A recent report by Forrester shows that while mobile and gaming is hyped a lot for marketing, in reality they're not being adopted much at all.
On the other hand, social networking is starting to gain a stronger position in the minds of marketers. The report stated that over the last 12 months, 40 percent of marketers have been using RSS, up from 10 percent last year. Another 34 percent are either using or piloting blogs, up from 13 percent from 2006. Social networks themselves have been growing slower, but still represent a 20 percent penetration as far as marketer use goes.
But probably the least talked about means of marketing, because they just aren't that exciting to talk about, are still e-mail and search. And it's predicted by the report that it will even grow in use over previous years. This is something I've been trying to convince people of for a long time.
I've built e-mail lists with thousands of names and have found them to still be one of the best ways to market; whether you're branding or selling products. It's just really hard to beat, so I won't try unless something comes along that proves itself better.
Don't get me wrong, there will be an increased amount of impact from other platforms and areas. Places like mobile, online video and other areas will become important some day. But I still maintain that it's going to take quite a while for that to happen. I think we need to continue to focus and improve in our e-mail and search strategies, while experimenting with and trying different things to prepare for when other venues become more clear on what will work on them.
Even the banner ad has been making a comeback when it includes rich media in it.
I think that blogs as an advertising medium will also become to take on a much more important place as larger companies start to figure out ways to market across them. They still have a hard time getting the mass-media concept out of their minds. Once that happens I think blog advertising will explode and skyrocket.
Like I said, one of the reasons that it seems all this other stuff is so powerful is because it's simply more interesting to read about, so as a result it's written about more. In reality, e-mail and search will still be the kings-of-the-hill in online marketing for quite a time to come.
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