7 Predictions for Business Communications in 2010

As we look to this new year and new decade, it's clear the business community is on the edge of a major transformation in the way we communicate. 

1. Social media will provide new channels for outreach.

Social media is already providing new ways and opportunities for business people to communicate in addition to direct mail, phone and e-mail. Our millennials are showing us the way. Every parent is aware how our kids communicate online and see how email has taken a back seat to social media tools.

As a marker, today we see 30% of business users in the NetProspex database have LinkedIn accounts and about 5% use Twitter. We believe its a good bet those numbers will continue to rise.

2. Authentic conversation will continue to improve email marketing.

The key issue is that business communication is turning into a more authentic conversation and that is already being evidenced in what is happening in the oldest electronic communication tool, email. If you have noticed that business email is morphing into a much more useful communication medium, you will not be alone.  The recession was the driving force as large reputable companies added opt-out email campaigns to their communication mix as an effective action against falling sales.

The CAN SPAM act has turned out to be a forward thinking piece of legislation in that it allows vendors to email business people regarding their services as long as an opt-out or "remove me" link is provided in the email.  The result is that by the end of the naughties, sloppy email providing "free offers" and useless newsletters have been replaced by more effective email marketing that is much smarter, useful and well targeted.  Marketers have discovered that content such as webinars, blogs and YouTube videos to name a few can educate on a topic that really is really useful to the recipient, and people want to hear about this stuff. 

3. Targeted, relevant messaging will deliver, as always.

People are in business to do business. As a business professional, I have no problem receiving email about tools and services that can make my organization more sales or reduce costs. In fact its become an essential way to help me ensure I achieve my fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit for my business and ensures I am up-to-date on these tools and know when they could help.

I find it nostalgic to think that in another few years there will be a generation that doesn't know what Viagra is. SPAM software has dome a great job in keeping the trash out and the unsolicited emails I now get are at a manageable level and the vendor messages are usually well targeted, and the content is useful.  Research has shown that users will mark an email as spam if it is from a vendor who they have a relationship if the message is not useful, but not do so if the message is relevant and targeted, even if it is unsolicited. In fact most of us visit so many websites and sign up for so many things each year, that we can't remember who we have a relationships with anyway.

4. Caller ID for email means marketers must hit the nail on the head.

In addition, the preview line in email software in the in-box makes the decision easy whether to spend time opening an email.  If the marketer hasn't hit the nail on the head in that tiny space - forget it. So my inconvenience with this stuff has been much reduced...now I find it the opposite...very useful.  So email has become a little bit like answering the phone, it has its own caller ID built-in, in that one line preview that I can ignore if I want to.

The proof is when you hear marketers talk in these uncertain economic times and reduced budgets we hear again and again that email marketing, if done well, is the most effective way form many businesses to reach out to potential customers. With the advent of social media, no doubt it is going to take us a while to figure out how to use this medium too. The B2C marketers seem to be well on the way to figuring this out and the business community will no doubt follow.

5. We're growing.

NetProspex will continue its rapid growth as the community continues to pool more content to the database.  We are looking to grow our database to more than 20M accurate business contacts in 2010.

6. The traditional list industry is not.

The list industry (an information business that still hasn't made the transition to electronic media) will continue to collapse, as friction in the buying process through inconvenient rental models and poor quality will force its replacement by higher quality sources that collate this information into one place and make integration to sales and marketing automation easy.

7. Sales and marketing automation works, the ecosystem is the future.

There is a logjam of demand for sales and marketing automation. Salesforce.com is the only CRM platform to allow app development. Most large CRM providers servicing the large corporations are stuck on inflexible platforms that deny them value available to smaller, more nimble competitors.

We hope you'll join us in 2010 as we continue to raise the standards of B2B lead generation, and embark on new frontiers bringing social media into the B2B world.

What's next in 2010? Leave your comments below.

Cheers,

Gary Halliwell
CEO - NetProspex