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Waltham, MA--Here is a brief summary of a white paper titled 10 Key Online Marketing Trends, authored by Unica, a Waltham, MA-based company that provides innovative marketing solutions. To read the PDF version with full details, click here.

 1.   Marketing focus (and budgets) continue to shift online vs. other media. Online channels cost less, results are more measurable, and that’s where customer and prospect eyeballs are. (Editor’s note: numerous consumer surveys show affluent consumers are even more likely to be online than the general population.)

2.   92% of marketers in Unica’s survey are planning to use email marketing this year.]

3.   Search engines will remain the primary means of finding products, services, and information, but Google may soon be facing some competition from Bing in the United States, Baidu in China, and Yandex in Russia.

4.   The trend for web sites is toward personalization. This, incidentally, is part of a greater trend toward customization of products and services.

5.   Beyond email: From social media to social networking to mobile messaging, marketers have more means than ever to engage with customers or prospects. 84% surveyed plan to use emerging online channels next year, but keep your online campaign—whatever channel—integrated with your other marketing efforts.

6.   Get mobile. This isn’t your personal trainer telling you, it’s your CMO. With the explosion of smart phones, mobile marketing is way beyond just simple messaging.

7.   Social media is here to stay. Remember that you’re sharing control of your brand image with consumers, as peer reviews, blogs, and other user-generated content takes place alongside marketing messages.

8.   Web analytics have progressed from just measuring hits and clicks to integrating customer data from web, search, mobile, and social channels.

9.   Marketing solutions that capitalize on these new channels may come faster if developed outside of IT.

10.  Web analytics provide a sea of data but 94% of those surveyed by Unica feel like they’re drowning in it. They say the biggest challenge still is translating knowledge into action