Advertisers are now in charge

The traditional advertising model has relied on a few powerful broadcasters delivering their product (TV, radio, press etc) to the public for free (or close

to it) then charging companies a fee to advertise to this audience. And for a long time it has worked. Mass media was the easiest and most cost-effective way to reach a broad audience with your business’ message.

Then things started to change. The mass media has fragmented over the last 20 years. More magazines, more television channels, more radio choices and then the internet. No wonder so many advertisers are starting to question where they should place their marketing dollars.

The ever increasing speed of the internet is the final straw. Suddenly traditional media is being delivered online and the consumer is spending less time reading newspapers, listening to local radio and reading actual newspapers. Suddenly advertisers are in a real quandary about how to market themselves.

But the fact is, this changing media landscape is good news. The low cost of production, the massive migration to online media consumption and the creation of a “search economy” means that advertisers are now in charge.

Its just that they need to re-frame their thinking.

Advertising is all about outbound. Interruptive messages that try to vie for the consumers attention while they are doing something else (watch a TV show, listen to music, read news). Its a shotgun effect, where advertisers hope to hit enough targets to make the advertising worthwhile.

The new paradigm is Inbound Marketing. Its about being in the right place when consumers are looking for something, giving them the information they need and converting them into customers.

Inbound isn’t interruptive, its helpful. Inbound isn’t like a shotgun, its like a magnet drawing in only the most qualified prospects. Inbound doesn’t require constant reloading of the budget, its long-lasting and extremely cost-effective.

Inbound turns advertisers into marketers.

And the good news is that Inbound Marketing can level the playing field, allowing smaller marketers to compete with larger competitors.

Here’s how Inbound Marketing works:

• A consumer decides they wish to buy a widget.

• Consumer uses a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing to search for widgets from their PC, laptop, phone or netbook.

• Finding a large range of widget retailers around the world, the consumer refines their search to suit their chosen criteria (geography, price, models etc)

• The consumer scans search results for most relevant listing, usually from the first page of results.

• The consumer clicks through to relevant information and gets more details about the widgets on offer

• If that website is properly designed for sales or inquiry conversion, the consumer proceeds to make the purchase, make an inquiry or phone or visit the business and becomes a customer

Its that simple.

The keys are:

1. Your business must be able to be found on the first page of relevant searches,
2. You must provide the consumer with relevant & helpful information, and
3. You must have strategies in place to convert the consumer into a sale or inquiry.

Do this and its win – win all round.

Next steps to becoming an Inbound Marketer:

Find out how your website rates as an Inbound Marketing resource

Discover how many people are searching online for your services each month