Permission Marketing

British Companies are spending £18 Billion on their marketing advertising campaigns, finding ever more ingenious ways to reach the increasingly savvy British consumer. Are they wasting their money? Their marketing campaign’s are less effective than ever with the average consumer turning to the internet and major search engines to find their wants and needs.

As more and more consumers turn to the internet and the addition of googling into the dictionary it’s only a matter of time before the leaders of our companies realise they have to increase their effectiveness and lower their cost per aquisition ( marketing speak for customer).  Internet Marketing has become a huge industry worth 100’s of billions of dollars and even in this economic downturn it continues to grow! There’s a message there!

Last week, Maurice Levy – CEO of Publicis – which owns Leo Burnett and Saatchi & Saatchi – admitted that search engines can deliver more results than a formidable advertising campaign.

Major search engines control the internet traffic and with the monumental rise in PPC Marketing (pay per click marketing) it’s easier than ever to place a small text based add that is triggered by a pre-determined keyword or keyword phrase. Clicking on the advert takes the consumer to predetermined website adresses that can even be tailored to suite the ad and the keyword that triggered it ( in fact the major search engines are starting to demand that they do, its called KEYWORD RELEVANCE).

These ads can be customised to target specific locations, specific times of day and even specific demographics! No longer is the advertiser hoping his add will be seen by enough eyeballs to trigger an action to buy. The Advertiser is placing his advert right in front of consumers that have already raised thier hands and pre-qualified themselves!. This is huge!

Our companies are looking to giant media corporations and advertising moguls to lead them through this change, however why would marketing companies want anything to change? Huge sums of money and fat inflated bonus’s have become part of the deal, its been that way forever!.

It started quitely, you spot an ad that looks enticing and 1 click later your staring at a web page and if the advertiser is smart it’s an offer!  A small ethical bribe to seal the deal and there it was! You give your email address and maybe your name and in return you are sent a freebie, just like that!. You have just placed yourself into someone’s sales funnel! It’s like magic!

Permission Marketing

If the advertiser has done his job right, the advert, website and the offer are all congruent and the content of the subsequent offer provides value, you as a consumer feel happy and content with the deal. Here is only the start of the sales funnel! The canny advertiser has captured your details and now has your permission to send you further offers it’s email marketing done correctly, and why wouldn’t you be interested? A great deal delivered into your Inbox is still a great deal! the difference being that this advertiser has the opportunity to build some trust, a short series of emails delivered to allow you to get to know the company, their products, services and effectively brand themselves. As they say People buy from those they Know Like & Trust.

Every business needs to know, especially in the current climate, that effective marketing campaigns delivering customers, branding their image products or services, building loyalty and trust is going to be the single dividing factor that will seperate the winners from the losers. It’s time to embrace the customer, find out what they are thinking, cater to their wants and become Great, as they say Serving the many leads to Greatness.

Mark Taylor aka  The Marketing General