Web Digest for Marketers Predicts Top 10 Trends for Next 10 Years

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of his online newsletter, Web Digest for Marketers, Larry Chase has predicted the top 10 trends in marketing for the next 10 years. They are very interesting, but I am sure three of the top 10 trends of 2015 don't even exist yet. Here's his list:

1. Pay Per Call Rings In
2. Feed Marketing Flourishes
3. Email Marketing Will Survive: Spam issues will recede dramatically, because they have to. Too much is at stake.
4. Agent, Personal Agent: Watch for the growth of "agent software" to help you sift through the morass of online information. There's too much relevant stuff for mere humans to sift through now.
5. Reverb Marketing, In Stereo: Smart marketers will synchronize their messaging so the end user hears and sees complementary messages at or near the same time.

6. Blogs Go Multimedia: Blogs are obviously here to stay. Some of the cutting-edge blogs are starting to offer content in audio and even in video. This will not only affect journalism, but it will impact the retail business as well. Imagine a personality-driven QVC blog on your computer screen.

7. TVIP Adds Interactivity: Microsoft and others are currently exploring TV over Internet protocol. But don't expect TV on the Net to look and act like the TV you see on your television screen.

8. Commercial Content, On Demand: Messages from marketers need to be so appealing that the audience actually requests the message. Commercial content that the end user wants isn't far-fetched. … It doesn't take a seer to see that the days of "hot air advertising" are so over.

9. Publishing Faces Tectonic Shifts: For a look at the next level, check out www.cnbcdowjones.com, where you can get just the editorial clips of CNBC, sans commercials, for $99(US) a year. You get 250 plays per month. I subscribe, and find it to be a great time saver.

10. Direct Marketers Will Take Over the Internet: Oops, this has already happened, but not the way I predicted 10 years ago. The good news for traditional DM'ers is that the Internet has not repealed the laws of human nature. So while the tools of DM are changing, the underlying principles that have driven DM since the time of Ben Franklin are still exactly the same.