Marketers will have a lot of decisions to make when creating their strategy for 2013.  A lot of them will revolve around internet advertising methods and how they will benefit their business.  We decided to write down a few of the methods that should be considered and explain how they can help you.  

Note: We have an updated version for 2015! 

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1.  PPC Probably the most common method people think of when they hear "internet marketing methods" is Pay Per Click (PPC).  This will change in the coming year.  In fact, it already has begun to change – ever so slightly.  A recent study released by Nielsen states that: “…on average "less than half of all online ad impressions are reaching the advertiser’s intended audience, based on age and gender." (click here to read the report).  Forrester’s U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast  states that marketers will spend 88% of their search engine budget to read a mere 6% of clicks.  They will only spend 12% of their budget to achieve 94% click-through rates.  Unfortunately, it shows that they will continue this trend clear to 2016.  While many internet marketing agencies have been shouting from the rooftops to stop this bad behavior, it’s their finding that it will be a few more years before the tide changes.  That’s why we feel strongly that NOW is the time to jump off the bandwagon and get ahead of the conversation.  Do it before your competitor does and they will spend their time furiously trying to catch up!

2.  SOCIAL – If you previously played the part of the martyr who refused to join social media because you were sure it would be a big flop, might we suggest you change your attitude to “if you can’t beat them, join them.”  With Facebook signing on its One Billionth user in 2012, it’s pretty safe to say they’re not going anywhere.  Other social media outlets are growing like wildfire and it’s time to figure out which ones will work for you.  Use Facebook to build relationship, Twitter to spread news and Pinterest to market visually.  The key to social is to have a strategy in place.  Identify where you are going to be, who is in charge of creating the content, what the timeline of posting will be and the guidelines that should be followed at all times.  It is also important to monitor your brand to see who is talking about you in addition to analyzing your results so you can see what is working and what is not. 

3.  EMAIL MARKETING – Email marketing has been around for a while now.  There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.  By now, hopefully you’re in agreement that SPAM is not the right way.  If you have participated in the past, please stop.  You’re only hurting yourself and not accomplishing much.  Why waste time on a conversion rate that averages 1 in 12.5 million or 0.000008% according to a study by Chris Kriebich.  Email marketing campaigns that are sent to an opt-in list (people who gave you permission to email them) are effective ways to communicate what is going on with your company.  Especially when followed up with nurturing emails that walk your lead through the sales process in a non-threatening way.  Better yet, they are easily managed and tracked with specific results.  If you’re ahead of the game, and are utilizing an inbound marketing strategy, you’re probably using software that will help with these analytics.

4.  SMS– while your social status updates can be considered a form of SMS (short message service) it usually is related to mobile phone text messages.  When I was with Cincinnati Bell Wireless (now a Verizon user) I would receive monthly updates as to what specials they had going on.  Maybe there was a service I could try at a discounted price or a phone that was on sale, etc.  This is considered SMS.  The messages are limited to 160 characters in the US and are received on the consumer’s phone like a text message.  You’ll see a lot more of this begin to happen.  In June of 2012 it wasreported by SocialMediadd that SMS conversion rates had a 6.16% average versus email marketing at just 2.8%.  In addition, 95% of the text messages were read within 4-15 minutes so it is quick.  If this is not part of your internet marketing strategy for 2013, look into it!

5.  SEARCH ENGINE – I’m not talking about PPC or SEM.  I’m talking about getting found in the number one spot of the white space aka “organic” space.  In reality, I don’t think you should just be in the first spot.  I think if you’re passionate about what you do you should be talking about it all over the place and dominate search results whenever possible.  For some of you, that won’t be hard.  For others, you have a lot of work ahead of you.  It depends on your industry and how many of your competitors are already talking about it!  You can achieve these results by blogging, being active in social and utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) correctly.  The idea is to optimize your website with relevant information and corresponding SEO.  Make sure you are creating new content consistently that is SEO optimized and you’ll begin to garner the attention you want.  It’s not as easy as it looks.  You need strategy in place someone with the time to carry it through.  Being found in the white space will bring you a whopping 94% click rate and it should be your No. 1 priority in 2013.