10. Social networking will get more and more niche. Social Networking has blanketed the news for the past 18 months because it works. YouTube and MySpace have built loyal communities through entertaining user-generated content and great tools for communicating with other like-minded people. However, Social Networking is going NICHE.

9. Viral campaign websites will have a purpose. Over the past couple of years, I've been forwarded hundreds of quirky sites that are experimenting with the whole viral marketing thing and that have no further purpose whatsoever. There are no calls-to-action or indications as to why these sites exist.

8. User-generated content will be a component on most new websites. Many companies are just starting to realize the great potential of websites with user-generated content that enable customers to co-create with their brands. Read my post a few weeks ago about "letting go" in 2007.

7. Email marketers will demand more strategy from their marketing agencies. From the client-side email marketer's perspective, there are only minor differences (see the ReturnPath Story) between the top email marketing software platforms, so expect no less than service and strategy.

6. Great Content is King. Quality content is more important now than ever before. Each of us receives dozens of email newsletters on a daily basis. There are over 100 million viewings DAILY on YouTube. One in twenty visits on the web is to a social networking site where new content is generated every second. There is a glut of content and it's only going to get more crowded.

5. Most successful companies will become media companies. Microsoft became a media company when it began its blogging program a couple years ago. The lawyers lost and marketers won - revealing the inside scoop at Microsoft was virtually the only thing that has healed the company's battered reputation.

4. Democrat majority in Congress swings the tide of online marketing. Marketers will push the envelope far more aggressively in 2007 now that the fear of death by Republican firing squad has been reduced.

3. Greater integration of Video into all websites. Yesterday, I visited the homepage of CRM juggernaut, Salesforce.com, and was immediately struck by how quickly the video flash piece engaged me. Video is not just for TV and YouTube anymore.

2. Email mantra: list segmentation + relevant content = improved results. eROI published an email study earlier this year showing a direct correlation between smaller, more relevant lists and higher open and click through rates. Instead of sending all emails to a Main List of all of their contacts, marketers are starting to segment their lists into product categories, service categories, press lists, webinar lists, etc.

1. Thoughtful, cause-related marketing is the biggest winner in 2007. Pay attention. If you do this right, you will put your company on the map AND make the world a better place. This may just be the best business advice you get all year.

Take a look at the complete list with comments here. Posted by: Andy at 10:26 AM  |  Permalink