Technical Marketing™
Ahh…the old ways of marketing…it feels like just yesterday all you had to do was put a sign on your door, pay for a listing in the phonebook, and maybe take out an ad in an industry magazine. Getting your message out as loud as you can was the primary goal.
Today’s marketing is now much more about listening to the massive sea of information, some readily available, and some to be at our fingertips with analytics software.
The internet has revolutionized the way we do business. E-commerce sales have already taken up over 20% of all retail sales, and its rapid growth hasn’t slowed down. Along the way, in a relatively short amount of time, the available toolbox to market a business online has grown and the strategies have gotten much more complex—so complex that some of it might seem outright mysterious. However, rest assured, there’s much less mystery to marketing than ever before.
One of the most exciting developments since the days of the yellow pages is the availability of real-time data and feedback on your marketing efforts. Marketing is no longer as much about guesstimating, setting a target, and throwing all your forces in that direction. It’s now much more about coordinated data-driven approaches and real time analyzing of efforts while making decisions quickly and effectively. Equipped with data from analytics, SEO, and advertising metrics, you can fine tune your marketing strategies and adapt to your target audience, preferably automated and in an instant.
That’s the new and exciting world of marketing. However, along with these amazing benefits, there are some important considerations.
Along with all this complexity, even great marketing knowledge itself isn’t enough to run efficient marketing campaigns. Technology has become an inseparable part of it all. Plus, it’s a jungle out there! Options abound, it’s crucial to pick and develop smart systems that are tailored just for you and your business. How does one make these decisions and handle the required complexity?
Moreover, doing business online touches and changes so many aspects of a traditional commerce business, your added online outreach might look more like taking on a whole other business to run. Where would a small business find the people, time, and know-how to dedicate to this kind of expansion?
Whether you decide to learn and do it all yourself or hire professional help, knowledge is power here. Otherwise, you can’t really carefully ponder those important questions and make your next crucial decisions effectively. Without some very basic understanding of what’s involved and the road ahead it’s almost certain you’ll burn valuable resources, waste money, hire the wrong help, and not reach your goals around your online presence. It can’t be overstated how important it is for any business reaching for online marketing to understand at least some very basic principles of what it takes to succeed online. Below are a few of those: