Who’s Afraid of Online Marketing?


In the spirit of the Halloween season I started thinking about scary things like spiders, thunderstorms, ghouls, vampires and online marketing. What’s that you say? Online Marketing? Yes, dear readers, the fear of online marketing is real. In my nine plus years of working in this industry, I’ve seen my fair share of nervousness and hesitation when it comes to putting your company out there on the Web. With the seemingly daily changes in Internet technology (think Google algorithms, Web 2.0, Wikipedia and other terms that almost require a translator to understand!), how could it not be scary to put your money, effort and good name into online marketing? Add to that a resistance within your company – potentially from upper management or your IT department – and you’re on your way to a full-blown phobia. So what’s a marketer to do?

So for my Halloween blog post, I’m going to play the role of web marketing therapist helping us all face our common online marketing fears and providing a few tips on how to overcome them (or at least make them a little less scary).

Social Media ≠ Scary Media

At the top of my current list of common online marketing fears is Social Media. Why do I keep writing about social media? Because very few of you in the average business community are doing it – what are you afraid of? You ought to be taking part in your virtual community, and what’s more, I believe there will come a time when your customers and clients will come to expect your presence in a social media community.

Are you having issues with consumer generated content (CGC) like comments to blog postings or product reviews or faux sites or other content created by customers/clients? Do you fear putting your headshot on a Facebook profile will ruin your image? Having trouble setting up your site with RSS feeds (or even knowing what they are or why to use them)? Is the challenge of making your own video to post on YouTube or developing a podcast to distribute daunting you? Do you only want to think of your mobile device as a phone and not for any kind of marketing or ad campaign?

If you believe that a company must always control their message then no wonder social media gives you the heebie-jeebies. In this day and age, it’s not going to work to be a control freak. Social media dictates that the message must be fluid, organic, and part of a collective voice. But what’s even scarier than giving up a little messaging control, is putting it completely into someone else’s hands. Everyone online has a say and an easy way of making it public. To that end, right now someone is probably talking about your company – on a personal a blog, on their MySpace page, on a consumer advocate site like www.consumerist.com, on a listserv, on a comment/feedback posting. Whether positive or negative, you’re probably already part of the social media community whether you participate or not. When viewed that way, engaging with your audience and being an active voice in your community is a huge benefit to your company’s online visibility and, more importantly, in managing its reputation. Social media participation can be a proactive way of letting your audience know who you are and what you stand for.

If it’s production costs you’re worried about, there are plenty of relatively easy and FREE ways to engage with social media audiences: set-up a blog (Blogger, WordPress ), a photosharing account (Flickr, Shutterfly), add a comment to your favorite blog, start sharing your favorite sites, bookmarks or news stories by using StumbleUpon, de.licio.us or Digg or set up a Facebook or MySpace account.

Or start simple: take a deep breath, go ahead and put that profile on LinkedIn. You really CAN do it!!

Creepy Cooperation

No matter where I go or who I seem to talk to, almost everyone on any side of a Web marketing story has departmental cooperation issues. The sales team wants to ecommerce enable their web site and doesn’t understand why a switch can’t be flipped to make it so; the marketing department wants a customized landing page with a form on their web site but hasn’t thought through the building and data collection issues; the advertiser wants to run their ad on a dozen web sites and doesn’t accept the fact that not all sites accept the exact same size and format of ad so they’ll have to pay for reformatting changes; the CEO wants “simple changes” to their site that really take months and considerable resources to do; the IT department has to juggle networking and PC problems along with web implementation and doesn’t feel Marketing’s request should take precedence. The list goes on and on.

It’s not that all of these parties are intentionally trying to be uncooperative. Oftentimes, it boils down to mediocre communication skills, a lack of understanding of implementing the request and poor advanced planning. In a typical business culture where everyone is expected to “get it,” admitting one’s ignorance isn’t easy.

If departmental disconnects come in part from a fear of not “getting it,” then it’s important that we are open to asking questions, being alright with being wrong, and seeking advice from trusted advisers who can steer us in the right direction and help us make informed decisions. Working together with each department as a team and making sure that everyone on that team understands and agrees on the objectives of the campaign, the reasoning behind the tactics, and the anticipated results, is a good start towards an effective, collaborative, Web/IT/marketing strategy.

BOO! You Need to Spend Money Marketing Online!

According to most of the latest marketing surveys and analyst forecasts marketing budgets are moving from traditional tactics to online ones, yet there is still an enormous reluctance, particularly on the part of traditional businesses, to “take the plunge.” Why is this? Think about what your typical customer does most of his day. If it at all involves using a computer, chances are pretty strong that he’s also using email, search engines and the Internet in general. So is spending money on search engine optimization or pay-per-click keyword campaigns, email marketing or banners ads rather than on direct mail pieces, newspaper ads, or radio spots seem like a scary nightmare?

What might be scarier is that you’re missing an important way to reach your market. Your customers are online morning, noon, and night. They’re getting their news and their sports scores, they’re researching products and vendors, they’re shopping, and they’re engaging throughout the entire Internet. If you’re not marketing online (or if your web site’s not very well done), you may in fact, alienate prospects that might otherwise expect you to be promoting yourself online better. Studies have shown that search engine users believe that the top ranked companies on search engine results pages are also the leaders within their industries. And to further alleviate your fears, online marketing tactics also happen to offer some of the highest ROI and ROAS when compared with traditional tactics. It’s frightfully easy to track online campaigns so you could tell, for instance, that a pay-per-click advertising lead could cost you as little as 70 cents. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all advertising channels could boast that you’ll always know where and how your advertising dollars are being spent?

A Chilling Final Thought

I hope I’ve eased some of your fears about online marketing. I promise -- it’s not as daunting as it all may seem sometimes. But there’s one final thing I’m afraid of as Halloween approaches: the endless cornucopia of candy at the office! Computer stations fill with Twix crumbs and keyboards become sticky with caramels, waistline expansion is inevitable with diets everywhere a-crumble, and executive decisions are fueled by mini Snickers binges. The list of atrocities goes on and on. Be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

Happy Halloween!

Labels: online marketing

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