Planning for 2010

With the advent of social media networking, some of the more traditional marketing methods are being left by the wayside as more and more businesses find interactive communication with their customers more financially viable and much more effective.

From 2010 onwards, marketing is taking on a personal role in that we are getting up close and personal with our customers. Compare Yellow Pages listings or newspaper advertising with Facebook and Twitter. The predicted trend for 2010 is to create relationships with your customers through social media networking – growing your list through sites such as twitter and Facebook, just to name two.

There are two trains of thought regarding social media marketing. There are those who believe in using it for business and marketing, and those who want to treat it much like a virtual water cooler around which to gossip (although why you'd want to replace face to face, meaningful interaction with other humans with anonymous, distant internet messaging and waste time just chatting for the sake of chatting, I don't know.)

There are those who say you must establish close relationships with would-be customers first before marketing to them, and those who are more upfront with their intentions. Personally, I know which side of the fence I'm on. I believe in being transparent and totally honest right from the start. I don't see anything honest and real in pretending to want to get to know and be friends with a whole bunch of strangers just so I can sneak up on them later somehow and hit them with marketing. That's not my style and my techniques continue to bring in interest to my websites and services so I must be doing something right.

Having said that, there are people who may be more responsive after getting to know me first. So, in order to cater to everybody and their "preferences", I combine marketing with chit chat and find it is the combination of the two that works very well.

Of course, when I think modern marketing, I'm not just thinking the likes of Twitter and Facebook… marketing to mobiles via SMS is not new but it is becoming more popular. Businesses have been using it to send their customers reminders and invitations but more and more businesses are using it to send advertising, which you can opt out of if you find it annoying, and let's face it, with all the spam we face in our email, most of us definitely do not want it clogging up our mobile phones!

However, it is a useful method to keep your customers up to date with your events and new offerings and something you can consider – but make sure you have their permission first and keep your messages short.

We're keeping on keeping on with loyalty programs for our customers in 2010 as a proven marketing process that not only attracts new customers but is an excellent method of retaining existing customers.

Apart from that we need to keep in mind that after the recent financial crisis, we are marketing to a group of savvier customers who want value for their dollar and don't want their time wasted on frivolous or irrelevant marketing. Dishonest marketing or advertising that hides the whole truth will not go down with 2010's audience. People are fed up with deceit. So in 2010 we are keeping it real!

We are also marketing to another generation who are more interested in products and services that are environmentally friendly. Just research the number of articles alone on the internet about greening your office and you'll see what I mean.

As always, it comes down to knowing your target market and keeping up with trends.

Happy marketing,
Terri