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How to Leverage Web-based Technologies for Creative Online Advertising and Marketing

How to Leverage Web-based Technologies for Creative Online Advertising and Marketing

By Y. Li and D.M. Hicks

The market competition for professionals and small-medium size enterprises (SMEs) today is more intense than ever before. Attorneys, accountants, consultants, real estate agents, independent sales reps, and other sole proprietors are constantly looking for creative, cost-effective ways to reach their target audience and capture new business. In a similar manner, SMEs are searching for ways to "do more with less". Whereas competition came from other local or regional individuals and companies in the past, today competition is global. The challenge is to differentiate one's product or service offering from the competition and to do so using the fastest, least costly, and highest impact methods possible.

Challenges for Professionals and SMEs in Effective Marketing

Established businesses as well as start-ups struggle with some of the same marketing challenges:

* Insufficient budget for print or online advertising to reach a large number of prospective customers.

* Difficulty in getting noticed or mentioned in reviews of top products and services.

* Inability to get media coverage through distribution of news releases to magazines, newspapers, and websites with high readership.

* Limited name recognition and market penetration mean limited opportunities for friends, family, and satisfied customers to provide regular referrals.

Luckily, the advancement and proliferation of web-based technologies have created new opportunities for cost-effective marketing that "level the playing field for individuals and SMEs." It doesn't take much to "get in the game". For a nominal investment in time and money, a company can register a web domain, develop a professional website with informative content, and offer a simple way to contact the company via the web with an inquiry. In some instances, it may even make sense to offer visitors to a website the option of purchasing products or services online.

The key to effective marketing is to have your product or service in a prospective customer's mind or view when they need the help. In other words, a company must be able to deliver on-demand marketing. Otherwise, prospects, which have seen a company's ads a while ago, might not even be able to remember the company or how to find it.

Opportunities Brought by the Web

The Internet has brought numerous benefits to marketing including:

* Low costs in distributing information and media.

* Access to a global audience.

* Interactive nature of internet media.

* Ability for instant response.

However, traditional Internet marketing tactics have distinct limitations.

Limitations of Traditional E-Marketing

There are various "push" and "pull" Internet marketing tactics, which have limited effectiveness.

* Sending emails, electronic newsletters, and e-zines: These maintain the connection with existing customers, but have the potential of being categorized as spam. Another disadvantage: these do not increase a company's customer base.

* Creating a website: A website can be a good source of information to customers, however a company must still promote its website to customers and prospects in order to drive traffic to the web.

* Blogging: This is similar to creating and maintaining a website, but has the major benefit of easily adding new content and postings without programming or system administration skills.

None of these tactics offer true, on-demand marketing to prospects and customers.

On-Demand Marketing with Web-based Methods

Beyond the above-mentioned tactics, there are some additional steps that professionals and SMEs can take to communicate key marketing messages:

* Search engine optimization (SEO): This helps to improve the ranking of one's website in search engine results. Without the in-house expertise, one may need to use a SEO company for assistance. Regardless of a company's approach, certain challenges remain: [1] cost; [2] algorithms that search engines use to rank results change over time; [3] need to listed in the first 2 or 3 search result pages; [4] keywords or phrases must quickly lead users to the target website.

* Discussion forums: These offer a platform with which customers' questions can be answered directly. Once again, certain challenges remain: [1] advertising messages are often prohibited in forums; [2] quality of forum questions and answers is generally low, so the probability of answers being read repeatedly is relatively small. [3] many similar questions; [4] search is not effective. It is on-demand, but it is difficult to find desired Q&A.

* Wiki: This is a collaborative platform that enables the creation of high quality content. Challenges: [1] limitations to directly place online ads for contributions; [2] restrictions of some Wiki sites to freely ask questions; [3] usually does not have effective and efficient search for a large site with user freely asked questions and answers.

The Ideal On-Demand, Web-based Marketing Platform

Today, there is an innovative, web-based platform that allows users to display knowledge and expertise in specific subject matter and at the same time, generates on-line marketing. Such a platform offers numerous advantages over traditional Internet marketing:

* Interactive: Users are involved in asking questions and discussions so that knowledge and information directly targets potential customers.

* Directed: Allows direct advertising opportunities for knowledge contributions. Otherwise, why take the time and effort to make a contribution?

* High quality: Content evolves, can be improved over time, and be reused later by other users. The quality and usefulness of the content is what attracts users and repeat visits.

* Effective: Optimized search is the key of the system for users to quickly find the desired information or answer, reduce redundant questions, and improve the overall quality of the content.

* Flexible: Provide the capability for users to build community to focus on a subset of information or questions so that the interaction of the communication can be more effective.

* Innovative: Older, established Wiki sites may have a user base and content, but there might already be many competitors vying for exposure and visibility. A new, innovative system provides fresh opportunities and chances to differentiate a product or service from the "rest of the pack."

For On-Demand Marketing, one shares expertise and knowledge to answer the questions of potential customers in return for the opportunity to advertise a product or service. The investment is one's time spent to demonstrate this expertise and knowledge through on-line contributions of questions and answers. The benefits to contributors and therefore to professionals and SMEs are significant:

* No payment - advertisement is one's reward for a contribution.

* Permanent - earned free advertisement position is permanent.

* Targeted - the advertisement directly targets the users seeking help in a particular category and domain of expertise.

* Effective - one's contribution demonstrates expertise and one's caring for customers, readers, and fellow contributors.

In conclusion, an effective advertising and marketing program for professionals and SMEs consists of various coordinated elements. One needs to evaluate business needs and search for the best and most creative web-based on-demand marketing opportunities to "do more with less".

The authors are members of the management team for Wisteme, an innovative, web-based platform for knowledge sharing/management and on-demand marketing. Go to www.wisteme.com to learn more and to sign up. Contact ycl@wisteme.com for more details.