The Top 10 Internet & Search Marketing Trends for 2011

As the year comes to a close, we share with you our insights related to the Internet & Online Marketing trends of 2011. We examine closely the most important trends from the SEO industry to Social Media & Location Based Marketing and from Mobile Marketing to Email Marketing and Budget Allocation. Of course there is no magic behind these predictions, just our insights as web professionals and as members of the growing online marketing community. Our advice to all internet professionals, from webmasters to online marketers, is to take into account all the trends, filter them and fit the selected ones to their strategies.

1. SEO

Content might still be the king but there are also tons of factors that also need to be taken into account in search engine optimization. No matter if search engines are changing their algorithms, SEO and search marketing will be a key component for successful online strategies in 2011. The core philosophy of acquiring “quality links” is still valid and those anchors can either be quality hyperlinks from websites with unique and relevant content or references from high authority users of social media.

2. Budget Allocation

Online spend by all means, including search engine optimization, search marketing, display ads, social media and mobile marketing will be increased against conventional media. This is not just a prediction but the most “hot topic” advertisers and agencies are currently discussing during their budget and media planning.

3. New Jobs & New Roles

In 2011 we will see an increase on the demand for jobs related to social media and mobile marketing. Some of these roles already exist, nevertheless it is certain that we will see more like community managers, new media coordinators and directors, mobile strategists etc in the near future.

4. E-mail Marketing

For some people, e-mail marketing sounds old fashioned or even not effective. Nevertheless the truth is that e-mail marketing is still a very important tool for Marketers, online professionals & brands and thus it should continue being used wisely.

5. Social Media Marketing

More and more brands will adopt the social media philosophy by using in house assets and by being oriented on community engagement strategies. In 2011, successful social media campaigns will be only the ones that have been executed under a specific strategy and policy.

6. Social Media Analytics and KPIs

The large number of social media websites will increase the need of tracking the performance of online campaigns and their effects on SEO. Moreover, KPIs need to be re-defined in order to deliver success metrics instead of plain numbers of fans or followers.

7. Social Commerce

Social commerce is a wave that will transform most e-commerce sites to social-commerce networks. In other words, the social experience of shopping is getting digital using social features and integration with platforms and mobile applications.  Furthermore the successful deal-of-the-day model of Groupon, which is an integration of social commerce, location and sales strategy, is spreading across various industries and it seems that it came to stay.

8. Location Based Marketing

As more and more people start checking into places and online businesses networks, in 2011 we will see an important growth on this new market. Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places are some of the key players that are showing an impressive success at the moment. This trend is expected to continue in 2011 and as a result more brands will allocate additional resources on these channels.

9. Tablets & Smartphones

With more Smartphone and tablet devices, better operating systems and lower prices the mobility communication will shine in 2011. Moreover the release of 4G mobiles (as Verizon announced few days ago) will lead to faster and more reliable communications that will enable many new services to be launched and, as a consequence, a larger user reach.

10. Search Engines

People will still use search engines to find relevant content and Google will continue dominate the market. Nevertheless with the launch of Bing’s new features, with the various search features that are developed by social media websites and with the release of new innovative search engines such as Blekko, it is highly probable to see Google start gradually loosing market share.

Images by SearchEngineWatch & OurMobileRevolution