Women control more than $7 trillion in domestic spending and purchase decisions for 85% across major categories, but a recent study on profiles or audience segments reveals that only 9% think marketers effectively connect brands to them. I've been thinking about what it takes for me to connect with a brand or retail store, and then I came across these findings. So the next time you want to reach out to women in one of these behavioral categories, consider these behavioral attributes.

Behavioral data remains the greatest untapped asset, even for search engine marketers. Only 45% of marketers collect, consolidate, and integrate pools of data into one database to get a better picture of potential and existing customers, according to a Forrester study.

Tech companies constantly look for the next life-changing device that will make an impact on society. Mobile has transformed the way that search engine marketers optimize sites, content and campaigns, but we have yet to experience the impact of wearable technology like Google Glass on search engine marketing.

Faster broadband speeds contribute to the success of search marketing, but a better social search engine should improve the ability to find information and target marketing on Facebook. Even more, the question remains whether Bing's support of Web search for the social site will lead to a crossover of social-Web search and ad targeting in the future. Facebook said Monday it will expand Graph Search services from its limited beta trial to all site members in the United States.

Some four in 10 social media users have purchased an item online or in a store after sharing or favoriting it on Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest, according to a recent study, but it gets a little muddy when trying to determine were search marketing comes in and how consumers make the journey from tweeting, pinning or liking something to the actually purchase.

Directories still deliver high-quality leads, especially on mobile devices, according to a study released Wednesday by the Local Search Association. The trend will only increase as more consumers turn to online sources for local business information. It requires marketers to become more consistent when updating information, not just for location, but products, as well. The ability for these two types of media to reach different audiences plays a critical role.

Closures and acquisitions become signals of change. These days the lack of a Twitter account also tells another story. I remember sitting in my cubical at Ingram Micro (at the time), a computers and accessories distributor in Santa Ana, Calif., searching the Internet for information trying to figure out the best use for AltaVista and other similar early search engines. Around 1996, I had moved from designing catalogs, brochures and ads to writing copy about computer products and accessories in the company's in-house marketing department.

I've been saying it for years: mobile ecommerce needs a simpler conversion path from discovery to conversion. Now a study confirms it. Make it easy to connect and reduce the amount of processes and clicks to find the information, and business professionals will start researching and spending more through mobile devices.

Analyzing search logs from two different commercial search engines, Microsoft researchers found that results repeated in about 40% of multi-query search sessions and users engage differently with repeats than with results shown for the first time. Not a difficult concept to follow.

An interesting conversation with SocialCode CEO and founder Laura O'Shaughnessy led us to speculate on a real-time ad-targeting model for Facebook based on hashtags.