Posted by: Daniel Levis
December 2, 2009
Issue #811

5 Bold Marketing Predictions for 2010

Dear Web Business-Builder,

It’s that time of year again – time to dust off the old crystal ball and make some predictions for the coming New Year.

None of these forecasts are to be considered business advice, mind you.

Neither the author, his heirs, or assigns take one iota of responsibility for any business outcomes that may result from decisions based on the following conclusions – for entertainment purposes only.

The Economy Will
Continue to Suck

Since taking office, the current administration in Washington has done nothing to uproot the endemic cancer of profligate government spending that gave rise to the ongoing economic crisis. Indeed the opposite …

Instead of stopping the printing presses and letting the economy crash and stabilize, the presses are now running full tilt – non-stop – pumping funny money into the economy to prop up corporate basket cases and fund bread and circuses that make the American public increasingly dependent on big government.

The bailouts and handouts are creating debts and deficits so incomprehensible that nobody is even talking about them anymore.

A recent New York Times article reports food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month. One in eight Americans are now swiping inconspicuous plastic “nutritional aid” cards at grocery counters for staples like milk, bread, and cheese in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.

That’s more than 36 MILLION Americans now dependent on a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme. Instead of being alarmed by this shameful fact, the Obama administration is actually proud of it.

According to Under-Secretary of Agriculture, Kevin Concannon, “I think the response of the program has been tremendous. But we’re mindful that there are another 15, 16 million who could benefit.”

Washington is engineering an economy perpetually perched on the brink of disaster. And breeding a weak, unmotivated workforce addicted to government handouts.

The Business Insider reports brisk Black Monday video game sales driven largely by the unemployed seeking to pass the time and keep their spirits up while waiting to get back to work. Oy Vey!

I’ve got news for them. The only way these people are going back to work is by getting off their duffs and becoming self-employed.

What this means is robust growth in the business opportunity and marketing information fields in 2010. And a business environment that continues to reward ruthless cost control and accountability.

The Over-40 Crowd Will Begin
Hanging up on Social Media

Consumer attention over the last few years has become hopelessly fragmented. The novelty of social media has seduced the typical PC user into having five to 10 “applications” blinking and beeping simultaneously on their desktop.

Teenagers might get a thrill from the incessant chatter, but any adult with half-a-brain will eventually realize that it’s a total waste of their time and energy having this many things constantly vying momentarily for their attention.

Flitting from one disconnected thought to another without giving yourself time to form a reasoned opinion about anything means you’re just a sucker for the next mind-sucking-meme that comes along.

I mean think about it … with hundreds of random tidbits of information relentlessly assailing you from the Twit stream and other social networks, what possible sense or use can you make of any of it?

Serious people are clueing in to the fact that plugging into all these “channels” is totally unproductive. And they’re getting tired of the increasingly vacuous and irrelevant content that’s polluting the social networks – much of it nothing more than really bad marketing.

Watch for the beginnings of an underground rebellion in 2010, and the emergence of a thoughtful and discerning minority demanding more meaningful modes of social interaction and expression.

Private Social Networks Will
Spring up to Fill the Void

Savvy marketers will create and develop their own private social networks and communities of interest where they can promote and proselytize their own products and services and those of their business partners.

These networks will revolve around good old-fashioned content. People will be attracted to them because they fulfill a defined purpose and connect them with others with like-interests.

And marketers who provide the highest perceived value in terms of content and community will enjoy the highest e-mail open rates, conversion rates, retention, and lifetime customer value.

Virtues like transparency, interactivity, and social esprit de corps will also be key success factors.

Marketers who foster and facilitate any-to-any dialogue throughout the buyer/seller community and create opportunities for recognition and fellowship within the communities they create will thrive in this emerging new world of legitimized social media marketing.

Online Video Will
Finally Go Mainstream

$100 Flip cameras, cheap screen capture and video editing software and inexpensive high capacity server platforms like Amazon S3 are slowly bringing online video mainstream.

This trend will accelerate in 2010 as more and more marketers capitalize on the full spectrum communication available through video. It is by far the most effective medium for seizing attention and making a subliminal connection with your target audience.

Within seconds you can captivate your viewers, gain rapport, and endear trust with online video. It will become the killer app for selling low-ticket items in one sitting.

It will also become an increasingly important weapon for selling higher ticket items that require repeated exposure and graduated commitment to complete the sale. When integrated intelligently with text and audio, you can effectively target auditory, visual, and even kinesthetic learning styles with equal aplomb.

If you’re selling high-ticket items, you’ll be using video to seize attention, build trust, and demonstrate your products … text to cement commitment … and audio to ear-bud along with your prospects and reinforce your sales message while they drive, walk, exercise and so on.

As video becomes commonplace in your marketing, it will make sense to develop content creation processes that simultaneously lay down all three types of media. These multiple modes of media can then be distributed sequentially to your target audience.

The True Global Village
Begins to Take Shape in 2010

In the information marketing world, especially, forward-thinking entrepreneurs can operate from anywhere in the world.

As more and more budding entrepreneurs in developing countries with strong English speaking cultures (Singapore, The Philippines, and India spring immediately to mind, and there are others) plug into Western markets and begin generating wealth, they in turn become consumers to other information marketers in North America and the rest of the world.

The entire market becomes larger as a result of the borderless commerce made possible by the free flow of information on the Internet. We will see this happening more and more in 2010 and beyond.

Entrepreneurial talent in developing countries will gradually begin the transition from providing services to providing information to becoming information consumers themselves as income disparity gradually shrinks between the developed and developing world.

Of course, only time will tell if I’m right as rain or just plain all wet about any of these five predictions.

If I’ve inspired some thought and maybe even a few bones of contention with this article I’ll be happy. Feel free to disagree, agree, or expand and expound upon any of my forecasts for 2010 in the comment box below.

Until next time, Good Selling!

Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

Looking for more of Daniel’s articles? Check these out.

Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

Want to share or reprint this article? Feel free. Just give us full attribution and a link to our Home Page when you do.

Attribution Statement: This article was first published in The Total Package. To sign-up to receive your own FREE subscription to The Total Package and claim four FREE money making e-books go to www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.

---

21 Comments »

1. Comment by John Brandow — December 2, 2009 @ 10:46 am

   Being part of a third world country and a first world one in one cover I appreciated these types of mails. In South Africa we are sitting with a vast majority of non computer literates and this creates a masive opportunity. On the other hand you have an upcoming black middle class and entrepreneurs that are only now getting to grips with the internet and a middle to upper class white population that are mostly utilizing the internet to its fullest

   Between these extremes it is nice to read these types of forcast and one of the things that it has triggered in me personally is the opportunity of starting a private social network !

2. Comment by Dr. Dana Myatt — December 2, 2009 @ 10:58 am

   Hi Daniel:

   Thanks for the crystal-ball gazing! I believe your predictions about private social networks is spot-on. To that end, do you have any recommendations for off-the-shelf software for running a membership sight? Can you give more insight into how you think one should go about this?

   Thanks!
   Dana

3. Comment by Leo — December 2, 2009 @ 11:03 am

   Very interesting predictions, especially the one about the over 40 crowd hanging up on social media. I personally don’t see that happening although I do think that they will gravitate toward a couple brands, particularly facebook. As a marketer, aside from the PPC efforts on facebook, I personally don’t see the use of trying to segment this group according to age anyway.

4. Comment by dan — December 2, 2009 @ 11:09 am

   Danial,

   Great article. Dana asks for more info on how to create a personal social network. I think a post devoted entirely to how that’s done would be hugely beneficial.

   Thanks,

   Dan

5. Comment by Sarah clachar — December 2, 2009 @ 11:11 am

   Daniel,

   I absolutely agree with your predictions. But I would go beyond the self-employment/info marketing boom. I would include all DIY areas. In the health arena, for example, where I write, supplements are still growing because people are looking for more ways to take care of their health without doctors or expensive prescriptions.

   As a farmer and gardener, I’ve seen a huge demand in seeds, equipment, etc. This spring it was almost impossible to find piglets for sale and chicks were selling like hotcakes!

   If you have something that puts power in people’s hands to do things for themselves, you will find a market in this economy. That’s another reason why information marketing makes so much sense.

   I also think you’re right on the limits to social media. However I’d qualify it. It’s about context and strategy. Marketers are now realizing that you have to be strategic about what forums you choose to participate in and how. But even more importantly, as you noted, Daniel, you still need to build homebase with excellent content.

   The other reason I think there will be a need for social media done right with good content is the importance of relationship marketing. In this economy, people gravitate towards feeling connected, feeling more secure with a sense of community. The more you can create this in your marketing, the more you will have people become customers. The more you can create the feeling that you are talking directly to that individual (even if your email went out to 60,000), the more successful your marketing.

   The global market community is certainly upon us. In natural health, more and more Asian companies and entrepreneurs are taking the field. Recently I got an inquiry about copywriting services from a Chinese-Canadian researcher/entrepreneur who wants copy to use in marketing in Canada and China. Interestingly enough, she was developing products that had almost saturated the market here but were just cracking through in Asia.

6. Comment by francis — December 2, 2009 @ 11:22 am

   Keep up the good word Clayton. And thanks for the inside info, Daniel. There are powerful gems in there.

7. Comment by Nick Burns — December 2, 2009 @ 11:24 am

   Daniel,
   Let’s be honest here…self-employment is the wave of the future, but not because of Obama’s administration.

   First, the American semi-skilled manufacturing base is much smaller than it once was. High school to retirement jobs for the less ambitious just aren’t there anymore. They’re all overseas.

   The other thing is, the American financial services industry, in all of its unregulated glory, wrecked the world’s economy. Stupid, greedy, arrogant investment bankers with their 30 to 1 equity to debt ratios blew the economy apart.

   Thanks to government spending, I don’t have to carry a gun to the supermarket. And thanks to government spending, the opportunities that you so accurately predict are available to us copywriters!

   You may be a right winger, but your advice is always spot on.
   Thanks!!
   Nick Burns

8. Comment by Clarke Echols (Resident scientist and rabble-rouser) — December 2, 2009 @ 11:52 am

   But you left out my big question:

   Will the hypesters and goo-roos (a term I attribute to Ben Settle) ever give up on “deals” like the one I got hit with yesterday:

   An info product that “sells like hotcakes” at $49.95 is now available in a new version for $4.95. But that’s not all — there’s more!

   It comes with a package of “bonuses” touted to be “worth
   $2350″ or some such outlandish amount. Such a deal!

   If it sells like hotcakes at $49+, there’s no logical reason to sell it for a lousy five bucks — especially through affiliates, no less. And where’s the “proof” that a bonus “worth” near $2K has ever actually sold for that amount.

   And they wonder why the FTC’s cracking down?

   Clayton never puts out that kind of nonsense. Neither does Bob Bly, Ben Settle, StomperNet, Schefren, and other class acts. Though that friend of mine up in Canada pushes the envelope a bit (he’ll remain unidentified, even if his initials are D.L. ) … Seriously, I have benefitted greatly from your stuff, so I have no basis for complaint.
   I’ve even been known to recommend it to others. That 5R system is a real eye-opener.

   In the interests of remaining FTC compliant, I’ll leave it at that.

   I don’t have a problem with bonuses when you buy a product for $37 that comes with a couple of freebies worth $40-50 each that I know cost little to produce. But claiming something is worth half the price of a used luxury car is taking it way over the top (or over the cliff — not sure which).

   No wonder we have to deal with a more cynical, skeptical audience every day!

   I’m still not sold on social media (Hewlett-Packard Laboratories just announced they’re working on “Web 3.0″), but I think for the older, more conservative crowd, social media can be a huge time drain when you don’t have much time to drain.

   Yet Joel Comm, whose office is less than 300 feet from where I sit has built a rather large 7-figure business on Tweets and Twitter mania — big enough to take over most of the office building except for the bank. Yet I fail to see a reason to “follow” some celebrity or talking head on TV via their twitter thing…

   Maybe it’s just overload from raising a family…

   And if the economic Keystone-Kop wizards of Washington keep it up, perhaps it’ll force enough people into their own businesses that we can collectively toss the entire mob out and put in others with a bit of sense who are inclined to be generous with other people’s money instead of their own.

   At least one can still dream, eh?

   Clarke

9. Comment by Mike — December 2, 2009 @ 11:53 am

   Nick,

   It was the government that triggered this crisis in the first place! You had political action groups screaming racism that banks and lending institutions wouldn’t offer loans to people who were high risk borrowers. The government agreed with these political action groups and demanded that banks and lending institutions start offering loans to people who could never afford it anyways. One such lady drove a bus for a living and was living in a $300,000 home!

   Nick, you mention the financial sector in its greed caused this, well then why did the present administration just give them more money, much of which was spent on CEO bonuses and other perks?

10. Comment by Clarke Echols (Resident scientist and rabble-rouser) — December 2, 2009 @ 11:55 am

    Oops

    Make that last sentence “…NOT so inclined to be generous with other people’s money instead of their own.”

    CE

11. Comment by David Kent — December 2, 2009 @ 12:11 pm

    Hi Daniel,

    Thanks for your five bold predictions for 2010…very thought-provoking! Whether or not your readers were inclined to consider one or more of them as likely to happen, I believe we could well benefit by tweaking our business strategies in the New Year to aim toward them to one degree or another, for the betterment of our businesses and our customer base. Why not work on reaching out to the emerging global marketplace with our products? And why not test out the implementation of a private social network? And are we all incorporating right now the qualities you mentioned such as transparency and good content–as an everyday part of doing business? I’d say we’d all likely be ahead of most of the crowd if we did just those. I appreciate that you not only keep your ear to the rail, but still work hard in the here and now on your writing and products. You’re a prime example of doing it well today and preparing for possibilities that will help not only you, but others, to prosper in the future by taking personal business steps toward greater returns.

12. Comment by Arun Agrawal - Ebizindia — December 2, 2009 @ 12:21 pm

    Daniel

    I can already see how we, living in India and earning from developing for the western world, are spending a large part of that on buying information technology products from USA and Europe. Some of it is spent while traveling to USA and UK.

    So empowering the developing economies may not be too bad after all.

    Arun Agrawal
    India

13. Comment by Kim Wolinski, MSW "Dr. DeClutter" — December 2, 2009 @ 1:13 pm

    Thanks for saying this outloud! I’ve been saying it for a long time and have been pushed aside - but then I am over 40!

    “Teenagers might get a thrill from the incessant chatter, but any adult with half-a-brain will eventually realize that it’s a total waste of their time and energy having this many things constantly vying momentarily for their attention.

    Flitting from one disconnected thought to another without giving yourself time to form a reasoned opinion about anything means you’re just a sucker for the next mind-sucking-meme that comes along.”

    There is a price for consciousness, few know it, less will honor it. Distractions of today’s magnitude keep us weak, “disconnected” and following “the leader” over some cliff on an invisible road. A shoddy way to use a magnificent machine and mind.

    I have been teaching Jr. Achievement Business Success Skillsin a local high school. Feels a waste of time since the school lets the kids have their cell phones, ipods, etc. in class! Texting while I’m teaching is the norm as well as talking constantly. US education is such a mess… add Coke and Pepsi machines in the halls and having to give kids “candy incentives” to answer questions to the mix and whoa!- we’ve lost it! (I won’t be teaching it again.)

    Okay, I don’t have a cell phone either. Landlines are a good thing. I find I can run my business on and offline just fine without a cell. Several countries are banning WiFi and cell phones due to health implications that the US will not talk about.

    We forget easily in the US that if/when the plug gets pulled, we’re all the same, except for those who know how to
    live off the land and make things work. Any balance of technology and reality is pretty dim.

    Thank you again, Daniel.

    Now, I’ll read the rest!

14. Comment by Nick Burns — December 2, 2009 @ 2:14 pm

    Mike,
    Announcing a Sixth Bold Marketing Prediction for 2010!

    Good copy that stirs up anger and resentment(as Daniel’s copy did so nicely in this article’s lead) will look much different starting in 2010.

    Like good fiction, there has to be some truth to the tale, and Daniel’s (and Clayton’s) perennial bogeyman, the government, won’t cut it anymore. A bus driver getting in over her head with an expensive house didn’t cause the financial crisis, Mike. Corporate America did. And that realization will dawn on regular folks the world over during 2010.

    But…there’s opportunity in what really happened!

    As individuals discover how to harness the power of the internet for their own marketing, they’ll be competing against the larger corporations who’ve held sway over our economy for so long.

    We don’t need big publishers to disseminate valuable information or corporate music moguls to tell us what to listen to. The new entrepreneurs Daniel talks about will drive a new economy. Publishing and music are just two industries that the Internet has turned upside down.

    And the new bogeymen??

    The fools who got big and stupid and destroyed the economy…the financial services industry.

    The arrogant SOB’s charging 20-30% on credit cards when interest rates are 0.

    The huge publishing houses publishing memoirs that aren’t even true.

    The auto companies making gas guzzling pieces of junk that wreck the environment and cost way too much in gas.

    Get the idea?

    Come on copywriters in India, South Africa, and all points on God’s great(and now so much smaller) earth…using Daniel’s terrific tips and insights, and our new bogeyman to stir up anger and resentment in our prospects, let’s make some money!!

    Nick

    PS Mike…TARP was made law during Bush’s administration (yes, in America, the Republicans did make a hash of government). I think Obama is making a mistake with the way he’s bailing out the large banks while asking for little in return. We’ll see how it all turns out.

    However, not spending large amounts of Federal money would have made our lives very close to unlivable. Had to be done.

15. Comment by Ryan — December 2, 2009 @ 6:50 pm

    I agree with the social media prediction. I’m not quite to 40 yet, but already I’m seeing lots of peers and friends that are burning out on Facebook and other “networks” and simply not going there anymore. After a few months in them you realize they’re really pretty mindless and, frankly, narcissistic. I forsee a time coming soon (if it hasn’t arrived already) where people will start hungering for authentic, “real” experiences and relationships again.

    Think of the current Jeep commercial with the narrator explaining that while you’re “tuning in” to get a second-hand vicarious experience through TV or the internet, he’ll be out doing something “real” in his Jeep.

16. Comment by Steve Newdell — December 2, 2009 @ 8:26 pm

    Hello Daniel and Friends,

    This article is full of significance that I suspect many may miss.

    If Economist Clayton Makepeace et al are to be believed the economy won’t be the suckor. It will be the suckee and will be sucked down a black hole into a third world universe where the U.S. Dollar returns to par with the Philippine Peso. (They were at par at the end of World War II.) We’re doing everything right, following the Japanese in their foot steps with predictably similar results.

    In Daniel’s article about writing guarantees I wrote a guarantee of my own suggesting we could pack Mr. O’bama back in a box and return him if we were dissatisfied. Now, I wish we could. I’ve never felt more intellectually terrified. Daniel, what are you and Clayton doing in my nightmares?

    The present social media is going to tweet its way into Fad Memorial Park and will find its place next to Disco Duck and the Bee Gees. For Heaven’s Sake, let’s FOCUS our minds upon something by which we can make an accomplishment. Once time is lost you can’t regain it. Let’s not waste productive time with that nonsense.

    I’m a laggard regarding social communities. I read articles and do my own thinking. I’ve no time to read hundreds of comments. Others may make money there. I won’t, but I don’t care.

    Yes to video to get attention, show samples, get people started into your info and then they can buy the complete version. But it comes with technical problems, viruses intruding, and other forms of insanity. We’ll have to be careful.

    Daniel wrote: “forward-thinking entrepreneurs can operate from anywhere in the world.” That’s much more important than most people will recognize. In the world of the black-hole economy a number of us may be found outside the USA or Canada.

    Of course none of this takes completely into account the changing politics and commodities markets over the next decade (we should live so long).

    I fear many of us still assume we’ll muddle through as we always have. I suspect the next three years will turn our world upside down and all predictions will be little more than pleasant “might have been” dreams.

    Steve Newdell

17. Comment by Ceci Tognotti — December 2, 2009 @ 10:59 pm

    Thought provoking article David! As a Conservative and Tea Party member, I agree with you on Obama’s nanny-state agenda and his advancement of a culture so bald-faced and unashamed of pocketpicking–in fact, self-righteously determined to “share” the hard-won fruits of small business owners/entrepreneurs. Their interpretation of the Constitution narrowed down to a self-centered singularity: Right to Happiness. On OPM.

    I absolutely agree with your perspectives on social networks, too. Overwhelming, keeping up. Friends of friends asking to “friend” . . . Virtual stranger small talk . . .

    I invested in a private social net platform and you’ve given me an energy boost toward building my first niche community with audio-video-written content, sharing talents, learning, marketing and prospering. Glad to read your future projection on that.

    I greatly appreciate Clayton’s and your copywriting tips,

    Ceci

18. Comment by Norman MacLeod — December 3, 2009 @ 4:58 am

    I’m in

19. Comment by Randall — December 3, 2009 @ 3:05 pm

    Daniel,
    Your predictions outlook was like a breath of fresh aire.

    I realized that I’d not looked into my facebook since before turkey day so I guess your crystal ball is reporting clearly. ‘course I wasn’t ever a daily fan of it - or twitter. But then having reached the 3/4 century mark,I realize I don’t fit into many demographics reports.

    It’s still unnatural for me to think of the planet wide reach of this medium. It seems it was only last year that I watched Imogene Coco in black and white.

    Thanks for your offerings, Daniel. And I second the request for more info re: our own social media platforms.
    Randall

    OH Nick:
    The day it is illegal for you to be able to carry is when all the efforts you put into all your internet whatevers …. will be for naught. Then there’ll be laws keeping you from having any freedoms on the web.
    Bush had a Congress of Democrats that designed and passed those inane bills. Check that out.
    Tehn there is the battallion of bureaucrats who “didn’t have time” to do their job sat around (one later confessed) and watched what “those greedy people” were in fact doing as result of those carefully worded bills that the Democrat Congress passed. Get yourself fully informed, young man. Starting with history. Then - evaluate for yourself. Your country needs a well educated you.

20. Comment by Sam — December 6, 2009 @ 12:17 am

    “However, not spending large amounts of Federal money would have made our lives very close to unlivable. Had to be done.”

    Well, there you have it. Nick the Know It All has made the proclamation. No need to find out or think otherwise. Nick has the Fatal Conceit of all central planners. He just knows how to work things for everybody. Like a true totalitarian.

    FU Nick.

21. Comment by Martin — December 11, 2009 @ 8:47 pm

    This was one of your best pieces ever Daniel.

    I was beginning to worry that texting and tweeting
    was about to replace reading, writing, and arithmetic.