… Don’t Get Left Behind Online
The online marketing landscape is rapidly shifting to consumers who are less loyal to big name brands. Disruptive technologies (like comparison quote or booking engines, itinerary and packaging tools) and compelling online marketing with easy and entertaining messages are luring them away and focusing their attention on trying something new. The new shift is to what consumers want: CONTROL.
As we have stated in articles on Web 2.0 and Social Networking trends, consumers and online buyers are becoming increasingly accustomed to freely choosing from many different channels of information before they buy. They choose what is relevant to them. They decide what content is credible. They “pick and choose” tidbits of information that will shape and influence their buying decisions.
Online travel marketing is and will continue to be greatly affected by this shift. Online buyers want a fast-paced, easy to navigate web experience filled with consumer generated content, third-party opinions and relevant facts. Buyers will react to online marketing that uses this approach. If marketers deliver their messages with relevant content and compelling quick-action experiences, their conversion results will be higher.
As traditional agencies continue to scramble to understand the new media environment, it is shifting yet again. This current shift is yet another wake-up call to traditional agencies that are trying to develop online marketing and media using “old school” strategy. Online web development firms are being left in the dust if they don’t understand this new consumer mindset and the consumer experience both on the web site and in the marketing and media interaction.
Online marketers must continue to develop the Big Ideas, the Big Concepts and the Big Results online to stay in front of the shift and to help shape the next big wave of change.
As digital thought leaders in the industry, we offer the following recommendations to ride the shift that is taking place.
Online Marketing Best Practices for 2008
1) Give the online buyer control and transparency
2) Make their experience quick, easy and FUN
3) Make their experience personal and relevant
4) Target your marketing and media messages with pinpoint accuracy
5) Embrace Web 2.0 and Social Networking in your web site, your marketing and your media programs, and approach all media as one aligned program
6) Move faster and smarter and take the lead. Don’t wait to test something to death. Your competitors will be out in front and you will quickly be old news.
7) Be Quick, Be Bright and Be Gone. Get to the point with your web content, marketing and media messaging. Forgo long copy and flowery descriptions.
8) Simplify technology to keep it relevant. Bells and whistles are old school.
9) Teach online buyers about your brand. Don’t assume they already know.
Summary
Online marketing will grow to a $60 Billion industry in the next 5 years. Are you tracking with increased goals and results? Do you have the staff, the consultants, and the strategies to not just “keep up” but run ahead of the pack of competitors?
Knowing how to maneuver through this current shift is important. The newest online landscape may well be littered with the bodies of “old schoolers” as many companies and organizations will never catch up. The good news is the Internet and digital marketing are still powerful tools that are nimble and able to fine tune and rapidly adjust to changing consumer behavior and market conditions. Combined in equal parts with traditional media and PR, online marketing adds a powerful energy that can lead the next wave of change.
copyright 2008 Leah Woolford. All Rights Reserved.