Email – What started out as a potentially dominant marketing tool has been diluted due to a heavy volume of spam and junk emails. Email has been further diminished by the transition to mobile devices with as many as 75% of the market reading most of their email on smartphones or tablets. The high-impact nature of reading on a desktop monitor is now gone and the subject line needs to be compelling or it will likely be skipped over in the millisecond evaluation made by mobile users.

Social Media – While social media will continue to evolve, it is seen by many as potentially hitting a break point where consumers are feeling overwhelmed by the social pressure to participate in sometimes dozens of platforms. From leaders like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to newcomers like Snapchat and Yik Yak, consumers are spending so much time keeping up with the latest trends and generating content that marketers need to question where the real commerce is taking place.

Digital / Online– Search engine marketing and optimization are critical components to any marketing strategy and in most cases provide a reasonably strong ROI. However, this marketing component is heavily reliant on the consumer making a buying decision and actively searching for solutions to make a price comparison. The “in market” consumers are only a small part of the potential market, typically 3% at any given time. As marketers, we need to rely on strategies that pull more prospects into the market BEFORE they choose to enter on their own. Promotional efforts will often limit the extent of competition evaluated at the same time and will greatly increase the number of prospects. It’s great if online efforts generate 50 leads per month at a low cost per lead, however, if a business needs 300-400 prospects to meet its objectives, expanding beyond online efforts aimed primarily at those currently in the market is important.