2011 heralds a radical change in internet marketing. It will be a change that embraces many of the lessons learned throughout 2010, when recession proof strategies were all the rage, to harnessing the true power of today`s digital age. There will not be a reluctance to adopt, because consumers and businesses have accepted that what was pioneering last year is now common place and that new application releases will accelerate at warp speed. There will be none of the tentative steps of last year when fears about the economy were so prevalent, quite the opposite in fact, it will be brakes off.

This year, businesses will have a complete digital portfolio. They might already have a website, or a blog, or an email marketing strategy, a Facebook page or a Twitter account or all of the above. But through the power of social networking, whether they like it or not, they will have a digital footprint through their customer product reviews and forum discussions. You can expect the customer voice to be even bigger and more influential this year so, businesses will abandon all though of random tactics and establish sound digital strategies to go to market.

Nielson, the world leader in media analysis, announced in a recent report on 2011 trends, that looking at simple click through traffic metrics is not enough anymore and that the ability to accurately measure activity and link online advertising to offline purchasing behaviour will be critical. They also predicted that increased use of more creative advertising and content models online such as video, attention-seeking page takeover ads will drive the next era of web development.
Location based marketing will enjoy massive explosion thanks to the boom in smart phone mobile technology and add even more ammunition to affiliate marketing opportunities in what is up to now, a virtually untapped market. The mere fact that you can now target mobile consumers by location, buying trends and leisure preferences will make salivating analysis for many affiliate marketers. Make no mistake, mobile marketing is going to be massive in 2011 and like all good entrepreneurs, affiliates will avidly consume all of these ideas and push the boundaries as far as possible.

The bottom line is that all the different strands involved in informing consumers to the point where a call to action is imminent are converging, even in a scenario where money making opportunities such as free money offer additional sources of income. Affiliate marketers will have to create cross platform campaigns as one voice in order to fully exploit this exciting new digital landscape.