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Seven marketing trends for a matured online marketplace

January 11, 2010 | Internet Marketing

In 2010, the following seven trends will be at the core of online marketing. These trends show an evolution from the past few years as businesses face a more competitive online marketplace and a more diverse set of communication channels.

Improved lifecycle marketing provides customers with appropriate information. Customers will get this information at each step of the purchase process. With tighter budgets, marketers will maximize their retention marketing efforts to increase the profitability of their current customers. Providing post-purchase support will become more important to ensure that customers continue to use their products. To leverage these efforts, think about how you can add value to your offering and create related products that can be sold post-purchase.

Segmentation becomes essential to delivering relevant communications. Especially in appropriate formats to diverse groups at various points in the purchase process. This translates into understanding and offering individual prospects and customers different communications options, allowing them to modify their choices and incorporating past activity to personalize communications. This implies the need for more sophisticated database operations.

Social media marketing strategies mature. As the market continues to evolve, companies move away from a knee jerk, “We need a Facebook page” reaction to making an ongoing investment in staff, marketing, and related systems for listening, tracking, and participating to ensure you’re in tune with the members of the appropriate communities. Developing advocates and enhancing their reach to attract new prospects are the areas where companies should focus their efforts. The recent FTC endorsement guidelines hopefully will translate into greater transparency as brands increase their efforts to socialize across platforms. What’s certain is that there will continue to be new social media offerings and current players will change.

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