Without New Tactics, Competition Passes You By
Okay, you’re a savvy online marketer. You have paid keyword plans running at a reasonable cost per sale or lead. Your banner ads are on specific sites and networks, and they’re meeting your branding or lead-generation goals. You grow your email list by giving people a reason to sign up, and you use it effectively by sending relevant offers to your customer base. And you have the analytics in place to monitor and optimize performance on an ongoing basis.
Despite all this, your competitors can still eat your lunch.
How? It’s simple: by being first with new online tactics.
You’ve heard of blogs and podcasts, of course. You may have heard of in-stream video. But how about in-game advertising? Google Earth rooftops and popups? Branded widgets? SMS ads? Interactive fiction by phone? Alternate reality marketing? Interactive billboards? User-generated media? Forum reps? Reality advertising?
Fact is, there are dozens of new ways to reach your customers—and even more in development. As media changes and evolves, and we create new ways to use the online space, there will be literally hundreds of opportunities to connect with your customers. Some of these will be stunningly effective. All of them will be surprisingly inexpensive to start testing.
But which ones are right for you? You’ve been told not to take a scattershot approach to marketing. But this isn’t the case here. The best way to find out is to:
• Keep up with the latest ideas
• Try a lot of them
• Test as inexpensively as you can
• Track the results
• Reinvest in the ones that work
It’s that simple. Try a lot, spend a little, and get in on the ground floor of a new marketing phenomenon. Did you test Google Adwords when they first came out? Were you glad you did? Same idea here.
You may think a lot of these media opportunities skew young, and you’re right. They do. However, even if they skew to the 18-25 market, that doesn’t mean they can’t be repurposed for a more mature market. Consider these ideas:
• Use video podcasts as an internal tool to communicate management vision amongst all company employees
• Offer SMS alerts when a hot product (car, cellphone, computer) comes in stock
• Sign up your company’s external pundits (from scientists to celebrities) to participate in a blog with unique content from known names in the industry
• Create an interactive virtual detective game using Google Earth that educates people about your industry or your products
• Use forum ambassadors to be the formal voice of your company on discussion boards, offering a neutral place where people can get their questions answered
And dozens more. Communication barriers have fallen, and we’re still figuring out how to use the rules to our best advantage. The old model of placing static ads in print and broadcast is on the way out. Blogs and podcasts are the current hot media topic, but they’ll be supplanted quickly by even newer ones.
Keep up. Experiment. Try new things.
Do this, and you’re on a track to realize stunning returns. Ignore it, and watch your competitors pass you by.
