But no banners, please
Using the Internet as an advertising platform? Sure you can! But without overpriced flash campaigns or lazy tricks like astroturfing. Oliver Reichenstein names three forms of Internet marketing that actually work. Guest commentary by Oliver Reichenstein, information architect in Tokyo.
The biggest advertising company is not Interpublic, not Omnicom, not Publicis and not WPP, but Google. The widest marketing space is not the movie screen, but the cell phone screen. The most efficient advertising is not direct mail, but Twitter. Everything that happens online is advertising. Self-promotion, third-party advertising, paid or free, consciously or unconsciously, online is advertised for all it's worth.
I'm not talking about banners or some overpriced Flash campaigns. On the contrary. In fact, banners and all the glossy product websites are counter-examples. Banners and online campaigns are actually attempts to rescue a form of communication that has been dead for a long time. To be more precise, the Internet is what advertising used to be. The Internet has replaced advertising. And the laws of online promotion are completely different from those of traditional advertising.
1) While traditional advertising puts all its energy into finding the most targeted message possible and delivering it to the target audience via the appropriate marketing space, on the Internet you simply have to hope that someone will do it for you.
2. whereas traditional advertising was keen to shape the message and control its distribution, on the Internet you have to do everything you can to let the customer write and distribute the message. (Oh yes!)
3. while traditional advertising has a brand-building effect in the pre-sales stage and sometimes helps to sell a product via its tangible value, on the Internet today you have to do everything you can to ensure that communication with the discerning customer runs as smoothly as possible in order to provoke as little bad PR as possible.
Of course, an army of self-proclaimed online marketing specialists have now emerged, promising that they know how to tap into "social media" to get their message out cost-effectively. Most of these online marketers are either desperate marketers trying to dazzle their clientele with a marketing tech-lingo, or some bums who have wasted years of their time with Facebook & Co. and are now going big max.
In fact, there is hardly a more dangerous marketing strategy than what is now being touted everywhere as "social media marketing" and is known on the Internet as "astroturfing". Astroturfing is the attempt to secretly feed commercial messages into the Internet as non-commercial ones. As soon as the user realizes that the message he is supposed to pass on is not authentic, such tapping can be a total disaster. The most famous example of an astroturfing disaster is Edelmann's Wal-Mart blog campaign.
The good news is that there are three forms of internet marketing that work:
1. the most efficient is: a good product and a clear explanation. If you have a really good product and explain it without PR pomp and advertising pomp, you can assume that it will be recommended to others.
2. the most important is: online customer service. Poor customer service today is a dangerous bomb; good customer service, on the other hand, can replace a small advertising campaign. Cutting corners on online customer service is nothing short of suicidal.
3. the ultimate form is: a better product. Companies must learn to link customer feedback with product development. The happiest customer is the one who feels taken seriously.
The Internet has replaced advertising. With anti-advertising. And there's nothing you can do about it other than to use communication to absorb impending disasters and improve your own product with the dissatisfied customer base, come hell or high water.
I'm not talking about banners or some overpriced Flash campaigns. On the contrary. In fact, banners and all the glossy product websites are counter-examples. Banners and online campaigns are actually attempts to rescue a form of communication that has been dead for a long time. To be more precise, the Internet is what advertising used to be. The Internet has replaced advertising. And the laws of online promotion are completely different from those of traditional advertising.
1) While traditional advertising puts all its energy into finding the most targeted message possible and delivering it to the target audience via the appropriate marketing space, on the Internet you simply have to hope that someone will do it for you.
2. whereas traditional advertising was keen to shape the message and control its distribution, on the Internet you have to do everything you can to let the customer write and distribute the message. (Oh yes!)
3. while traditional advertising has a brand-building effect in the pre-sales stage and sometimes helps to sell a product via its tangible value, on the Internet today you have to do everything you can to ensure that communication with the discerning customer runs as smoothly as possible in order to provoke as little bad PR as possible.
Of course, an army of self-proclaimed online marketing specialists have now emerged, promising that they know how to tap into "social media" to get their message out cost-effectively. Most of these online marketers are either desperate marketers trying to dazzle their clientele with a marketing tech-lingo, or some bums who have wasted years of their time with Facebook & Co. and are now going big max.
In fact, there is hardly a more dangerous marketing strategy than what is now being touted everywhere as "social media marketing" and is known on the Internet as "astroturfing". Astroturfing is the attempt to secretly feed commercial messages into the Internet as non-commercial ones. As soon as the user realizes that the message he is supposed to pass on is not authentic, such tapping can be a total disaster. The most famous example of an astroturfing disaster is Edelmann's Wal-Mart blog campaign.
The good news is that there are three forms of internet marketing that work:
1. the most efficient is: a good product and a clear explanation. If you have a really good product and explain it without PR pomp and advertising pomp, you can assume that it will be recommended to others.
2. the most important is: online customer service. Poor customer service today is a dangerous bomb; good customer service, on the other hand, can replace a small advertising campaign. Cutting corners on online customer service is nothing short of suicidal.
3. the ultimate form is: a better product. Companies must learn to link customer feedback with product development. The happiest customer is the one who feels taken seriously.
The Internet has replaced advertising. With anti-advertising. And there's nothing you can do about it other than to use communication to absorb impending disasters and improve your own product with the dissatisfied customer base, come hell or high water.
