5 Online Marketing Trends for 2010

The adoption of new online marketing techniques will be paramount to keeping a competitive edge and ensuring return on investment (ROI), says Blaine Mathieu, chief marketing officer for Lyris. To help point you in the right direction, here are five trends likely to impact online marketing ROI in 2010. 1. Email marketing is the anchor for multimedia channels. Email is not dead. The Web remains the epicenter to reach the most valuable customers, and email continues to be the trusted and proven marketing anchor for all Web-based marketing channels. Email marketing is used by over 90% of marketers, and despite its 'less sexy' appeal, with its low cost and targeted reach it is the perfect base from which to build other online marketing initiatives. In addition, 80.4 percent of marketers agree that email is the strongest-performing online marketing tool in their organizations. That's because email is the most measurable marketing channel, with proven and reliable high rates of return. And when combined with other online marketing channels it becomes even more powerful and effective. 2. Moving beyond "Web analytics" to online marketing analytics. Today's information overload means that consumers have a shorter attention span than ever before. At the same time, marketers need to prove ROI to corporate executives in order to maintain marketing momentum. That's why data about consumer behavior is critical to helping brands increase sales. Improved integration with online marketing analytics tools in 2010 will empower marketers to extract detailed data reporting, offering new opportunities for marketers to optimize campaigns, show results and demonstrate market share. 3. Blending email marketing with social media. Social networking is now the number one activity on the Web and plays an integral role in a large majority of buying decisions. When social media is integrated with email marketing these two powerful channels are even more effective and can extend reach, enhance engagement, grow customer opt-in lists and build trust. When you think about it, it makes sense - after all, email was really the first social media used online. People don't share banner ads or search terms, but they've been sharing email for fifteen years now. It's clear that email and social media are complementary channels. And email marketers can no longer avoid integrating with social tools, as discussed by Jeremiah Owyang, Altimeter Group analyst and social media thought leader in his blog post, Interlaced: Email and Social Networks. 4. The year of mobile - finally! As many marketers are aware, mobile is already here -- according to ABI Research, mobile marketing revenues are expected to reach $24 billion by 2013. Mobile marketing reaches targeted audiences and drives the urgency of initiatives in real-time while extending marketing reach, building customer retention and loyalty, and building a strong, interested and opted-in customer base. Mobile's low execution cost means maximized campaign effectiveness. Reno's Eldorado Hotel Casino and Silver Legacy Casino has already broken the ice with mobile SMS campaigns and proven mobile can increase prospect conversions and revenues. As smartphone adoption continues to grow, mobile offers an exciting opportunity and an email marketing program is an excellent launch point. 5. Integrated, online marketing - tools not the issue. In 2010 marketers now have the ability to easily create integrated online marketing programs - joining email, search, social, mobile and other online marketing channels - and most importantly measure and optimize those programs with integrated metrics. Tools are no longer an issue. Marketers and marketing organizations are now faced with solving the issues of silos and organizational structure - issues they can overcome with true integration. In learning to embrace new media channels, marketers will begin to integrate multiple touchpoints and initiatives to increase their chances of success. In addition, we can expect the lines between channels to continue to blur. This will extend messages to wider, more targeted audiences and engage them more meaningfully, on their timetable and via the medium they prefer. There's no question that email marketing is the anchor for online marketing, and significant opportunities exist for marketers to take advantage of synergies between online marketing channels. This integration and orchestration of online channels such as email, social and mobile is what we refer to as tri-messaging. Tri-messaging is not a fad, but instead is an integrated marketing best practice for 2010 that facilitates conversations, commerce and loyalty that can be managed, measured and monetized.

Fake BP Twitter Feed Demonstrates the PR Pitfalls of Social Media

Poor British Petroleum. They just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to stemming the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, preventing the spilled oil coming ashore in Louisiana or getting the Environmental Protection Agency off their back for using toxic dispersants to degrade the oil before it reaches the surface, says newmanpr. And now this — a fake Twitter account that satirizes the company’s response to the spill that has attracted nearly 37,000 followers versus its real Twitter account, which has only about 5,500. Worse still, the followers of the real account are mostly nerds — the EPA, U.S. Coast Guard and the White House — while the fake one boasts Cindy Crawford, the Flaming Lips and Keith Olbermann among its followers. The fake account features tweets like this: We feel terrible about spilling oil in American waters, we’ll make sure the next spill happens where the terrorists live. #bpcares Or this: Please help us with rebranding. We’re not calling it an “oil spill” anymore, now it’s a “Southern Fun Party”. #bpcares OK, they’re not all funny, indeed, some of them are downright juvenile, whereas the real tweets are all business: BP will continue to provide live video feeds from the seabed throughout the planned ‘top kill’ procedure http://bit.ly/axxQYX #oilspill #BP The disparity between the number of tweets on the fake feed (82) versus the real feed (304) points to the possibility that funny is harder to write than straight content, but it also represents what appears to be a real effort on BP’s part to communicate what is happening and provide a level of transparency that at times has been missing in its public statements and actions. Is the BPGlobalPR Twitter feed harming BP’s reputation? Probably not. It’s obviously a joke, and the only thing that can salvage BP’s reputation at this point is for the company to plug the leak, clean up the mess and pay for everything without a fight. Does the fake feed detract from the real one? Probably not. BP_America mainly attracts journalists, politicians and tourism organizations, even though it’s going to have a live feed of the “top kill” operation later today. Could British Petroleum have prevented the fake feed? Nope. There’s no way a company can be expected to acquire every conceivable Twitter handle permutation of its name to prevent pranksters from making fun of it. In the end, BP will just have to grin and bear the jokes.