There’s no such thing as Internet Marketing really!
Well that’s a thought provoking title for a blog post, especially on a website about Internet Marketing, so let me explain.
The internet doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it is part of our everyday lives. It exists in and among all the other things in our life like our work, family, hobbies and interests, the places we go and the list goes on.
And of course, when it comes to the buying habits of our customers, there are some things they will simply never buy online before they’ve seen the product with their own eyes – many people still feel this way about shoes and clothes for example.
So, what’s the point I’m trying to make here? The point is don’t forget that internet marketing is not the be all and end all – it is only part of your overall marketing strategy. The key is to take a multi-channel approach.
There are very few companies that only trade and market themselves purely online. In recent years, even Google, EBay and Amazon have used TV advertising for example. Admittedly, I don’t expect any of these companies to start opening physical stores, but they have at least recognised that the world is bigger than just the internet.
What many companies get wrong is to think that if they can’t get an online sale straight away, they have failed. But the internet can be used at any stage in the selling process, such as getting people to agree to a trial of your product, or reserving a product to pick up in-store. Take a look at this blog post on multi-channel marketing, which explains it better than I ever could.
The likes of Dixons and Debenhams have been finding outright web sales difficult to come by lately, but instead they have intelligently focused on using the web to drive offline sales instead, taking a true multi-channel marketing approach.
So, if you’re involved in internet marketing for your business you’re right to do so. The internet as a business tool is here to stay. But don’t forget that there’s a world outside the internet, and you shouldn’t think about online and offline marketing as being completely distinct.