Can marketing change more or faster? Most Internet marketers would answer a firm NO. The minute we offer a firm anything today’s pace makes yesterday’s feel slow. The web only knows one time – NOW. Internet marketing only operates at one speed – FASTER.

Inside of those two firm truths this is enough play to make Stephen Hawking work overtime. Internet marketers who seek a 2 + 2 = 4 clarity may be looking for a long time.

2014 Internet Marketing Trends Mashup on Pinterest

The web is complex. Everything that seems sure and known can be shaken. Better to surf web numbers. Look for flexible patterns, patterns that can inform but not limit action. My first step 9 times out of 10 is to manually pound numbers into a spreadsheet. “Numbers in a spreadsheet” become actionable visualizations like this:

Here is the Google docs spreadsheet that generated the bar chart above.

A clear case of when everyone says something it must be true (lol). “True,” doesn’t mean you can make MONEY creating great content marketing next year. But a truth like that sure means someone can use “inbound marketing” or “content marketing” to kick your website around IF you don’t play the content marketing game.

Content marketing is an “ante” activity.

You team needs to be GREAT content marketers, but winning with content marketing is probably not likely. Not playing content marketing’s game of cards is asking for trouble. Becoming great content marketers is the cost of Internet marketing poker.

Visual Marketing and Lean Design cover a lot of territory from infographics to dynamic websites. Those oceans are so vast there is blue ocean out there somewhere. Should your team concentrate on either lean design or visual marketing? Answer to that question asked for each of these trends is an emphatic YES!

Welcome to Internet marketing. Remember THIS is the business we’ve chosen (lol).

I don’t usually present tactical data in such rigid hierarchy. The danger is any team working off the chart above might think content marketing is more important than “tools” because of the display. Any TACTIC must be fit into a website’s ecosystem.

What might be perfect for ScentTrail Marketing might be counter productive for Curatti.com. Here is another, less rigid, way to present the same 2014 Internet marketing trends.

What do these trends mean for YOU and YOUR web marketing team?

You need to be hot on:

• MOBILE design and marketing.
• Understand “mobile” is really about appification and has very little to do with the phone,
• Learn new productive tools (like GPlus).
• Toss ideas like FourSquare’s social checkin or QR codes that aren’t getting enough traction to provide ROI.
• Continue to invest in and learn from social media.
• Get GREAT at content marketing and content curation.
  

If you and your team can’t get great at every one of these trends, if you can’t ante into those games, you may open an easy path for invading Visigoths.

The Missing Disruptive Trends

The trends outlined in the handful of posts I’ve reviewed so far define “ante” tactics. Could you and your team disrupt with content marketing? Sure, but here are some ideas that feel more wide open:

• Enterprise crowdfunding (see Crowdfunde.com for more).
• Enterprise content curation (want to create new “SpinSnip” tools to help).
• Contests and Games (when in doubt create a contest and support with gamification).
• Gamify – think like a video game creator and you may disrupt your business segment.
• Partnerships – Google’s restructuring favors SCALED (i.e. BIG), so cozy up.
• Collaborate – think less proprietary to become an authority.
• Conversations – own your conversations, own the traffic.
• Hearts, Minds & Cause Marketing – we buy from those we LOVE, so win hearts and minds.
• Empower The Tribe – no one climbs Everest alone anymore, find your brand advocates and empower them to help you.
  

Make sure you know your “ante” tactics, find 2 or 3 disruptive ideas and invest in a different tomorrow. A different tomorrow is the web’s only sure thing and 2014 will have 365 “different tomorrows”.

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Martin (Marty) Smith

Founder at Story of Cancer Foundation

Passionate cancer survivor, Internet marketer and former Director of Ecommerce who believes in Margaret Mead's quote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Glad to be an "Editor of Chaos".

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