Where's Your Digital Answer?
I told my mother the other day, of a recent stat that I came across that said that in all of 2005, online purchases totaled approximately $175 billion, which was up a massive 22% over 2004. She didn't believe me. She isn't one of "those" people. She liked getting into her car and going to the mall to shop. She's hesitant...actually scared to shop online, but she's getting to be part of the minority.
Well even if you're not shopping, or the people around you aren't...there are millions who are and they are looking for product to spend on!
How do you target these fine spenders? I ask myself that question all the time. With a limited budget, I try to get the word out about snazzygirl.com on a regular basis, with a marketing cocktail of search marketing, web advertising (blog and site) and affiliate marketing. I do the same for my larger clients who have real advertising budgets. The mix is the same, the money is different.
The pace, in which both ecommerce and online marketing is going to grow, is fast and furious and not likely to stop over the next decade. But to convince traditional companies, that market on television, buses, billboards and in newspapers and magazines that they need to try this new Internet thing out, is sometimes a very difficult sell. Which is curious because I can track (in most cases) online advertising right down to the sale. But what can one say about a billboard...or an overpriced ad on the side of a bus? One might be able to do some expensive focus group research on identity, but that wouldn't track a real sale.
I'm not saying that traditional marketing and advertising is dead, all I'm saying is, add digital to the mix for increased and trackable success.
Additionally, consumers use the Internet as a research tool when investigating a new product, even if they don't or can't buy it online. And according to statistics, it influences more than 25% of retail sales.
It's not just email marketing, it's not just online ads, its one media with several channels. An effective two-punch to add to any campaign and its part of "marketing and advertising" in general for any company. It's not something separate and these divisions need to work together on a multichannel platformed approach that is consistant with the brand.
Call it convergence, call it integration. I call it, needed.
