Are you playing all your Internet marketing cards?
The following Guest Column is written by Stephen Da Cambra, Project Co-ordinator and Copywriter at WSI, a Toronto-based Internet marketing company.
Ten years ago, marketing students never learned about tactics for viral marketing on the web, if only for the simple reason that they had never heard of such a thing. Like most new media, the internet merely imitated the media that came before it, as it emerged through the 1990s. Web copy was lifted from print brochures and web graphics ...
from print campaigns. The first popular computer graphics programs were designed for print applications.
Web 2.0 changed the game and it is the foundation on which the internet has developed a unique identity as communications medium. The dominant characteristic of that identity is interactivity, and it has changed how we communicate on the internet. Content must be developed specifically for how it is consumed on the web. Messages are structured and information delivered in a way that is unique to the internet.
Marketers have had to adjust. Expensive campaigns developed for other media fall flat on the internet. The popularity of the web has made some traditional marketing channels, like the printed Yellow Pages, almost obsolete. Fortunately, marketers are a creative bunch and even those firmly entrenched in traditional marketing media have at least familiarized themselves with marketing on the web. Indeed, it would be difficult for a marketer to avoid the internet and most have become familiar with, and use, at least one or two internet marketing channels.
Too often, though, even the most creative marketers stick to the familiar and don’t continue to expand their marketing horizons. While there’s nothing wrong with specializing, and it’s a mistake for marketers to use channels for which they are not well suited, the rules of internet marketing are still being written and any marketer, or anyone, can write them.
It means the internet is a level playing field for marketers. The uninitiated and unfunded can get the same results as the most expensive agencies. Extremely successful campaigns can emerge from any PC, authored by anyone, using any marketing channel. The Internet makes excuses passé and marketers, not playing all their internet marketing cards, are doing a disservice to themselves and to their customers. PPC, SEO, e-mail marketing, web sites, banner advertising, online press releases, blogs, social media, forums; all are powerful tools available for marketers to use to their best advantage and their customers’ benefit.
Perhaps, best of all, the level internet marketing field means you can run a successful campaign at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing, and generate higher returns. Examples abound, including the five-minute YouTube video, shot with a web cam and light from the window, which so far has generated 65 million impressions and international brand recognition for a previously unknown guitar teaching course.
Unfortunately, no number of good stories will make the internet marketing world perfect. The tools web marketers use to spread their messages are available to everyone, including those with opposing messages. Highly recognizable brands have had to deal with popular messaging from individuals and organizations that is counter to their marketing message.
That anyone, large multinational or basement neophyte, can develop and/or respond to any message on the web – the interactive character of the medium – makes the internet what it is. It means all marketers can, and should, take advantage of all the internet marketing tools available to them.
About WSI
WSI specializes in developing internet marketing systems that let businesses leverage the internet to achieve their goals. With creative design, effective web marketing strategies and comprehensive tracking and analysis, WSI offers complete solutions that consistently generate more business for their customers.
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Technorati Tags: Advertising, Internet marketing, Marketing & branding, New Media, PPC, SEO, Video marketing, WSI, YouTube marketing
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