There is no doubt that Marketing has changed forever because of the digital revolution. In 2010 your customers will be going online even more often through the continually cheaper availability of laptops, smartphones and internet-enabled TV, meaning your digital strategy must be at the centre of your marketing campaigns, rather than merely an equal to anything you do offline.

In the current economy where families are looking more closely at the cost of sending their children to independent schools, they are not as trusting of glossy prospectuses but are rather seeking out real people reviews on the information superhighway where views good or bad about your school can spread in a matter of hours, (witness the undoing of Tiger Woods’ perfect character very recently.) So your customers of 2010 may be more sceptical and criticising and who are now not only happy to pass their opinions along to other parents at the school gate but also just as happy to share their opinions with friends, “followers” and the search engines.  The fact that negative opinions about your school could spread globally in hours means you must have a plan in place for monitoring what’s being said and have the tools to respond and be part of the conversation. At the very least, you should make sure you have Google Alerts set up for your school name for example so that you are emailed when your school name is mentioned on the net.

According to the latest twice-yearly Nielson Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries, recommendations by personal acquaintances and opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising globally. The Nielsen survey, the largest of its kind, shows that nine in every ten internet consumers worldwide (90 percent) trust recommendations from people they know, while seven in every ten (70 percent) trust consumer opinions posted online. What does this mean for you? Make sure you get those current pupil and parent testimonials on a prominent spot onto your website…

Social networking influence will continue to rise. Witness the current great example of how Skype, Twitter and Facebook helped the British Red Cross “ An appeal to help victims of the Haiti earthquake is breaking all records, fuelled by the power of social media…. In less than 48 hours, the American Red Cross had received more than $35m in donations – including $8m directly from texts.” BBC News Jan 15th 2010.   However some predict that social networking will become more fragmented as for example teenagers abandon Facebook to stop snooping parents and others from knowing too much about their personal lives and people will start forming private social networks to keep their personal lives just that – private!