Perception of Online Marketing

I attend so many seminars, meets, discussions and always up for gyaan on marketing and sales (as I have to sell my products and services). People talk a lot about their marketing strategies, how they got their first client, how startups should approach the market with their products or services, etc etc. And believe me, in all these talks and gyaanbaazi, there is a common or you can say a buzz word “Online Marketing”.

Business owners, Entrepreneurs, Startups, Consultants and many more, folks know Online Marketing and importance of the same. So when I go out and see, there is sufficient knowledge of the field and people know that this is important, question arises – Why such haphazard way of doing this? Some say I am doing organic, some say social media is good, some say Inbound is the key, some say I generate leads through E mail Marketing. Why don’t we accept Online Marketing as a whole? Why are they stuck with a part of Online Marketing?

Go out and you will find billions of Blogs, article and pata nahin kya kya to teach you about Online Marketing. Why don’t they teach you about traditional Marketing? Why don’t they teach you about OOH Media Marketing, TVCs, Print Media, etc? In traditional marketing, there is no point to measure the marketing effort so there is no gyaan about that. You just spend your money and wait for the results. Sometime I seriously doubt whether these hardcore marketing people know what they are expecting from their traditional Marketing expenditures.

So back to our main focus, why we can’t accept Online Marketing as a whole? My views on the same (You are resident of a free nation, if you disagree, please raise your voice – Happy to answer):

What is the prime focus of Online Presence? There are 3 prime motives to go online

a)      Only for information. You create your website with content about your services/products so that people come to know about it.

b)      For Branding Purpose. You want to create your brand through online channels also. You are doing some charity, doing seminars, doing promotional events for your brand, you push it on web.

c)       For Revenue Generation. You have an online business or e commerce portal which creates revenue for you. You are selling products/services from your portal.

Now, whatever be your purpose to go online, you are doing something non tangible, or, I can say you are selling something virtual. Question is why should someone buy a virtual thing or visit a virtual world? Especially in India, people want to see the product, want to feel it and sometimes want to use it also before purchasing it. So what actually are you selling there?

Being into Online Marketing and Web Analytics Industry in the last 14 months, we at Lathesis, drilled down to some conclusions or tried to solve the mystery of Online Marketing. In the digital world, no one is selling their product or service and no client or consumer come to your site to make any purchase.You are selling your credibility, honesty, faithfulness and integrity. You are selling your WHOLENESS.

Now how can you show your clients or consumers that you are honest, credible and faithful to them? Simple answer, by exchanging words with them, communicating with them and answering their questions. Being in online world, you can do this thing very easily. Through Social media, people can directly interact with their prospects, through Blogs they can share their views, through forums you can ask the views or feedbacks from your prospects or consumers/clients. In the digital world, create your credibility first so that people should say Yeh Banda BechRaha hai toh sahi hoga (if this person or brand is selling something, it must be genuine). Show them your honesty and your loyalty towards your consumers or clients.

The primary objective of any kind of marketing is to create a relationship with the customers and through traditional marketing you never communicate; you only tell what you are. Whereas In the Digital Marketing, it is very easy to share your views.

So, before deciding on any kind of marketing or planning any kind of investment to market your product/service, do think again. Ask a simple question to yourself, What’s the right way of marketing, making our consumers hear us, or hearing them and helping them? Online Marketing is not a Mystery. It is also a type of marketing. Don’t even compare cost incurred in traditional versus digital – there is no comparison. And Believe me it makes your life even more easy.

Kunal Chaturvedi

www.lathesis.com