Marketing Forecast from Ad-ology

Merchants continue to move some of their traditional coupon marketing budgets online. At the same time, another group of operators are seeking to use the coupon strategy to generate huge discounts for consumers will to participate in group buying . Currently, almost half of Internet users are redeeming online coupons or codes and the market is growing.

As new advertising platforms come online, marketers naturally have questions about consumer behavior. There’s been plenty of buzz about mobile marketing. And advertisers are increasing the percentage of the budget they allocate to mobile. But exactly which mobile ads are most popular with consumers?

Once considered the latest tech toy for the well-heeled literary set, e-readers continue to grow in popularity. The devices face stiff competition from multifunction tablets but analysts see a steady market for e-readers. As a result, manufacturers continue to upgrade, release and promote new models and this format is attracting the attention of advertisers who seek to influence consumers through yet another new media format.

Two new surveys emphasize the growing use of online marketing tactics by small and medium size businesses (SMBs). The results of one survey indicate that SMBs upped their spending this year on every online format, ranging from websites, to video, to location-based services. However, this trend is not likely to continue for every format because SMBs note that effectiveness is lagging in some channels.

Email has long been a good way for marketers to stay in touch with customers and to personalize pitches about new products and services. As technology improved, text-based emails were upgraded to include still photos and video. But marketers may need to do a little more work on their email presentation as consumers begin to use smartphones and mobile devices to view their email.

Even as the economy continues to recover, the real estate market is struggling. Home prices are still falling in many markets and few analysts expect to see the number of house being sold to jump drastically anytime soon. The increased competition has realtors turning to a variety of new marketing tactics to make a sale.