Some Marketers Just Don't Get It

Ok, I will jump right in and say it.

Advertising is dead. Or nearly so.

Certainly, in the world of e-commerce, I would go so far and be so brave as to say that nearly any money spent on advertising is wasted money. Yes, it can create some awareness. It seldom creates direct sales.

There. I said it.

Look, in days gone by, people bought ads. Ads were designed to draw attention. The attention was drawn away from something the buyer wanted to do (watch a tv show, read news, etc) and presented the potential buyer with a sales message. This is interruptive. People simply don't want to hear a message that is shoved in their face while they are trying to pay attention to something else.

Again, those of you who know me know that I state that this is like shoving a hook into a fish's mouth and trying to make it bite. This does not work with fish. It does not work with people.

People have really come to associate advertising, any advertising, with spam - unwanted messages from someone they don't know and most likely don't wish to know.

In a manner of speaking, the Internet has destroyed the effectiveness of advertising. The Internet is content. People go to the Internet to get that content. They want free content. Listen and see if you can see the sense in what I am saying here.

Inexperienced marketers make the mistake of trying to CREATE interest in a product through advertising. This will never work. Ever. If I am in a hardware store shopping for a hammer, and someone shoves a flyer in my hand detailing all the benefits of using a screwdriver, I will ignore it. I will trash it. More importantly, I will resent the intrusion. You cannot CREATE interest. In this case, I want a hammer, not a stupid screwdriver.

However, if I am looking for that hammer, and some older dude at the end of the aisle starts telling me about the benefits of a new cutting edge type of hammer, and all that it did for him, I will be very interested. That, in a few sentences, is the primary difference between the Internet and traditional advertising.

People who are searching the Internet, googling about for this or that, are there because they are ALREADY interested. There is no need whatsoever to engage in a futile attempt to CREATE interest, or to try to get them to change their mind about what might hold interest for them. This is a waste of time and money. Yes, some people will look - about 1/2 of 1%, on the average. Is this effective? No. Is this expensive? Yes. Advertising is a component of marketing that is expensive and produces few results.

As a member of the Internet community, if I want a hammer, the first thing I will do is google the word 'hammer'. I am interested in hammers. What I have just done is SEARCHED. Next, I will be presented with a list of sites that contain content having to do with hammers. Now, I have moved from SEARCHING to BROWSING.

Therefore, if you are selling hammers on the Internet (and assuming that people are searching for hammers on the Internet), the key to success now is to create the impression that YOU are the leading expert in the field of say, hammers. How is this accomplished? Informative content. This is why informative websites work. This is why blogs work. This is why social sites work. Content is king.

Most likely I will ignore the hammer ads for now, however, because I know these people are attempting to sell me a hammer now. I am not ready to buy a hammer . . . yet. I want to know what is available, I want to know my choices, I want to know the cost and I want to know what others think about the different types of hammers available. I am browsing for informative content.

Others will be posting what they think. I will explore the advice they give. Now, we come to the good part . . .

All successful marketers know that the number one, all time winner in the results race is relational based marketing - word of mouth. You tell a friend about something you like. That friend tells his/her friends. Referrals are pre-sold gold to the marketer. Relation based marketing works like nothing else ever has, or ever will. It's money in the bank. If one friend tells another that you know what you're talking about, and that you provide good informative content, friend number two is gonna show up, guaranteed.

Notice that I said 'good content'. Not 'good sales pitch'.

Advertising is akin to shoving a hook into a fish's mouth. Publicity is akin to dropping a bait and wiggling it. If hungry, the fish will bite.

Relational marketing, on the other hand is one hungry fish looking at another hungry fish and saying to it's friends 'pssst . . . . come over here. This is really good!"

This is why it works so well. This is why it works better than any other strategy. This is why those who keep this in mind at all times are successful, regardless of the product or service they might be hoping to market. If you can impress others with your knowledge, and they in turn tell their friends or associates, they will come in droves. Learn how to create relationships like this and you simply cannot fail. They psychology of this has been proven time and time again. Give people what they want and they will tell their friends. No blatant advertising method can provide this. This is no comparison between the two.

So how do you get other people to tell other people? This is what I'll be covering over the coming posts - word of mouth marketing on steroids.

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