Online Marketing: Are You Doing It Right?
Apr 22, 2009 by Aaron Rubman
A couple of months ago I had the good fortune to attend a Learning Café lecture entitled, “Opening the Black Box of Marketing,” offered by Dennis Erokan and Barbara Irias of the Placemaking Group.
While they introduced the audience to their ABCs of Search Engine Optimization, the main thrust of the presentation was actually a reminder that online marketing is, indeed, marketing. In order to do it right, you need to treat your online marketing as a tool, not an end in and of itself.
Isn’t all marketing supposed to be marketing?
Yes it is, but in the rush to get your hands on the newest online tool, it is easy to lose track of what you intend to do with it.
Before diving into a new technology or social media platform, here are some things you should ask yourself:
- What are you trying to achieve with your new technology?
- How have you taken your brand identity into account?
- What do you ultimately intend to sell?
Remember, not all solutions are created equal and newer technologies are not always the best.
For example, if you have a reputation for providing well thought out and thorough answers to complex questions, the 144-character universe of Twitter may not be the correct venue for you to use when you are providing solutions.
But just because a social medium is incorrect for your product does not mean that it is necessarily incorrect for your presence. You also need to consider whom you want your brand to target.
- Who are your current and past clients?
- Who are your potential clients?
- What sort of press do you want to attract?
- Who greases the wheels and makes your case to new potential customers?
- Who is in your company?
You will find that each of these groups will use the internet and the tools available on it in different ways. Any time you try to tame a new online technology, you should make sure that you are using it to speak to one of these groups. And if you’re really doing it right, you will also remain mindful of how your other audiences interact with that particular online technology.
Get involved in the conversation!
Tell us about a recent online tool you’ve adopted and how it has been working for you?
Rather read what else we have to say?
Here are some other posts on what to consider when developing an online strategy.
Aaron– Thanks for the kind words about our talk. What you’re describing is the wild part of any new technology…that you actually have to have a reason to use it! It’s not good enough that you are among the first people to use a new Social Media site. The important thing is that you use it to your or your clients benefit. The process you delineate is the right one. We talk about it in our blog often as well. Here’s a tip about Twitter. We’re finding that the way to think of the 144 character limit per tweet is to write it like a headline. That way, it gets the reader’s interest and if they want more, they ask. It’s been working well in reaching out to the press.