In case you missed any of the individual posts…
…here’s a roundup of the series “Marketing Trends For 2012”
Marketing Trends For 2012 – Take 1
Marketing trends For 2012 – Take 2
Marketing Trends For 2012 – Take 3 (Trends In Video)
Marketing Trends For 2012 – Take 4 (Frank Kern)
Marketing Trends For 2012 – Take 5 (Perry Marshall)
As it’s now already January 10, I’ll draw a line under the series and simply add additional noteworthy material here as an update.
One final set of thoughts for the year ahead from the great marketer Jay Abraham…
“The New Year that’s upon us could…possibly…be THE toughest, most challenging, stress inducing, mentally buffeting year you’ve ever lived in your business.
Why? The reasons are many. But the point I want to make is NOT how competitive the marketplace is becoming. It’s NOT how different consumer buying patterns are changing. It’s NOT even a lecture about anything I teach, like the Strategy of Preeminence or the Nine Drivers of Geometric Growth.
No – there’s only one vital/critical/pivotal realization I want you to make as we start the clock ticking loudly away on this year of dramatic volatility we’re calling 2012.
As a business owner – you’re either a proprietor or an entrepreneur. Tragically, shockingly, but truthfully – something like 95% of all small business owners function as proprietors – not entrepreneurs.
Why is this fact so bad? Because your days as a proprietor – operating a “me too,” commodity-type enterprise are all but numbered. Stated less tactfully – unless you dramatically change who and what you are – your business could become “The Walking Dead” – possibly sooner than later.”
Put in a slightly different way, the days of making good money without adding significant value in some way to your customers is long gone (and not coming back any time soon).
The last 30 years, since around 1980, have been a long economic upswing. Sure, there were some rocky periods along the way and it might not always have felt like a boom period. But look back objectively and you’ll see that the economic trend was up throughout that time.
That’s over for the immediate future. The great Dan Kennedy talks about the “New Economy”, one that’s much tougher for business owners. In his December 2011 newsletter, Dan quotes Groucho Marx…
“It isn’t so much that hard times are coming; the change observed is mostly soft times going.”
In the past, good marketing and business strategy has delivered great returns. What Jay Abraham is saying, essentially, is that in 2012 good marketing and strategy is essential if you want to survive in business.
It’s not all gloom, however. Opportunities are still out there and we live in an era of extraordinary change and opportunity. For those bold and smart enough to grasp those opportunities, the rewards will still be there in 2012 and beyond. Mediocrity, however, will not be enough.
UPDATE (13 January 2012):
Thoughts from copywriter Ray Edwards. Ray may have put off some people with his overt espousal of Christianity but I’ve always found him to be a very smart marketer…plus a good guy to boot.
Here’s his…