Today, I received a YellowBook on my doorstep.
I just barely remember a time when I would have taken that YellowBook inside and given it a loving home in the closet next to my mom’s cookbooks, extra light bulbs, and flashlight. Now, it’s propping up my snow shovel so it doesn’t tip over. For me, this visual is a strong reminder of the risk traditional marketers are taking when they don't look to the future and react to the marketplace.
It’s impossible to tell you exactly what will happen next year or even 5 years from now, but I do know this: outbound tactics that worked well-enough in 2009 for your business will not work 5 years later in 2014. Companies must continue to evolve with the marketplace or face extinction.
As Augie Ray, Sr. Social Computing Analyst at Forrester points out, “2009 we witnessed the most profound evolution the marketing world has seen in fifty years or more. The pace of change is not going to lessen in 2010. Core elements that have driven marketing practices for decades--such as messaging strategy, mass media, PR, advertising, and others--will continue to change rapidly.”
Could this be the year when Inbound Marketing crosses the chasm? It very well could be. The signs are all there: Big Brands like Pepsi and Dominos have traded in million-dollar advertisements and PR campaigns for online communities and social media. Fortune 500 CEOs are warning vendors that Outbound Marketing is annoying. Small Businesses are blowing their competition out of the water by 55%, simply because they blog.
To prepare you for the rapid changes that are sure to come, I’ve asked some members of HubSpot’s marketing team and even Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot, to share their 2010 marketing predictions.
2010 Will Be the Year of Integrated Inbound Marketing.
The euphoria of social media marketing will turn into a hangover, followed by the epiphany that social media is just one tool, and the path to success is paved with a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy, not using individual tools. (@MVolpe)
Press Release Services Will Experience a Decline in Business.
As more companies adopt social media marketing practices and find more (free) ways to disseminate their news via social sites/networks, fewer will turn to press releases to distribute news and press release wire services will experience a decline in business. (@Pamelump)
Business Blogging Will Continue to Rise, Encouraged By Increased Awareness About Social Media
As PPC costs continue to rise, companies will begin to hunt actively for other, organic ways to boost ROI and target attractive keywords, eventually settling on blogging as a way to generate more organic leads. Social media will also help accelerate interest in business blogging next year. A recent report on Social Media Usage by the Center for Marketing research says that 44% of the Inc's fastest growing companies that do not currently maintain a blog, plan to start a business blog in 2010. Interestingly enough, in the same study, a whopping 91% of respondents also claimed that they use at least 1 social networking site for their business. I believe as companies begin to experience success using social networking tools, their desire to share and create their own content for these mediums will increase. (@shaxxon)
Inbound Marketing Will "Cross the Chasm"
2. Consumers will get even better at blocking out advertisements, email blasts, and cold calls.
3. Consumers will get even better at finding what they want in Google, blogs, and social media sites.
4. Google's growth will stall as Adwords becomes an "efficient" market.
5. Traditional advertising (tv, newspaper, radio) will shrink faster than in 2009.
6. PR & Advertising firms will either transform or start to go away.
7. Serious journalists like the NYTimes and Wall Street Journal will shrink, but will remain as relevant as ever.
8. Companies will start turn their marketing departments into production studios for creating content.
9. Companies will be even more transparent and even more authentic.
10. The economy will roar (not limp) back (@BHallign)
Google Will Disrupt the Mobile Industry Providing More Opportunities for Marketers.
Rumor has it, that Google will be putting their full force behind direct sales of a handset that works on the wireless network of your choice. They'll then take on Apple with their own Android app store by promoting it heavily. As more Android phones sell, they'll reduce the margins of all of the other maps players by giving away GPS-like maps and directions on your handset. They'll do all of this in order to move more local online advertising dollars to their pockets, leveraging their newly acquired mobile ad network.
For marketers that don't want to get left behind, you should start building mobile apps and positioning yourself on mobile networks. If you're a local business, you should get yourself in tune with Google's maps and local listing capabilities.(@Pc4Media)
In 2010, Content Director Is King.
The position of Content Director will be critical to any marketing department as they try to leverage existing resources (ie human, digital, content assistants) to communicate with prospects and customers (@JeanneHopkins)
Do you have a 2010 Marketing Prediction you'd like to share? Post it to Twitter with the hashtag #Marketing2010
Tweet Your Marketing Prediction for 2010!
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