2012 is already ten months in and with the end of the year in sight, there are still new developments in marketing on horizon. So what exactly does this year hold in store for online marketing specifically? For one thing there is a serious acceleration in the innovation of online-centric technologies and the ways by which we can discover, consume and engage with information can sometimes pose a challenge to keep up with. As marketers in the digital era, we can’t afford to be all flash and no substance, we need to be on the pulse of future trends today in order to anticipate and secure our place in the digital marketing universe. We have to be ten steps ahead and remove any myopia as far as trajectory is concerned. It isn’t just about where and how we can sell products and services to people right now but also in the next month, the next year and the next 10 years. There is great importance in the concept of discovery, consumption and engagement because these things transcend ideas like social networking and search engines and put a more concentrated focus on the consumer and consumer friendly technologies. While search engines like Google are at the head of the class right now, within the next 5 years, will they exist in their current state or at all? Will desktop computers be around at all or will they be completely replaced by something else? These questions are important in deciphering the future of marketing and how it relates to customer engagement.

Customer relationship management is extremely important because no matter how advanced technology becomes, the driving force of any industry and its resultant success is the customers whose interest, loyalty and spending fund it now and in the long term future ahead of us. A good example of how marketing is changing is by having a look at the way people are currently garnering the strength of social media and localized search engine marketing. With services like yodle, you can market and advertise your small and large businesses alike directly to existing and potential customers in your area. Not sold on the idea? You should have a look at the yodle testimonials online to get a feel of how successful this brand of marketing is now and where it will take marketing and business in general into the future.

Companies like Amazon, Apple, facebook and even Google are just some of the larger companies that are currently busy innovating at an amazing speed in order to gain control of our attention. There are many different ways that they are trying to do it through various options; some examples include devices, creative and targeted content and some other are going even deeper by adapting their infrastructure. There are handfuls of companies that have a controlling impact on what we do online and how we use the internet but at the same time there are newer, fresher companies and even startups that are creating some truly amazing solutions. You have to ask yourself if you’re seeing the bigger picture and what you are doing to take marketing to the next level.