"Ten Trends to Drive Traffic and Sales in 2007"

Bravo to Heidi Cohen. She has compiled a great list of trends that will drive sales and marketing in 2007. Personally, Royall Media has seen triple digit growth in the interest our clients have shown in internet marketing and interactive media.

The main trends she outlines are:

2007 Trends

• Online video advertising keeps growing.
• Social media evolves.
• User-generated content continues deepening engagement and giving users a voice.
• Search marketing keeps expanding.
• Improved e-mail execution builds customer relationships.
• Online content continues evolving.
• Alternative content distribution channels such as RSS and tagging expand.
• Second Life continues to live while gathering competitors.
• Increased real-time testing and analytics sophistication drive bottom-line improvements.
• Integration with other channels improves.

Check out the full article here: http://www.optimost.com/press/20061221.phtml

Focusing Your Marketing Efforts

A few simple things to think about...

• It's better to send 5 direct mail pieces in a year to 1,000 people, than to send 1 direct mail piece to 5,000 people.

• It's better to purchase 100 commercial TV spots that will air on 1 channel in a small geographic area, than 100 commercial spots spread out over 10 channels and a large area.

• It's better to visit the same networking groups over and over, and build relationships with those involved, rather than "group hop" to as many as possible to get your name out there.

• It's better to do an awesome job for a few clients, than to do a mediocre job for a lot of clients.

Focusing your efforts can really pay off. The idea is that you want your company to be top of mind, which means getting your message in front of the same people multiple times consistently. If you spread yourself too thin, you'll see a drop in your marketing dollar's ROI.

The numbers above are representational only, and are not recommendations. Most marketing plans would reach out to a much larger number of prospects to generate a real return on investment.