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For the first time in history, marketers in 2012 will spend more on online marketing than advertising in print magazines and newspapers. It is expected that online marketing spend by 2016 will double from that in 2011. Consequently, sales and lead generation from websites will likely grow proportionately.

How much should I be investing in marketing? How much of my marketing budget should be directed to online marketing vs. offline. These are questions I get asked frequently. So, recently I experienced an intersection of data from credible sources that combined go along way to answering these important questions. The two sources referenced in this post are the annual survey of CMO’s by CMOSurvey.org sponsored by the American Marketing Association and the Duke University Fuqua School of Business; and a recent report by Forrester Research Group about interactive marketing trends and predictions.

Background

Google has upped its game once again with the latest Penguin update and SEO pros have to up their game to achieve the results their clients deserve. No more easy link building – links have to be obtained the “old fashioned” way…through quality content. But that is much easier said than done.

Search engine optimization, often referred to as SEO, recently experienced yet another major change when Google implemented their last big update. They called it the Penguin update – and while penguins are typically found in cold climates, this Penguin had significant impact on rankings no matter what climate you are in.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is changing faster than ever. It seems I read daily about more Google updates. Last year it was the infamous Panda update when they began re-evaluating how the search engine views quality content. Now I am reading more about how Google is changing the way it looks at links. Rest assured Google is in hot competition with Bing and to win that battle, Google needs to continue improving the relevance of its search results. After all, isn't that what we want from Google? Isn't that good customer service from Google? It is to me and it means we in the SEO business need to stay true to what delivers the best search results - rather than trying to "game" the system.

Most everyone has a cell phone and about 50% of them are smart-phones. This presents a great marketing opportunity for business but it seems others perceive a violation of privacy and other concerns.

What are companies finding to be their most effective sales and lead generation activities? That was the objective of a recent survey conducted by Web-Marketing 123, a California based, nationally recognized online marketing company. They surveyed over 500 US companies. About two-thirds of respondents operated in the B2B space (marketing to other businesses) with the remainder marketing directly to the general public (B2C). The participating firms were of all sizes, from firms with fewer than 10 employees to those with more than 1,000, and the mix was pretty even, making the results representative of the business community.

Moneyball is a popular movie out these days and it is a true story about how the Oakland A’s baseball team (and it’s GM) has to re-assemble the team and finds all of baseball's conventional wisdom is wrong. Forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, the team's GM and a partner use statistical data to analyze and place value on players who the scouts say are flawed but the data says they have the ability to get on base, score runs, and win games. These new methods challenge traditional approaches to the game and the GM is scourned because they claim he is tearing out the heart and soul of the game. When you couple the premise of this movie with Wanamaker's famous quote - "I know half my advertising works, I just don't know which half" - one can't help but embrace the advantages of using the right web analytics data to optimize marketing campaigns.

I'm often invited into companies to consult with them about online marketing and their new website. It happens often - a firm gets a new website developed by another company and we are invited to discuss online marketing strategy. The chief marketing person might say something like, "We just developed a new website and now we need to do something with it. What do you suggest?" Having experienced this very scenario several times, we've developed 3 very powerful questions to begin to shape a comprehensive, long term online marketing plan. Ready - here they are: