I am an Online Marketer so each time I am in front of a device I am on the net reading about online marketing tips and tricks, recent trends etc. I just saw this this morning on Entrepreneur (entrepreneur.com) and I am re-posting it here because I think it is interesting. The article is written by John Arnold a consultant, speaker and trainer specializing inmarketing advice for small businesses.

The article takes the top 10 trends of Online marketing and sets it in an weird airplane mode – I think it is kind of funny.

1. Deals and Rewards
Ready for takeoff.
This will be a year of bargain hunting because the economy is still recovering and consumers have more price-checking tools at their fingertips.

2. Mobile Pull Marketing 

Ready for takeoff.
Mobile pull marketing means giving consumers ways to interact with your advertising over mobile devices, and pulling them closer to a purchase decision.

Related: How to Use Mobile to Reach Holiday Bargain Hunters

3. Mobile Push Marketing
Still boarding.
Mobile push marketing means sending promotional messages through texts and voice calls.

4. Local Online Marketing 

Ready for takeoff.

If you want to reach prospective customers in Denver, for example, would you consider advertising in the Los Angeles Times? You would if you realize that the publisher can display your local advertising to Denver residents who find the article in an Internet search.

6. Proximity Marketing

Still boarding.
Services such as ShopKick and Foursquare let people opt in to receive promotions on their mobile phones from nearby vendors. Consumers can allow the use of location detection technology on their phones or check in to a physical location with their phones.

7. Social Earned Media

Ready for takeoff.
If you have enough customers to have a business, then some are probably reviewing and chatting about you online. To get a positive review or referral, you have to earn it. That’s why it’s known as “social earned media.”

8. Social CRM

Ready for takeoff.
A CRM (customer relationship management) database is usually used to track people’s purchasing behavior. But don’t forget that your customers share other information about their lives that you can monitor on social media sites.

9. Globalization

Still boarding.
Thanks largely to rapidly expanding mobile Internet access, more people will go online in 2012 than ever before. Language translation technology such as WordLens also is making it easier for people to read a website, email or advertisement in their own language.

10. Everywhere Commerce

Still boarding.
Paying with a plastic credit card is probably going to go away someday, but not yet. Still, 2012 will offer consumers many more payment options.

Get your point of sale ready by accepting payments through PayPal or by enabling Google Walletor a proprietary point-of-sale option.

To read the whole article go to: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222531

What most marketers don’t get is what Facebook consumers actually want instead of what the marketers think they want. There is a study out by CMO Council that shows that there is a significant difference in what marketers think consumers want and what the consumers actually want. The traditional theory is that the social media users want to be heard but the reality is that people want exclusivity in exchange for interaction.

The study shows that 67% of social media consumers expect some exclusive deals when they “Like” a products or a service. This is not being practiced by most merketers and is not what consumers get when they “Like” a product or a service today. 60% want to interact with other consumers and compare experiences; and 57% want to find games and contests.

According to the survey just about half of marketers say that social media has increased the complexity of the marketing mix and marketing budget. More than half of them say that increased marketing activities in social media has improved customer listening, engagement and conversation and marketers say they certainly gather more insight into the market form these interactions. In addition, 20% say social media has introduced new efficiencies and effectiveness to go-to-market strategies.

But marketers don’t attribute hard earning to social media marketing, only about 6% report increased earnings according to the study. But paradoxically, when they do use social media, consumers appear to inspire each other to engage with brands:

• 80% say they are more likely to engage with a brand based on a friend’s suggestion.
• 74% say they are likely to encourage friends to try new products.
• 72% say they are more likely to stay engaged with their favorite brands.

An important fact about social media consumers is that bbout  42% of consumers use social media to share negative experiences with brands and products, likely influencing the 32% who decide not to buy a product based on that negative feedback. This is a very important brand awareness influencer that must fall into the category “lost opportunity”. It is very hard to measure exactly how much companies are missing out on social meadia consumers because of peer-to-peer influences on buying behavior.

On the communication part the majority of consumers communicate vie e-mail (65%) and fill out forms on company’s website (50%) but other forms of communication is far less used like visiting retail location (25%) and SMS (12%).
It is imperative for marketers to understand these drivers in order to accurately tune their marketing campaigns and get the maximum gain out of the marketing budget spent. Ignore myths and beliefs, try to stick to the facts.