If retailers want to stay ahead of their competitors they will need to advance their marketing strategy to cater to the needs of holiday shoppers. I've compiled a list of four ways every marketer should be using search and digital tools to gain the attention of hungry holiday shoppers.

Just because the world of search may not appear to have had many bombshells recently doesn't mean there's a shortage of important developments. Many have flown under the radar due to the amount of expansion in this space. However, these developments should not go unnoticed. Here is an overview of the biggest happenings with each of the big four - yes, you read that right, four - search engines.

Several years ago, I got a purple and white milk carton in the mail. Inside was Seth Godin's great book, "Purple Cow." The premise of the book (and the packaging, for that matter) is simple: Marketing that doesn't stand out gets ignored. To win in today's information-overload world, marketing has to wow the customer (not unlike a purple cow among hundreds of regular black-and-white cows).