How has the internet changed marketing? In reality not very much has changed. There are really just two types of marketing on the internet, advertising and social media marketing. Internet advertising is really just advertising moved to a different medium. It is still about buying interested eyeballs and still works best for mass market products. Internet advertising is comprised of a number of interlocking strategies. The most basic piece of an internet marketing strategy is your web site. Your web site is your ad. Your object is to get as many people in your target market as possible to view your web site. There are a number of ways to get potential customers to your web site. The most popular way to do that is to make your web site visible to the internet search sites such as Google and Yahoo. Another way to drive traffic to your web site involves buying ads on other internet sites. Of course you are looking for sites that cater to your target audience. Drive your target audience to your web site. Provide compelling reasons to buy. Start taking orders. That is the theory behind internet advertising.
The other type of internet marketing is social media marketing. According to social media marketing consultants, this type of marketing will cure cancer, fix your car, improve your sex life, and make you unimaginably rich. Of course, these consultants stand ready to help you reach your business dreams for a hefty fee. I run into at least one social media expert every day it seems. They are web designers, free lance writers, paper ad media experts, former real estate agents, and other hucksters. There are no real qualifications for the job other than the ability to sell themselves to you.
Social media marketing is at its core just networking on the internet. Instead of attending chamber of commerce breakfasts, you hang out on Facebook or LinkedIn. The basic principles of face to face networking apply to internet networking. Networking in any medium takes time to work and requires that you build a network of sufficient size to create referrals. One advantage of internet networking is that you can build a national or international network of contacts.
Social media marketing is destined to suffer the same maturation process internet advertising suffered through in the late 1990’s. In the late 1990’s marketing guru’s told business owners that if you didn’t get a web site immediately, you would be out of business in six months or less. The new economy was coming. Well the new economy turned out to be a lot like the old economy. Not many businesses are well suited to sell on the internet. Not coincidentally, businesses that succeed with internet advertising are the same businesses that used to rely on print advertising. For instance, product businesses with mass market appeal are ideal internet businesses. Unfortunately, service businesses are not normally ideal internet businesses. By 2002, the internet advertising land rush was over. The consultants disappeared, and most businesses realized that internet advertising is at best just a part of a marketing strategy.
Social media marketing is at the height of its boom. In a year or so, the hype will go away. A lot of the marketing budgets spend on social media will turn out to be wasted. Then social media marketing will return to more realistic goals. The most realistic goal for social media marketing is reaching existing customers. If you have used Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, you know these sites are about connecting to people you already know. These sites discourage mass marketing and spammers. Finding new prospects on these sites is difficult. Facebook and LinkedIn are great ways to connect and exchange information with existing clients. Twitter is less effective. With Twitter, you encourage people to follow your 140 character tweets. Assuming you have something interesting to say, and this is a big assumption, you have to convince a large number of Twitter users to read your posts. I am using Twitter, but I have real trouble imagining that large numbers of people are interested in reading daily tweets about changes in tax law. If I were tweeting about sex, I might have more success. That assumes that I know something about sex. A few women would like to anonymously debate that point. Clearly Twitter isn’t for every business. Twitter works great for celebrities. Are you a celebrity? I’m not one either. Twitter isn’t going to make many small business owners rich. Twitter only works when your customers want to hear what you have to say.
I am not being overly negative about internet marketing. I am asking you to be realistic about your goals. Internet advertising works best for prospecting assuming your business is well suited to an advertising approach to marketing. If your business is well suited to advertising, you can succeed in internet advertising just like you could succeed with broadcast or print media advertising. Social media marketing works best as a means of networking. Facebook and LinkedIn are the online equivalents of face to face networking. Twitter can be effective for businesses that need to be in constant contact with customers.
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