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Three Trends that Will Impact Your Business in 2005

Aaahh. The New Year, a time for regretting holiday indulgences (sugar cookies are mine), fine-tuning resolutions, and if you're in the media, making predications for the upcoming year. In that spirit - and because I spent my winter break catching up on my reading - I offer you my analysis of three trends that will impact your business in 2005.

B-to-B search. Search engine marketing, search engine optimization, desktop search, even cell phone search. The fastest growing sector of the Internet and advertising industries, the $2.5 billion dollar search industry is expected to hit $8 billion per year by 2007.

Clearly, search is here to stay. If your company is still hesitant about search and its benefits, now is the time to begin integrating organic (or natural) and paid search into your marketing mix and budget.

Customer feedback. At my family's holiday party, my mother-in-law talked about how Nestlé had come out with a new type of dairy creamer for her coffee. She hated it. So what did she do? She called the company and complained!

What Nestlé has here is customer feedback gold. Nestlé's sales are soaring because they are using customer feedback to improve their products and service.

Compare this Kryptonite, the makers of bike locks, who didn't readily respond to a complaint on a blog about how the locks can be opened with a Bic pen. Ten days and two major news stories later, the company announced it was exchanging the faulty locks for free. Estimated cost? $10 million, according to Fortune, plus the loss of its reputation for "unbreakable" locks.

It's not enough to collect customer data. Companies need to analyze it and put it to work - from giving customers the information they need to make purchasing decisions to responding to complaints and/or positive criticism.

Poor writing skills. Did you see the New York Times article, "Why Corporate America Can't Build a Sentence?" Basically, due to Instant Messaging (IM) and e-mail, we've become a nation of sloppy communicators.

According to writing coach Ken O'Quinn, who specializes in business writing seminars, "Poor writing is a huge issue for corporate America because serious damage can be done due to careless or sloppy writing."

Indeed, businesses are finding that work is not being done correctly or at all. Says O'Quinn, "It's not the reader's job to 'decipher' a sloppily written document - it's too much work. So they ignore it."

No longer the pet issue for corporate communicators, strong writing and communication skills are a must in today's corporate environment - whether one is in purchasing or accounting. Employees who can't compose their thoughts and ideas into a strategic communication piece will see their careers stagnate.