201179 Key Online Marketing

Predictions

The key focus for online marketing in 2011 will be local search. There are four key areas that will underpin all major developments over the next 12 months:

1. MessageContent is king, copy writing skills will become more important than ever in 2011 with greater empathises on the quality of the content in searches.

3. PlanningWith new localised search and empathise on cross platform resources, carefully planned integrated campaigns will be the most successful in 2011.

2. ComplicityDigital marketing is becoming more fragmented; so to design, manage, measure, forecast and re-evaluate a winning campaign will require an ever more knowledgeable marketing team

4. Cross PlatformThe need for cross platform support and measurement is crucial for 2011. HTML5 will allow for a more strategic view to function over multiple platforms.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: SEO

o As a result of the local fragmentation of Google, and the growth of local search entities, SEO will become more complex in its management and delivery.

o Content will define SEO in 2011, with copywriting skills becoming more important than ever.

o The blurred lines between SEO and social media will be emphasised even more this year, particularly with new local additions being added to search engines.

o Sales generated through SEO-based channels will grow by more than 50% compared to 2010

o Google will remain the dominant search engine, although Bing and Yahoo will claw back up to 2% of the market share through the course of the year.

o Facebook will launch its own search listings in 2011, with a local bias that will see Facebook gain a reputation as the "local search engine”.

o The increasing adoption of HTML5 towards the end of the year will provide better cross-browser platform support.

o Google will introduce a “brand halo effect”, allowing larger brands to become more prominent in their industries, and target keyword phrases that they had previously had little exposure on.

o Yahoo will remove its site explorer tool this year.

o Google is set to move Google Local and Google Shopping to a paid medium by the end of 2011, and will cause further uproar by displaying more of its own content, ie: links to business listings within search listings.

o Bing will add more functionality into its Webmaster Tools, which will allow for greater reporting on links and site-wide reporting.

o Bing’s Facebook results will become much more prominent in the UK in the first quarter of 2011, which could lead to some interesting celebrity mishaps, promoting the awareness of managing your reputation online from the general public.

o Bing will look to make its Facebook investment work in 2011. Facebook listings will start to appear in more “interesting” places, while impressions and “like” data will be put to good use in its keyword ranking mechanism.

o Google’s current share price of $600 is one of the dominating elements in its 2011 strategy; expect to see a 10% growth of these shares throughout the year.

o Yahoo's Margin increased to 11% in 2010, mostly aided by the Sale of HotJobs, its investment into Alibaba and shedding of 4% of its workforce. Its Search Agreement with Microsoft to obtain full traction in 2012, and CEO Carol Bartz believes Yahoo will be a more attractive proposition to purchase in 2011, with Apple or Facebook expected to be the potential suitors.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: PPC

o Facebook’s advertising revenue will see a year-on-year growth of around 72%, pushing them through the $2bn profit barrier.

o There will be more and more opportunities to spend PPC budgets in 2011, with new opportunities from Google (launch of Google Local, Google Shopping set to be monitorised), Yahoo (local and content) and Bing (more share of PPC market with Yahoo's inventory).

o With new PPC mediums available, click fraud will begin to rear its head throughout 2011.

o There will be an increase of more than 200% in mobile PPC spend in 2011, as it rides the wave of mobile browsing awareness.

o This year will see a greater understanding of conversion across the entire client sector.

o Twitter will launch a PPC-based product aimed specifically at agencies in 2011, while the spend on LinkedIn PPC will increase by around 300%.

o Paid search cost-per-click prices will increase on all search engines, which will lead to a greater focus on on-page quality from Google, Yahoo and Bing.

o Through the Adcenter engine, Yahoo PPC will develop a much better reach and ROI in 2011; as a direct result of this, there will be a bigger flow of marketing budgets in the last two quarters of the year.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: AFFILIATES

o 2011 is set to be a difficult year for large-scale content affiliate sites, with Google starting to push bigger brands in the listings.

o This will be a real boom year for upper affiliates, and Affiliate Networks will be successful for super affiliates on an exclusive basis, employing exclusive retention teams.

o Clients will develop multi-skilled affiliate teams to help develop their in-house networks.

o The above two points will result in three UK affiliate networks going bust this year.

o Closer relationships between super-affiliates and their clients will create a more difficult relationship between clients and networks.

o Voucher codes will becoming more visible in the UK, and will begin to be featured in mainstream TV advertising.

o The 2011 boom in mobile commerce will see mobile affiliate marketing becoming a growing revenue stream for clients; QR codes will become a mainstream icon, and will start to appear in tee shorts aimed at students, who will see it as “cool art”.

o Local-based affiliate advertising campaigns will become much stronger in 2011, and more integral to the overall affiliate campaign. Affiliates will jump on new technologies unveiled by content providers.

o Social gaming and social networking sites will see a noticeable influx of large scale super-affiliates.

o Affiliate marketing campaigns will become much more global this year, and clients will have to compete with increasing competition from overseas clients.

o Determining ROI and tracking issues will still be the dominant issues for clients in 2011.

o The UK government’s involvement in affiliates will become apparent, particularly in the areas of customer privacy and transparency.

o Group buying will make some noise in the UK, but it will be at least 2012 before it hits the mainstream.

o The growth of the mobile will make 2011 a breakthrough year for video advertisements, with the majority of video ads being viewed on mobile devices.

o TV budgets will have to be structured in order to accommodate digital video promotional efforts, so look out for many more spoof trailers online in 2011!

o The industry will look to standardise video formats, while privacy and advertising standards will struggle to get a consensus in 2011.

o The HD format and 3D videos will be interesting developments in the second quarter of 2011.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: VIDEO

o IPTV will make its mark on a local level, and this local level will allow clients to target early adopters.

o YouTube will grow its premium partners list, as well as seeking out potential premium consumers.

o Extra functionality of Apple TV drives good progress of the product in the UK this year.

o The boom of smart phones will continue to see a rise in user-generate content; it is estimated that around fifty hours of content will be uploaded every minute in 2011. YouTube will also introduce more video editing tools for its users.

o An increasing number of YouTube content and channels will become branded by larger advertisers in 2011.

o 2011 will be a big year for advertising on social networks, with a year-on-year growth of 40% in social media advertising across all platforms. Facebook will grab the lions’ share, while Twitter will launch a more public-facing advertising model.

o More and more media outlets will turn to Twitter as a first point of contact with consumers, preferring the use of #hashtags as a primary inbound communication tool.

o Online reputation management will become more mainstream this year, and will be increasingly seen as a vital aspect of any marketing campaign.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: SOCIAL MEDIA

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: GOVERNMENT

o 2011 will be a defining year for government involvement in online affairs, whether we like it or not.

o In America, the Federal Trade Association’s “Do Not Track” proposal is set to “promote privacy, transparency, business innovation and consumer choice”, which will lead to the Government placing extra legislation on companies to promote privacy and protection. This could become a burden to businesses, depending on how heavy-handed the DNT proposal is executed.

o Greater ISP regulation will be proposed by the British Government in 2011, with a bid to block access to internet porn sites at ISP level already being suggested by some MPs.

o Relationships between the world’s governments and payments engines such as PayPal will become more and more strained in 2011.

o An embarrassing online incident will expose how underprepared the UK Government is for so-called “internet warfare”. In a move the press will label “the Assange effect”, fame-hungry hackers will look to publish their date directly, rather than waiting for leaks to be passed onto them.

o It is estimated that around 25% of the British population download files illegally, and the British record industry will be the driving force behind the closure of illegal downloading sites and P2P servers hosted in the UK.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

o Bing will incorporate Facebook updates into its search results, providing the ability to manage your online reputation amongst the general public.

o Content-based providers will develop a procedure to remove content that is more established compared to 2010.

o Online reputation management will become more mainstream this year, and will be increasingly seen as a vital aspect of any marketing campaign.

o Facebook will introduce more controls to its interface, as well as launching an awareness campaign to make sure their users know all about them.

o The increase in local-based searches and marketing activity could lead to businesses claiming the wrong listings; the customer service departments of the larger content sites will be able to provide adequate cover to respond to this.

o Reputation management will involves more input and reviewing of media other than text; video, audio and images will all need to be monitored.

o The continued growth of Twitter will continue to cause issues for large and small brands alike.

o Monitoring the reputation of your competition, and integrating what you learn into your overall marketing strategy, will become commonplace this year.

o PR companies that successfully integrate reputation management into overall PR strategies will be the most successful in 2011.

o Reputation management will become a larger consumer and research tool for SMEs.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: DISPLAY

o Display advertising is a growth area that Yahoo needs to master in its developing markets, and their purchase of Dapper last year will help their move into the display advertising market.

o Mobile will provide a bigger than average growth for the display market in 2011.

o Travel and Retail are two sectors that will have increasing interest in the growth of Exchanges and video advertising this year.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: MOBILE

o Payments via mobile will become more likely in 2011, but will not become common place until 2012. Apple (iPhone 5), Samsung (Bada 2.0) Google (Nexus) have all plans to support Near Field Communications (NFC) in 2011.

o Coca Cola or Pepsi will link with one of the major smartphone providers to allow purchases to be made via the phone. A successful case study will push this concept to the front of mind, and will push growth in 2012.

o Nokia has already stated that it will add the NFC software to its smartphones in 2011.

o Apple will be linking products as well as applications to its iTunes payment store.

o Mobile browsers will be used less frequently in comparison to smartphone applications - why browse the BBC website when you can use a BBC application?

o There will be much more design to allow for offline browsing in 2011.

o The subject of malware, phishing attempts and fraud will plague all mobile providers in 2011. Watchdog, BBC’s flagship consumer affairs show, will highlight these in the 2nd quarter of the year.

o Apple’s MobileMe platform will be an essential tool for Apples mobile products, and this subscription-based model will provide additional steady revenue for Apple throughout 2011.

o Meanwhile, Google's Android mobile platform will by the key drive in its share price; Android captured 22% of the market on mobile platforms last year. Google will partner a large mobile supplier to make payments via NFC a reality in 2011 - but don’t expect any traction until 2012.

79 Key Online Marketing Predictions: CROSS PLATFORM

o HTML 5 will allow for a more strategic view of the web creative, to function over multiple platforms.

o The planning and delivery of resources that are required to develop cross platforms will be more crucial than ever this year.

o The increasing need for cross platform support and measurement will fuel the demand for CRMs and Marketing Management Systems.