Marketers have been quick jump on to new technologies. It seems any channel of communication to potential customers is a potential media. In other words, if there is an audience there is a market, and social networking websites are no different. Sites like Facebook, Bebo, and MySpace have always had a level of advertising on them, but marketers have been using a different tact to engage potential customers, and this has raised some serious questions about the etiquette of social marketing.
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
The concept of branding is by no means anything new. There was a time when a brand was literally just that, perhaps it was the mark of the village’s blacksmith signifying a level craftmanship, attention to detail, even an assurance of quality. But here we are we are thousands of years later and designers, manufacturers and producers are all leaving their mark on their wares. So what makes the process of branding so powerful that it has transcended over the many generations and various cultures throughout history? And most importantly to a marketer, why do some brands flourish while others fail to take flight and tank?
In times of economic uncertainty, such as those which we are currently experiencing, it is vital for businesses to understand the role and function of marketing. While it is perhaps a natural reaction to tighten the marketing purse strings when times are tough, this approach will only serve to take you out of the game and perhaps take your brand/business/product/service out of the equation for any potential customers in the market. In a tight economic climate where budgets are restricted, what is needed is a greater level of accountability for the marketing dollars being spent…and if figures published by Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia are anything to go by, online marketing may be the key.
Why offer a rebate when you offer a discount? After all, are they not both ways of offering a product or service at a reduced price to the consumer, thus encouraging sales? Well, yes they are, but there are also a number of significant differences in terms of marketing and in the level of benefit for the seller.
Will it ever stop? It’s a question that I’ve seen being thrown around the web-forums over the past 18 months and is directed at Google’s ability to consistently add innovative products and services to their already expansive line-up. It might sound like a cheesy line from an advertisemment, but when you needed to search the web…Google was there; when you needed to locate an address on a map…Google was there; when you needed to be alerted of a particular keyword in pages going live…Google was there; needless to say, if it has to do with the web technologies…Google is never far away. In fact, while typing this blog, I noticed my colleague reading a news article story headlined “Google reveals its challenge to iPhone”. The soon to be released G1 is Google’s new WI-FI enabled mobile phone running Google’s new Android operating system. So how does all this innovation affect us marketers?
The results that can be achieved through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are hard to dispute. From recent efforts, I have seen a client’s Google ranking move from page 30 to page one for a targeted search phrase. In the early days of SEO – utilising the correct keywords in your metatags, key search phrases in your copy and more recently creating reciprocal links with suppliers, partners and relevant industry groups were ways to boost your search rankings in an attempt to increase the number and quality of web traffic via search engines to your site. As search engines are becoming more sophisticated in the way that they deliver search results, many of the tried and tested tricks of the SEO trade are going out the window but I see this as an opportunity for the industry.
Earlier this week I was discussing the advantages and disadvantages of actively and passively sending out email campaigns to customers/clients. Perhaps I need to go back a few steps to explain…
In email marketing, there are two golden rules which help to keep the industry in check, and to stop it from descending into the realm of SPAM marketing. The two governing rules are –
1. All recipients of email campaigns must give their permission to the sender to receive campaigns
2. All email campaigns are required to have an unsubscribe function…that works!
With these rules in place, there is a clear distinction between what is considered SPAM and what we would call Permission Based Marketing.