Top 5 Marketing Predictions for 2002

By Michael Low
Posted Sunday, October 10, 2004

Prediction #1: Pay-Per-Click Rocks

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising will rock in 2002. PPC engines like Overture and FindWhat are performing extremely well.

Sites displaying Overture's listings include America Online, Yahoo, Lycos, Hotbot, Altavista, Netscape, InfoSpace, Dogpile and Excite.

Overture's partnership with Yahoo ends in June 2002. Yahoo is likely to roll out their own PPC system.

I expect more search engines to adopt the PPC model or offer co- branded Overture listings in the months ahead. Google, which runs a CPM AdWords model may start experimenting with PPC.

If you are advertising on Overture, expect gradual increases in traffic from most keywords.

To read more on PPC advertising, go to (http://www.internetmarketingfocus.com/to.cgi?l=topic-ppc)

Prediction #2: Ads Grow BIGGER

Yahoo has begun displaying larger banner ad units that are 720 x 90 in screen size. I expect more sites to follow. The standard 468 x 60 banner size may be replaced with a larger one.

Sites that depend largely on advertising for their revenues are likely to roll out more of these large ad units.

It is an inevitable trend as the fight for advertising dollars intensify. When web users become immune to these ads, what will content publishers do next? Try even larger ads?

To read more on banner advertising, go to (http://www.internetmarketingfocus.com/to.cgi?l=topic-bn)

Prediction #3: Rich-Media Ads Gain Respect

Rich-media ads with animation, sound and interactivity will be common in 2002. Flash ads created using Macromedia Flash are already gaining foothold on the Internet.

They work well to capture visitors' attention. Best of all, they don't need to be large and intrusive - they just need to be creative!

I expect rich-media ads, Flash ads in particular, to become the advertising industry's hot favorite in 2002.

Prediction #4: Watch That Inbox

Permission-based email marketing will be a winner in 2002. The response rates to opt-in email campaigns are significantly higher than other online ad media.

The cost per acquisition is also significantly lower. Turnaround time is faster and results can be accurately tracked.

Expect more companies to move their offline direct mailings online. This is already happening with some companies after September 11.

Expect spam to increase. Spam filters are going to be more aggressive. Monitor your own mailings to ensure that they are not being unjustly filtered out.

To read more on email marketing, go to (http://www.internetmarketingfocus.com/to.cgi?l=topic-em)

Prediction #5: Viral Marketing Infects More

I expect more companies to use viral marketing campaigns to promote and brand their products and services. The volume of viral marketing campaigns will rise - with greater sophistication.

These campaigns are likely to come with more sophisticated tracking of open, clickthrough and success rates with the use of 1x1 GIFs and cookies.

To read more on viral marketing, go to (http://www.internetmarketingfocus.com/to.cgi?l=topic-vm)

About the Author
Michael Low is a widely-published marketing consultant. He provides top-notch press release (PR) services at affordable rates. Check out his full-range of PR services at (http://www.prbuilder.com/pr.cgi?a009)