The Online marketing scene keeps on changing at a very fast pace and every year we have new trends emerging unlike the traditional form of marketing where more than the trend it was the strategies which had to be kept on changing.The emerging online marketing trends are due to the technological changes and the improvements in the internet services which have reached even to the remote and not so developed places .
As the year end approaches we keep on hearing that one form of marketing is a passé and some new form of marketing shall rule the roost in the forthcoming year. We have heard statements like Banner Ads. Are Dead, Email is Dead, SEO is Dead in the past years but inspite of all these claims we still see that these banner ads., email and SEO are still very much alive along with the fast emerging trends like social media.
So, when you have more no. of options available the right attitude, is to make the most of all that you are offered and wisely decide which method of marketing is more suitable for the kind of product or service your company offers.
Every form of marketing has got its strengths and weaknesses and the wise thing is to select a right mix for the best way to promote your product and protect your brand image.
The main challenge lies in integrating all types of media and working out a right strategy based on the location, mindset and the product or service concerned.
All marketing campaigns, are people centric hence the people you want to reach out are the focus of any marketing campaign .
Identify which age group you want to cater to , on which sites is this group available online, work out a strategy to have the right approach, reach out to offer help and information, keep a watchful eye and ear on any negative word of mouth being generated by any social media so that you can make amends or clarify your stand accordingly. In order to do all this it is essential to be at the right place at the right time 24 X 7 X 365.
With social media becoming the main tool for communication and PR Customer Service is the new form of marketing. Right from the stage of enquiry to the stage when the enquiry gets converted to a valuable customer, the attention and service he/she gets can itself be a marketing campaign which is running subtly in the background.
The immediate response , attention, information the enquiry gets gives the impression about how serious and professional your team is and you never know he might be tweeting every experience on twitter or sharing it on facebook with his friends and relatives. Mind you these followers , friends and relatives could be your potential customers. Social media has magnified the reach and influence so when you are having one person having a good word about your brand there are so many others out there in the virtual world gathering impressions about your brand.
The very thought the social media word may reach out to exponential numbers should not make it sound that it makes the brand vulnerable to competition attacks and a bad WOM generated by maybe some psychic and irate customer. Hence it is essential to monitor the buzz around your brand to keep yourself aware of it so that the eventual control is in your hand and you can gear the complaint conversations to fruitful discussions and positive mindsets to keep up the online reputation of your brand.
In one of my earlier jobs in a reputed computer training institute one of the newly enrolled student had a bad experience and had sent me an email sending the details and I had to clarify the whole situation and make her start attending class again and it was done. But the media used here was email so the conversation and clarifications were limited to both of us and of course the team in the organization. Today, this very experience will be shared by such a student on twitter, facebook and maybe her blog also. So you can realize and calculate the damage that social media can have on your brand image if you lack a social media presence.
Well all said and done I do not think that any word written above is new to any person involved in marketing. The only thing which is new and has to be taken into consideration is the large number of people you can reach out with just one click which again has a possibility of exponential reach due to the viral nature of this media. Every media has its pros and cons integrate the various media for the optimum reach , influence and benefit.
