Marketing is an important part of making any business a success. Creating a brand is just as important as selling your product. And in fact, once you have created a brand that people trust and recognize, it leads to more and more people using your product. Marketing is a constantly changing business however, because companies have to adapt to the changing needs of their target demographics. What started as criers shouting the benefits of a product, has developed from ads on the radio, in newspapers, and television, to online campaigns and people working full time to take charge of them.
The Power of the Internet
The internet is an amazing force in today’s society. You can post a video one second, and in hours it has gone viral. You can spread news in minutes, or generate a widespread rumor, just by a few clicks of a button. Over 900 million people are now users of the social networking site Facebook, and YouTube has over 800 million unique users every month (via Youtube). There is no longer any other medium through which you can get such exposure. Even television and movies are now being placed online for streaming or purchase.
A New Form of Marketing
Marketing would not be marketing if it did not reflect this change. If you want to create a real brand that people know and recognize, it is not going to work if it is something that they have to fight to see. You have to give it to them through the media that they most commonly use. But the only problem with online or “cloud” marketing, is that it is difficult to measure. Maybe something that you post will go “viral” but what does that really mean? In an effort to move away from vague terms like this one, some websites started installing hit counters. People started developing analytic software and recently, marketing cloud software has changed the way that people view online marketing. Once seen as a way to get your word “out there” with indefinite results, it is now the best way to see the exact consequences of a marketing campaign. Through a marketing cloud, the concept of “going viral” is supported by exact facts and figures.
Tap into it Now
But there are still a surprising amount of companies who do not take advantage of this huge section of the marketing world. How many times do you see a huge brand name on television, but who has virtually no presence online? It can be hard for some companies who have been around for years to accept that they may have to change the way that they operate communication with their consumers. But we also see some huge companies with old reputations embracing digital marketing in way that is unmatched by their competitors.
Look at it this way, millions of people watch television each day, but hundreds of millions of people surf the internet each day. Although you must allow for the nuances of your target demographic, with over half of the US population online today, it is a safe bet that most demographics have at least some kind of online presence. It is there, and waiting to be tapped into. And now it is the best way to accurately measure your results.
About the Author: This article was written by Jared Jaureguy. Follow him on Twitter @JaredJaureguy.
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