New data released by the research firm eMarketer last week suggests that online ad spend in the US will grow next year.

This is despite expectations that other platforms like TV and press will see big falls.

According to eMarketer, the increase in online spend will be 8.9%.

Within this, the strongest growth will be in search advertising which they forecast will grow by 14.9%.

They expect rich-media ads to see an increase of 7.5% and display ads an increase of 6.6%.

These strong projections come as little surprise to me.

And I think they'll be reflected in the UK.

After all, online marketing is highly accountable.

In other words, online advertising allows you to measure effectiveness much more easily than traditional media.

What's more, channels like search advertising only charge the advertiser for results.

Which is a great thing.

After all, measurable ROI is the Holy Grail for any advertiser.

Following my earlier post about usability problems on my new Nokia, the New York Times reports that the new Blackberry Storm is plagued with problems too.

Once again, the lesson for website owners is to ensure people can use your site easily.

If your site offers a poor user experience, people will come away with a less favorable impression of you than they started with.

Not smart in a downturn.

I've just purchased Nokia's superb-looking new handset, the E71.

But there's a problem.

While the handset looks fantastic, using the phone is difficult thanks to an impossibly complex user interface.

In other words, the stuff on the screen is hard to understand and use.

As a result, I've had to invest days figuring out the basics.

Needless to say, this is a surprise given Nokia's reputation for designing highly intuitive phones.

The question, of course, is why did Nokia release a phone which is so hard to use?

There are only two potential answers.

Either they failed to undertake proper user testing or they did undertake proper user testing but were unable (e.g. there was no time to make drastic changes ahead of the release date) or unwilling to implement the learnings that emerged from the testing process.

What's the lesson for website owners?

For your site to powerfully achieve your business objectives, it must undergo user testing to identify what works and what doesn't.

If you're building a new site from scratch, make sure you conduct user tests at regular intervals through out the process - not just towards the end when the whole thing is a fate accompli.

Failure to do so is guaranteed to result in frustrated users.

And reduced ROI.

To learn more about the nitty gritty of user testing, read Steve Krug's excellent book, Don't Make Me Think.

Like most people I know, I've had a LinkedIn profile for years - but have never been sure how to get value from it.

That all changed this week when I discovered that it's an invaluable sales tool.

In particular, LinkedIn allows you to identify individual decision makers within organisations you're targeting.

Compared to other methods like buying lists or trawling through trade press articles, the site is both low cost and super fast.

However, as you can only see the names of people who are friends or friends-of-friends, the trick is to maximise the number of people in your immediate contacts list.

For more detail, check out the video.

In recent weeks, two legitimate businesses that I've previously bought stuff from have sent me unsolicited text messages.

These messages have been promotional rather than informational in nature.

In other words, they're spam.

Although I can't find any recent statistics on mobile spam trends in the UK, a straw poll of friends suggests that other people are receiving similar stuff too.

Besides the fact that these businesses are breaking the law, their actions highlight a failure to understand the basics of customer acquisition and retention.

After all, by firing unsolicited advertising to your prospects and customers you're committing a number of grave marketing sins.

For a start, the average person regards their mobile as a highly personal device.

Spamming that device will typically leave the owner feeling violated - hardly a great way to build a commercial relationship.

Secondly, because these messages are unsolicited, they typically fail to segment the database of recipients into different areas of interest based on each recipient's stated preferences.

That means everyone receives the same message - irrespective of their own needs and wants.

In turn, that means that even those who're happy to be spammed commonly receive stuff that's irrelevant.

To top this craziness off, many of the businesses sending these messages are paying a fortune in telco fees for the privelege of destroying their customer relationships.

Despite these problems, I'm a big fan of SMS as a marketing tool.

However, as with other forms of push communication (e.g. email), you must apply basic principles in order to generate value.

Fundamentally, this demands that you only send messages that are relevant to the recipient.

To achieve this, you must adhere to a number of rules.

For starters, only message people who've opted-in.

Secondly, find out what kind of information each of your recipients wants to receive - then give it to them.

Thirdly, only send communications to people when there is something to say that will interest them.

And finally, make it easy for people to un-subscribe instantly (something neither of the two offenders who've spammed me have done).

The Tate Modern in London is allowing visitors to its new Cy Twombly exhibition to access the audio guide using their mobile phone.

The way it works is simple.

When you enter the gallery, the offer is subtly displayed next to each work for which there is a piece of commentary.

You simply dial the standard rate local number listed in the offer and follow the prompts which include accepting a one-off charge of £1.50.

This fee allows you to dial into the service as often as you wish.

Consequently, if you hang up and then dial back, the system automatically recognises your phone - and welcomes you straight back into the system.

There are no fiddly passwords, etc.

Once you're connected, you can listen to the commentary for a given piece by simply keying in a three digit number - the same process you use with traditional audio guides.

Given that I used the system on the weekend when my mobile tariff basically allows free unlimited calls, this meant I could enjoy audio commentary for £1.50 instead of renting an audio guide for £3.

What should other organisations wishing to drive impulsive in-store mobile purchases learn from this?

Firstly, you need to communicate the offer at the consumer's moment of need. Telling me about this service just as I looked at the first of the artist's apparently indecipherable paintings was brilliant timing.

Secondly, you need to communicate using the right platform. Placing the offer on the descriptive plaque next to each painting was perfect.

Thirdly, you need to communicate the offer in simple terms so that the customer understands it immediately. The Tate example does this in just one or two sentences. And in the process, they make it clear how the pricing works, thereby eliminating everyone's initial concerns about cost. There is further re-assurance about the cost structure when you first dial the number.

Finally, you obviously need the right price. Again, the Tate offer nailed this perfectly.

Congratulations to all involved.

The importance of offering online customers a good user experience has been top of mind for me this week.

This has been down to my need to purchase two new software applications: one for managing Device's CRM and another for conducting web conferences.

I'm glad to say that the two CRM systems I considered (Salesforce.com and Highrise) do a great job of selling themselves because they explain their offering simply.

What's more, they both offer free trials which are easy to set up and use.

In contrast, the three web conference products I looked at offer a poor experience for the prospective customer.

In particular, the free trials offered by them are virtually impossible to use thanks to being overly complex to set up.

The result? No sale.

The lesson here is simple.

Having a compelling offer is not enough.

If you're trying to acquire customers using digital channels, you must explain the offer simply.

After all, prospects don't have all day to get their heads around your product or service.

Needless to say, if you can't make a powerful pitch for their custom quickly, your digital investment will be wasted.

Sadly, this is the fate of many - perhaps most - online sales programs.

Assuming you've got a compelling offer, how do you know if your site sells it effectively?

The trick is to observe how real users interact with it.

In other words, you must conduct some user testing.

Whilst this can include a number of components, it really boils down to watching how 'real' people cope as they try to use your website.

If you want to learn more, check out Steve Krug's excellent book 'Don't Make Me Think'.

As you'll discover, user testing isn't just easy.

It's an essential part of maximising the return on your online investment.

A common theme in the world of digital marketing is the declining effectiveness of email.

With businesses often seeing a fall in open rates, click through rates and conversion rates, many are losing faith in the channel.

In our view, however, the problem isn't with email per se.

Instead, it's with the quality of the stuff that's sent.

Put simply, many businesses are sending emails which are of no interest to their customers.

To avoid this fate, you must do a number of things.

Most importantly, find out what's relevant to your customers - then deliver accordingly.

If it transpires that they have varying interests, segment them into different groups - then deliver a different email to each group.

Next, make sure that the copy in your emails is engaging.

More often that not, marketers fail to understand the importance of good copywriting in driving sales.

When it comes to design, make sure you use a template which is easy to use.

That means keeping it simple.

Another common mistake is bombarding customers with too many emails.

That turns people off big time.

The trick is to email only when you have something compelling to say.

There are lots of other things to bear in mind when maximise the ROI of an email program.

But if you get these basics right, yours will be well on the way to success.

The release of the new iPhone has rightly increased excitement about mobile internet browsing.

However, for many businesses wishing to profit from mobile now, the focus should be on getting text communications right first.

This is especially true for those needing a powerful direct marketing channel, like retailers.

On that note, there are three main reasons for getting text sorted before investing in mobile web sites.

Firstly, almost everyone uses text already - unlike mobile web browsing which will remain a minority activity for some time.

Secondly, sending and receiving texts costs consumers little. In contrast, many people avoid mobile browsing because they think it's expensive.

Thirdly, setting up and running text campaigns is faster and cheaper than creating a useful mobile website.

Obviously there are some businesses for which text holds little relevance.

However, for many, it offers a low cost communications channel offering a high level of measurable ROI.

The next Big Thing in online marketing communications is so-called behavioral targeting.

The idea is that by building up a record of what content an individual looks at as they surf the web, advertisers can develop an understanding of what things that person would be most interested in buying.

Armed with this information, advertisers can then target that person with highly relevant advertising, no matter where on the web that person happens to be.

For the consumer, it promises to fundamentally change how they experience online advertising by only exposing them to ads which are relevant to their needs.

For advertisers, the benefit is that they only pay to reach people with an interest in their wares.

In other words, the benefits for both parties are huge.

However, things start getting tricky when it comes to implementing a behavioral targeting system.

In particular, if implemented without the consent of individual users, it poses a serious threat to individual privacy.

To understand this, one must understand how behavioral targeting is deployed.

Firstly, a given ISP must decide to set up a behavioral targeting system in order for its customers to be targeted.

This involves capturing the web browsing history of all its customers and then passing this data to a behavioral targeting partner like Phorm or NebuAd.

Working on behalf of advertisers, this partner takes responsibility for serving the highly targeted ads to each of the ISP's customers.

For its troubles, the ISP gets a share of the advertising revenues.

Unfortunately, behavioral targeting's reputation has been tarnished recently by a number of ISPs - including BT - which have trialed the technology without fully informing their customers.

Not surprisingly, this approach has led to a great deal of upset amongst web users.

Given the enormous benefits that behavioral targeting offers to both users and advertisers, the way out of this mess is simple.

ISPs must only apply it to customers who have opted in having fully understood how it works.

Once that safeguard is in place, behavioral targeting will have a bright future indeed.

For more information, don't miss an excellent introductory article in the New York Times along with another in this week's Economist.

Despite the big increase in the value of online commerce in recent years, many businesses are still loath to take online seriously.

Whilst acknowledging the overall importance of the web, a majority of businesses I speak to tell me that their audience isn't using it much.

This is especially true of businesses targeting people who are middle aged and older.

Yet internet usage data for the UK shows that these people are big users of the web.

This is demonstrated by a report from Oxford University's Internet Institute called 'The Internet in Britain 2007'.

The report points out that 60% of all people in Britain use the web at least once a month.

And while 90% of people aged below 18 use the web at least once monthly, fully 58% of people aged 55 - 64 do too.

Even amongst those over 75, 25% are online at least one a month.

Interestingly, of those who go online at least once per month, most do so every day or almost every day.

And if you're selling to more affluent customers, there's good news: the richer people are, the more likely it is that they use the web often.

In fact, amongst people in households earning over £50,000 per annum, 91% use the web regularly.

What does this mean for you?

Given that online sales and marketing activity offer unusually high levels of ROI, you must give serious thought to your online activities - and stop seeing them as a side-line.

After all, your audience has almost certainly moved online in much greater numbers than you realise.

If you don't provide for them there, your competitors surely will.

The current issue of PR Week has an article about Device following my recent presentation to healthcare marketers on the subject of search marketing.

As the article points out, I believe search represents a major untapped opportunity for many businesses in the healthcare space.

This particularly applies to businesses selling healthcare devices or over-the-counter drugs.

You can watch my presentation here.

Meanwhile, if you'd like access to my PowerPoint deck, please email me.

I'm speaking at today's BioMed Central eMarketing Seminar in London.

If you're going, do say hello.

Although written in 1983, it drips with pearls of wisdom that relate directly to the web.

In particular, Ogilvy underlines the fact that in order to maximise their return on investment, marketers must employ a scientific approach to the planning and execution of their communications.

In other words, rather than being led by gut feel or personal preferences, every step of the planning and executional phases of a digital communications campaign must be guided by empirical research.

For example, the planning of new activity should start with the undertaking of qualitative and quantitative research to fully understand the target audience and its needs.

And when a piece of communication activity has been created, it should be tested with members of the target audience to guage its effectiveness BEFORE it goes live in order to identify areas for improvement.

He then stresses that live on-going activity should be monitored closely to identify learnings which can be used to enhance its performance.

And that detailed post-campaign analysis must be undertaken to caputure learnings for use in subsequent activity.

Unfortunately, too little digital communications activity adheres to Ogilvy’s evidence-based approach.

Given digital’s unique ability to measure effectiveness, that’s a major lost opportunity.

Yesterday's launch of the 3G iPhone should significantly increase the number of people surfing the web from their mobile.

In turn, it is likely to be an important step towards making mobile web surfing an everyday experience for most people in the western world.

What's so good about the new iPhone?

Whilst the original model revolutionised mobile surfing thanks to its simple user interface, it was let down by slow connection speeds when not connected to a wi-fi network.

On paper, at least, the new phone should largely overcome that problem, allowing people to surf at relatively high speeds in any location served by a 3G signal.

Of course 3G phones gobble power much faster than standard mobile devices.

And while Apple claims this won't be a big problem, it'll be interesting to see how long the batteries last between charges for people using the phones in the real world.

Speed aside, the new phone's other big benefit is that Apple will allow 3rd parties to develop applications for it.

This should see a plethora of useful new iPhone tools rolled out in coming months.

Aside from improving the utility of the device, Apple has also made it much more affordable.

For example, in the UK where 02 is the sole iPhone network, the entry level 8GB version will be free for people on a £45 monthly tariff.

And just £99 for those on the lowest tariff (£30).

Importantly, these tariffs include unlimited surfing when used in the UK.

The big question now is how well will it sell.