vSplash

Every time I launch my browser, I learn something new. Browser has become a kind of a university for me. It delivers me everything that is of interest to me.
 
Over the last few months, online marketing has become a special interest area for me and I have been spending tons of my time on this subject. Last week I sat down to pick 5.5 topics that will actually become the big talking points in 2009 according to me.  Here they are:
 
1.       Organic Rankings - SEO will become mainstream and will start getting measured in ROI – Usually SEO consulting companies or ‘consultants’ charge a few thousand dollars every month. Currently they survive on fixing optimization mistakes and playing around with keywords. With search engines becoming smarter, this is going to undergo a big change. SEO folks will start creating content that deliver traffic and leads. Because leads and content have become so tightly linked. It shall be all about ROI.
 
2.       Advertising on Social Media – This will have a big impact. Most companies which have been using the PPC route will start advertising on social media as well in 2009. The reason is simple – advertising is simpler than blogging or doing other things which require more time and resources. Also the fact remains that this year, a lot of these social media companies will come up with easier tools for companies to get targeted traffic. Hail Social Media!
 
3.       Web Design Pure Play shall die – Web design companies need to evolve into complete functions and include marketing services as part of their main services to survive. Agencies that offer a full-cycle solution shall take over business from pure play companies which refuse to adapt.
 
4.       Search will drift towards social search – Towards the end of the year, social media companies like Facebook will start seeing a growth in their search share. Every coffee shop I visit, every country I go to, every discussion I attend to, Facebook rules. I am sure Facebook will figure out a way of delivering  ads and searches that are more meaningful. In short, search will move towards social search. Social search will become a part of algorithmic search.
 
5.       B2B Lead Generation – Internet is not about selling online. However tons of businesses see it that way. This will change as more and more B2B companies will start using the internet to generate B2B leads. B2B leads survive on information exchange and there is no better media than the internet for facilitating exchange of information with such perfect ease.

 
5.5  Business blogging - that started taking off in the latter part of 2008 and is only expected to gain momentum in 2009.

With a downturn economy, internet offers the most cost effective method of marketing and in all probability this can turn is some major surprises. Count on it. Don’t discount it yet.