Most of our clients don’t really need Online Marketing to be honest..
February 18th, 2008
I was recently speaking to the Senior Developer of a reasonably big marcomss agency based in Bury, Lancashire who startled me somewhat with the following comment:
“most of our clients don’t really need OM to be honest…”
I have to say I was somewhat suprised by his approach to OM, however I would suggest many web development agencies are still guilty of the ‘Build and they will come’ approach to online, however with more and more organisations employing search marketing as part of their marcomms approach, it seems a somewhat naive approach to online, particularly where the rewards these days of getting it right online are often high.
Is he not aware that:
- 76% of UK’s online population have purchased online
- 80% of the UK are now broadband enabled.
- Internet shopping accounts for over 10% of all retail sales in the UK - given the proportion of spend this is a significant amount
- 80% of advertisers include the Internet in their marketing mix - can you really afford to ignore it?
- Above all - Online Marketing and Web Development sit side by side. You don’t just build a shop/service/office offline and then just leave it. So why would you do the same online. Surely to get the most out of online - you have to embrace it which means utilising all channels - your website and its marketing - together…
Entry Filed under: News and Views, Search Marketing
2 Comments Add your own
1. Ptrick Ryall | February 23rd, 2008 at 3:30 am
Greetings, I must admit the headline got me and thought I was about to read a ridiculous statement.
I agree with your words whole heartedly, being based in Oz at the present but my heart still in London, I find slowly the market here is also beginning to understand the importance of OM.
There is still much resistance in some market sectors with ‘what do we need that for we have been doing great for 15 years’ This as I tend to call it market arrogance can quickly lead to a sudden drop in market share.
As with any medium business needs to embrace what tools are available at their disposal and not taking up on such opportunities will only open the gates for to the savvy business using what they can to gain that extra sale.
Just to expand on this a little here is a small article about why your company needs a blog.
Take care and to your greater profits.
2. Peter Young | February 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Thanks Patrick
I would suggest their exist three tiers of OM advertiser, namely
Tier 1 - OM Fans
Generally made up of larger organisations such as Tesco, Hilton, Monarch etc who want to consolidate their positions as ‘brand leaders’ online and small organisations who see Online as a cost effective medium that allows them to compete (on a more level playing field against the afore mentioned organisations
Tier 2 - Want to haves
These are the organisations that know that they need to have Online Marketing within their marketing mix - but dont want to commit too much to it quite yet - and therefore throw small (in context to competitors) amounts at Online Marketing in particular Search which doesn’t have the obvious ‘parallels’ with Offline Advertising.
Tier 3 - The UnConverted
These are the organisations that either won’t or can’t see how digital/online can help their marketing activity. I would add here, I still find it amazing how many web development organisations still sit in this tier, still aligning OM with very segmented verticals such as E-Commerce.
I would suggest their is still an education job to be done in many spheres, before digital is fully embraced - however one thing is for sure - digital marketing in its various guises is here to stay
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