As a good blog post should, Alan's views got me thinking about how a similar comparison can be drawn between 'traditional' marketing communications that are adapted to work online and marketing communications that are specifically created to work in a digital environment.
Like the kind of marketing Belniak refers to in his post, proper eMarketing is so much more than having a website and driving people to it via email, search and online ads. In fact, there are a number of distinct differences so, inspired by aforementioned post, I thought I'd draw up a little comparison table of my own:
| If you adapt 'traditional' communications... | If you create distinct digital communications... |
| You broadcast the messages that are important to you out to the world, hoping someone sees them and agrees with you | You listen to your customers and prospects and, crucially, talk to them about the things they care about (example: Freya Lingerie on Facebook). |
| You create emails that show customers everything you've got to sell - even if most of that's totally irrelevant to them | You segment your database and only give people information they've asked for (example: Sears) |
| Your website is disconnected from any other sites you appear on | Your website is tied into your social networks, 3rd party sites and email broadcasts (example: Supercuts UK) |
| You spend a lot of money month after month driving traffic to your site | You spend your media budget on building a community of followers who then visit your brand site regularly (example: Skittles) |
| You rarely, if ever, show customers something they haven't seen before online | You regularly wow your customers with new ways to interact with your brand (example: John Lewis Harmony) |
Of course, making this transition is not easy and requires wide scale cultural change across the organisation, driven by support from the very top. The work we've done with our clients shows it can be done though. Like the clients we're lucky enough to work with, you also need a marketing team with the appetite and resource to make it happen, and customers who are receptive to all of the above.
However, as the aforementioned brands will surely testify, the reward is very much worth the effort, with results that could make you - and your brand - famous!
