Hot Online Trends

December 4th, 2006 by John Herman, under trends. No Comments

Entrepreneur.com recently published Kim Gordon’s 10 Marketing Trends to Watch in 2007. Here are some things you should have been doing in 2006.

Web Conferencing
As business travel becomes increasingly challenging due to increased security, advance check-in times and transportation delays, online workshops and meetings that require no travel are coming to the forefront. It’s more desirable than ever to demo your new product to a group or make a sales presentation without anyone ever leaving home. Participants can watch your presentation on their computer monitors and hear you live on their computer speakers or by phone.

Online Research
Whether you sell exclusively online or primarily through a brick-and-mortar site, online research will have a profound impact on your sales in 2007. When asked how often they researched products online before buying them in person or in a store, 87 percent of nearly 7,500 respondents to a BIGresearch “Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey” said they did so occasionally to regularly. And a comScore research study showed that 63 percent of searchers completed a purchase in offline retail stores following their research activity. So no matter whether you sell online, off-line or both, you need a great website with deep, persuasive content that keeps your prospects and customers shopping on your site or going to your store.
 
Local Search
Want to know where to invest your online marketing dollars in 2007? Aim for higher rankings in the top search engines. Sixty-two percent of searchers click on a link within the first page of results, according to a report from iProspect and Jupiter Research. To win higher rankings in natural search results, you can optimize your site by sprinkling the keyword phrases your best prospects will be searching for throughout all the pages of your site, in your page descriptions and in metatags. You should also secure links to your site from other high-ranking websites.

This article recommends investing in a paid search campaign. That may be a good idea if you can afford it. If not, you can find the tools you need to do it yourself either online or at your local library.

For more information about Marketing Trends to Watch in 2007, read Gordon’s complete article at http://smallbusiness.aol.com/start/startup/article/_a/10-marketing-trends-to-watch-in-2007/20061129151209990002.