Wednesday, September 21, 2011

How the Internet influences Marketing paradigms


Marketing has changed dramatically over the past 15 years. With people using the Internet for all sorts of searches the need to conduct proper SEO campaigns has shifted the focus of marketing and advertising professionals to the more precise efforts and effects of online marketing. Where a business owner was once required to take out ads in the local phone directory to help drum up customers, the Internet has made the phone book obsolete. Sure there are some very rare occasions when reaching for the yellow pages might be an option, but for the most part everyone that owns a computer is looking up the information that they want in one of the online search directories. With an estimated 31 billion web searches taking place each month on Goggle alone, the revolution in how people are using technology has led to a revamping of the entire marketing industry. 

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the standard approach to advertising was the mass media broadcast and print productions that send out commercial messages to tens of thousands, even millions of people at a time. Similar to firing a shotgun and hoping that the spread of buckshot would hit something the mass media approach was effective to a very limited extent. By reaching a large audience the advertisers would expect to make a handful of sales for whatever product they were promoting. With returns of 4% or less the shotgun approach to advertising to a mass population was (and continues to be) a high cost, low return investment for any business that could afford to shell out tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars for the production and airing of their commercial messages. Television, radio and magazine ads have lost their mass audience appeal and as the telephone book is all but extinct the more traditional forms of broadcast and print media are rapidly losing ground with younger consumers.

Thanks to the invention and innovation of technology satellite broadcasting, commercial free cable programming, and downloadable TV shows and music choices that can circumvent the broadcasts of commercial ads allows users and subscribers to avoid or skip the traditional advertising campaigns, leaving many advertisers looking for a better way to reach their ideal consumer. Turning to the Internet for help the solution that has become the norm for every company of every size in every country throughout the world is search engine optimization for their website. About a decade ago it became apparent that the world of marketing and advertising needed an overhaul. Recognizing a shift was taking place in how people used technology the online search directories stated listing businesses and website information. As the trends in marketing continued to change a number of marketing professionals saw the need to change their approach to advertising or be swept away into history.

With the changes that continue to be made to improve the placement of a website in the SERPS (search engine results pages) consumers have adopted Internet marketing strategies to help them increase their online sales. Noticing that they could select a series of keywords that coincided to the parameters of an online search, the targeting of specific buyers has become the new model for advertising agents to follow. A directly opposite approach to the broad reaching shotgun method of mass marketing, keyword optimized website marketing works like a laser beam to pinpoint the ideal consumer and target the advertising messages of SEO work directly. Identifying individuals that are ready, willing and able to make a purchase; at the exact moment that they find a product or service that they want keyword targeted marketing strategies have improved the sales revenue of many online organizations.

This laser beam approach to marketing identifies a specific group of people by honing in on their interests instead of generalizing an online campaign. By focusing on the ideal consumer profile instead of blasting a large audience with commercial messages, businesses that are laser guiding their marketing efforts are seeing an increase in their sales from a smaller marketing budget. Returning hundreds of times more revenue than the investment costs an advertiser the Internet has become the place for businesses to position their brand and market their merchandise with laser fine accuracy and some amazing results.

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