et me be trite. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Everything old is new again. If it's not broken, don't fix it. My point? It's a new year, and I've been assigned the task of reviewing the latest and greatest marketing trends and how I expect them to have an impact on your efforts for the coming year.

Not one to shirk my responsibilities, I researched. I polled my peers. I examined the literature. And what I found is that while the channels and means of communicating change all the time, the basics do not. And probably never will.

So here's a look ahead at the future of marketing and a look back at what brought us to where we are.

Know Your Audience

This is and always will be the key to success in any marketing effort. If you don't know who your market is, and you don't understand the needs, desires, fears and motivators driving your customers, then you won't be able to craft a message (never mind a product or service) that sells.

Time and technology have certainly created new ways to understand a market. The Internet, at the very least, gives marketers a timely and accessible overview of the marketplace.

Market news is accessible at the touch of a button. Competitive research is easy to dig up. Web "zines" and "blogs" are virtual diaries of consumer information.

Comprehensive information on your existing audience, not to mention new audiences, is just a click away. Take advantage.

Find Your Audience

As marketing opportunities grow, marketers should do the opposite. Narrow your focus and think small. Most marketing budgets simply do not allow for the kind of broad marketing efforts that "throw it all out there" to see what sticks.

And I believe that the trend in our industry is toward market segmentation and specialization. By narrowing your audience, you make it both easier and cheaper to find them.

If, for instance, you want to "own" the supermarket industry, then you should spend the bulk of your marketing efforts on buying and building specialized mailing lists, creating targeted direct mail, attending niche trade shows and advertising in appropriate trade journals.

By focusing your marketing and sales efforts on those whom you truly believe to be excellent prospects, none of your dollars or efforts will go to waste. This concerted, repetitive, targeted effort will, in the long run, be a much more effective and efficient tool for building business.

Get Their Attention

Now that we all have mail and e-mail, telephones, computers, radios and television, we're bombarded with advertising and marketing "pitches." How many of us rip up and throw out mail that is clearly not from someone we know?

How often do we leave the room or refocus our attention when a commercial comes on television? How is it that telemarketers can make us behave more rudely than we ever thought possible?

Technology has created so many channels of communication that we as consumers are forced to defend ourselves by tuning out. And since about 90% of today's marketing messages don't even register on the awareness screens of intended recipients, how do we as marketers make sure messages get through? It isn't easy.

With massive amounts of marketing messages practically banging you over the head, what determines which message gets your attention?

I believe two things make a difference: The message has to stand out visually, and it has to speak directly to what's on your mind.

Differentiating on value alone doesn't work anymore. Savvy marketers will separate themselves with benefits, not features. For instance, it's not enough to say, "We process your applications quickly."

Instead, it's more effective to turn that feature into a benefit, by saying, "Within 24 hours, your merchant will be processing and you will be profiting."

It's not enough to position yourself as the best. You have to demonstrate how you can easily solve a problem that concerns your reader or speak clearly to the unique ways you can fill his needs.

You have to be clear about what you want your reader to do, and convince him that he has everything to gain and nothing to lose by doing it.

Lastly, you have to do all this in a way that stands out. Send your message through a unique channel (on a hand-delivered bouquet of balloons) or in a creative format (extra large, extra bright, or even the opposite, extra small), or showcase a different kind of benefit (i.e. "Here are two tickets to Paris and $500 worth of free credit card processing.")

Remember: With the new national "do-not-call" list, and with new e-mail spam filters and pop-up blockers gaining enormous popularity, so-called "interrupt marketing" is on the way out.

It's no longer wise to invest in sending volumes of information that recipients have not requested. (Think pop-up ads, telemarketing calls and e-mails about discount pharmaceuticals). It's more important than ever to send a message only to people who want it.

Be Repetitive, Integrated and Consistent

Familiarity doesn't breed contempt in the case of marketing. It breeds awareness, recognition and retention. Marketing is a slow process, and the rule of thumb is that the first ad (or direct mail piece) never works.

Consistent, long-term results come from consistency of message. This means not only repetition, but also integration. As mass media become more massive, integration takes on new importance.

With countless vehicles available to get your message to your market, smart management of this marketing mix is critical. The whole of marketing is greater than the sum of its parts, so blend marketing vehicles to reach your audience, but keep your message consistent. It's not a new concept.

Walt Disney first promoted the idea in the 1950s. He called it synergy. Hmmm.

Build Loyalty

What's love got to do with it? Everything. The adage about it costing far less to keep a customer than to replace one is as true as always. What's different is that because of the Internet a lost customer can be far more costly than in the past.

Blogs, customer review sites, competitive sites, bulletin boards, Internet magazines and e-mail. There are countless ways for criticism to spread and spread quickly. Remember the old "telephone" game, in which a message changed as people repeated it down the line? Just imagine what happens online.

Viral marketing has become a new catchphrase, and it's all about loyalty. Use this type of marketing to encourage satisfied customers to speak well of you, and the "referral" value will be tremendous.

But fail to address customer complaints and problems quickly and effectively, and you'll see how costly that one customer can be. No news certainly can be good news. And bad news now travels faster than ever.

The World Is Your Oyster. "Google" It.

When a noun becomes a verb, you know it's serious. And Google, now the Internet's most-used search engine, is very serious business.

Try "Googling" your business or industry; see what comes up. If you don't see the results you desire, then hurry up and do everything you can to boost your spot on the Google hierarchy.

How do you do this? First, remember that search engines search text, so use as many industry buzzwords as possible in everything you post on the Web. Flash movies and beautiful page designs look great, but they're invisible to search engines.

Encourage linking. Offer links on your Web site to other Web sites in exchange for the sites also linking to yours. The more pages that link to your pages, the better ranking you will get in Google.

Provide something useful. Helpful "how-to" articles or interesting features will bring repeat customers to your site, allowing your marketing messages to sink in.

See, everything old IS new again: new year, new technology, new industry, same marketing challenges. The good news is that as long as the challenges are the same, you can simply spin the time-tested strategies to get results and get your messages out. Here's to a record-breaking 2005 for all of you.

Nancy Drexler is the Marketing Director of Cynergy Data, a merchant acquirer that distinguishes itself by relying on creativity and technology to maximize service. Cynergy offers its ISOs: VIMAS, a cutting edge back-office management software; TrackIt, a ticketing system that makes responses to customers fast, accurate and efficient; Brand Central Station, a Web site of free marketing tools; plus state-of-the-art training, products, services and value-added programs, all designed to take its ISO partners from where they are to where they want to be. For more information on Cynergy e-mail Nancy Drexler at nancyd@cynergydata.com .