Ghosts of Marketing Past, Present and Future

Each year I struggle with whether or not to write a predictions post or promote someone else’s. Kapost has put together this infographic – The Ghosts of Marketing Past, Present & Future:

The goal of our infographic was to take a snapshot of the past, the present, and not-too-distant future of marketing. We hope you like it.

Predictions concern me because they may set an expectation that simply won’t come to fruition. I believe the advent of social media marketing was like this. While an incredible medium to leverage for marketing, I believe it overshadowed other marketing strategies that continue to be more effective. That doesn’t mean social media is not effective – quite the opposite. I just believe marketers spent so much time and effort on working social media that they forgot that mediums like email were still driving a ton of traffic and conversions.

Here’s my advice – measure the impact of your efforts this last year to predict your budget to continue powering your marketing efforts next year. Here’s an important key, though. Set apart a specific percentage of your marketing budget for testing new strategies or trying the latest and greatest. This will quench your thirst on the next shiny thing that grabs your attention.