During the course of my work as a copywriter, I encounter a surprising number of established businesses who, in marketing terms, have so far allowed the 21st century to pass them by.
While they may have an online presence, they do little to enhance their branding through incoming channels. Many have never conducted an online campaign, and few attach much significance to their online rankings and flow of site traffic. The prevailing attitude is ‘business as usual’ – i.e. reliance on the traditional channels of tradeshows, direct response, email marketing and cold calling.
But while these methods remain effective in the short term, they are, like the dinosaurs before them, locked into a slow and irreversible demise. The evidence is all around us. Just take a look at the prevalence of new tools for blocking interruptive marketing, including sophisticated spam filters, and caller ID. And, even more worryingly, laws such as the CAN Spam Act and Do Not Call lists mean that even if marketers find a way of getting past the gate keepers, they’ll find it much harder to circumvent the law.
The fact is the way people research new products is changing forever right beneath our noses. Smart businesses realise this, and are slowly shifting the emphasis of their efforts from ‘outbound’ marketing - i.e. broadcasting your message to thousands of people in the knowledge that between only 1% and 7% have any interest whatsoever - to ‘inbound’ marketing - by which people seek you out when they’re ready to buy something. This means making the move away from conventional old-school marketing and investing more in search engine optimisation, pay-per-click, business blogging and social media marketing. It means you’ll be found by more qualified prospects and convert more of them to paying customers, and you’ll stop wasting money on costly, hit-and miss interruption marketing methods.
A good place to begin is by analysing your business’s internet marketing effectiveness. Currently, how often do you to get ‘found’ by prospects in search engines, blogs and social media? To get the relevant data for your company, do some keyword research using Overture Keyword Tool, search on Technorati for blogs in your industry; search on social media sites relevant to your industry (Facebook, LinkedIn and others).
Use the data from the report to see how you can build more opportunities to reach prospects who are searching for your products and services. Finally, develop a plan for transforming your company’s marketing strategy from inbound marketing to outbound marketing, and bring it screaming and kicking into the 21st century!
It’s 2009, and the rules of marketing and PR have changed forever…
In just a handful of years an entirely new marketing language has revealed itself: Web 2.0, e-marketing, viral marketing, business blogging, podcasting and search engine advertising, to name just a few of the concepts that until very recently simply didn’t exist.
For the ambitious entrepreneur this change opens windows onto lucrative new marketing opportunities. The only difficulty is navigating your way through the tangle of information to find out how it all works.
Now for the first time it’s possible to get the insider perspective on the new rules of marketing clearly explained without hype and nonsense, and all in one location – and it won’t cost you a penny.
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