers and hardware manufacturers will continue to put their weight behind the localisation of search. Why? Three main reasons: 1.) Results are more relevant, 2.) advertising can be more accurately targeted, and 3.) it gives search networks a massive additional inventory to sell at a local, rather than regional or national level.
Attack: Advertisers need to be aware of the range of localised search possibilities becoming available and gear their offering to meet consumer demand.

User generated content (UGC) will be King
A Universal McCann study in 2008 found that only 14% of users trust advertising, whereas 78% trust recommendations of other consumers.
Attack: UGC such as in blogs, product reviews, video reviews, galleries, and other content has significant benefits: 1.) Brand perception – open, honest, approachable, 2.) Brand engagement – users can contribute and get involved, 3.) Brand dialogue – customers feel important and listened to, 4) Brand trust – your products/services must be good because you let users scrutinise them, and 5.) Free content – your users are helping to improve your offering for free.

Social media opportunities will expand
According to research by Universal McCann, 73% of users read blogs and 36% think more positively about brands that have them. In addition, 83% of users have viewed video clips (proven to offer significant uplift in sales), 49% have downloaded podcasts and 38% have subscribed to an RSS feed, while 57% have joined a social network. We could go on, but suffice to say that social media has well and truly arrived and if you don’t use it to your advantage, then you’re missing a massive opportunity.
Attack: Get a blog, tell people who you are, what you’re doing and why you’re great, and offer them information and resources that enrich their lives and user experiences. Use to your advantage social networks and bookmarking, RSS, on-site and off-site video, as well as audio and image resources.