Don’t understand Internet marketing?
Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 by Franz in Marketing
People often get confused: The difference between digital marketing, Internet marketing, search engine marketing and advertising. If you don’t know what’s the difference between Advertising & Marketing yet, you can refer to this awesome short article – Or check out this picture that says it all.
Don’t want to waste your time clicking on another link? There you go.
Marketing vs. Branding vs. Advertising vs. Public Relations (PR)
Applies to Internet marketing?
Generally, marketing over the Internet requires all four elements to be present: “Branding”, “Public Relations”, “Marketing” and “Advertising”. In many ways, activities performed on the Internet speaks loudly for your brand – And what you can do to help whoever your audiences are.
The Generic ATL/BTL
Generic ATL/BTL (Above the Line / Below the Line) advertising campaigns strive to promote all of these four in a shot – At least to a certain extent. Most of the time, it doesn’t because it’s a one way thing. How?
Billboard on the Streets of Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Now tell me, “How do you immediately communicate with a billboard like that?” Even if there’s a phone number or a website, you’ll either be:
- Too busy focusing on the road and slow traffic.
- Too busy cursing bad drivers and nonsensical motorists.
- Too busy holding your spouse’s hand and talking to her.
- Too busy putting your playful children back on their seats.
- Too busy thinking about work, time, family, holidays, money and politics.
- Too busy daydreaming about your newborn child and his beautiful mother.
- Too busy playing with your brand new Android/iPhone.
- Too busy talking on the phone and checking out if there are any police cars / roadblocks nearby.
ThinkProperty.my - Taxi Advertising
Well of course, if you need to iterate something like:
- Radio station frequencies – BFM and MyFM did a good job on the billboard.
- Directions – Giant, Tesco, Jusco and so forth do it very well.
- Events – An exposition like Career Fair.
Then it’ll be good, because these are things that can be immediately communicated to, remembered and could generate interests. My question to some e-Commerce shops in Malaysia are: Why the heck is your company’s ad on a TAXI?
What about Internet marketing?
Internet marketing on the other hand is another thing: It targets people who are CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET ONLY, end of story. Basically, you can pretty much gauge whether your business needs totally expensive Internet marketing or not by considering these few factors:
- There are only 9,400,000 Internet users in Malaysia. And Malaysia has a population of 28.2 million. If your target market is only located in Malaysia, then your maximum reach on the Internet is only 33.3% of the whole population in Malaysia.
- If you see what Malaysians do on the Internet (2008), relate them to yourself. If you’re selling 10 acres of land, would you be diving heavily into social media marketing?
- If your company focuses on news consumptions (or aggregating) for a specific industry, can you target ALL Malaysians just by reaching the Internet? (Heavy budget applies).
- If you have an e-Commerce site, would you put all your marketing eggs into one basket? (E.G. Google’s Pay per Click or PPC services)? Find out eCommerce’s performance in Malaysia.
Depending on what you do, there are certain industries to where Internet marketing can and should only be done so much. If and unless you decide to GROW YOUR BRAND just like how Shell does (car racing, sports, etc.) then it’s a different story.
Engaging marketing consultants
It’s not as simple as you think it is. Seriously. Not anybody can be a good marketer by just handling a few projects or a Marketing Communications graduate. It’s not the same thing. Internet marketing is technical.
When it comes to your business, you’re often in control of what you do. And keep it that way when you engage an Internet marketing consultant. A good Internet marketing consultant will always:
- First look at your business processes, and the overall flow of your business before judging.
- Understand your industry and demographics in a specific region before commenting.
- Will give you a free consultation because he has nothing to lose.
- Back his/her values with its ideologies/understanding/knowledge, not clients.
- Tell you that “Marketing is never a guarantee”, so do businesses.
- Skeptical of traditional advertising methods, and seeks to improve them all the time.
- Nonchalantly debunking myths about marketing as a whole subject, not just Google or Yahoo.
Think about it. Do you really understand Internet marketing?
