Companies are already paying attention to how their brand is perceived and what is being said about them online. This means 2010 will see the hiring or formally appointing of staff to handle a company’s brand perception across social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The real power of social media marketing will lie in the crowdsourcing of social media sites to actually offer customers the opportunity to actively provide input into the development of a brand… perhaps even collaborate on the actual production of a product.

PYO – Produce Your Own

2010 consumers will create their own marketing information. The buzz word is ‘prosumer’. Prosumers use their ability to create and distribute content to contribute to online conversations on brands and services. Companies will begin to incorporate and address content created by prosumers into how they develop products and present themselves online.

21st Century Wonder Women

The pay gap between genders will continue to narrow in 2010. Women have been found to not only make more collaborative, team focused leaders, but are more empathetic, have stronger organisational skills, are better given to people skills and are more resilient in a business environment.

Freebies

In order for brands to be seen, heard and TRUSTED, companies will need to offer valuable, relevant content to their prospective customers for free. 2010 will see more companies embracing small-scale gift-economy offerings. These are likely to take the form of creative commons licensed content or open-source software; free products that provide value to consumers and drawing the right kind of attention to a brand and the other (monetary) benefits it offers.

Going Green

More and more businesses will be making the effort to go green, and incorporate that status into how they’re perceived. In light of the growing awareness of climate change, and the apparent ineffectiveness of global meetings like the one in Copenhagen earlier this year, individuals will be more conscious of how they and their communities impact negatively on the environment.  There is great value in being able to declare to this growing carbon-conscious customer group that your business is certified green. People are more likely to react positively to a business that shares the same principles and concerns in this respect.

In The Clouds

Cloud computing will be recognised as something that happens everyday and is commonplace. Accordingly, more small businesses will begin to favour affordable cloud based software as a method of managing their internal processes. VoIP is also likely to rise in popularity amongst small businesses.

10 Marketing Ideas

• email newsletters
• networking
• referral programs
• frequent buyer programs
• free trials
• public relations
• search engine optimisation
• online ads
• invoice mailings
• letterboxing

Email Newsletters

Since the birth of the internet email has existed and is the most successful way of communicating with others online.  When done right newsletters create a loyal following of subscribers and, as long as your content is genuine and engaging, you can lead your subscribers to any buying proposition that you recommend.

Networking

From the offline world, networking has been the cornerstone of any business.  The more people you know and the more connections you make will lead to successful business.  All business is built on relationships and reputation.  Bringing this concept to your online business can be a challenge but with great rewards.  The advent of web 2.0 social networking sites has created massive networks that have still not reached their full potential.

Referral Programs

Personal recommendations have always worked well as a marketing strategy.  Online this can take the form of viral emails, videos or affiliate sites.  Working in with the networking concepts, once people start sharing with each other about what they have discovered trends can explode and millions have been made literally overnight.

Frequent Buyer Programs

This idea encourages your loyal customers to buy more.  The more they buy, the more you should reward them.  This has been used online successfully in the forms of bonus downloads, usually in the form of ebooks or software.

Free Trials

Another old idea that always works.  Free reports, free samples, free trials.  All this builds relationships and trust with new customers.  Make sure that what you give away is good quality or you will destroy the relationship before it is built.

Public Relations

Many businesses have used press releases a free form of advertising.  It still works today and sometimes even makes the 6:00pm news.  Press releases can also be released online or just submitting articles to online article websites can also attract potential customers.  Again, with articles, it has to be genuine and quality content.

Search Engine Optimisation

Learning these techniques will bring free traffic to your site.  Based on the keywords that people search for in search engines, once your site is discovered in the a list of search results people will visit the site.  Once they arrive at your site you need to make sure you can provide what they are looking for.

Online Ads

Advertising can work in the right areas, but most people ignore banner ads on websites these days.  Video ads are more popular now but it needs to be providing some useful content before it will really attract any attention.

Invoice Mailings

If people buy from you include a promotion with the invoice that you send them.  You have already gained their trust, this is a great time to build on the relationship and encourage them to participate further.

Letterboxing

Good for local business, a letterbox drop may still develop a relationship with your customers.  Don’t try it in email form…. that’s called spam and is very bad.