When we try and market ourselves in today’s world we are faced with a stark reality. Information is everywhere. From the moment a child is born they are inundated with marketing material and propaganda at a rate far greater than the average adult member of the community in the 1800’s. Traditional media has consumed the public eye for generations as every facet of life is dissected, analysed and remarketed to sell a bigger, better, sleeker life for the modern man.

Every time a new platform for display has been invented a revolution has occurred: from the renaissance to the incredible growth of the Hollywood Star Factory to the much more readily available and convenient home Television empires. Now throw into the mix the internet.

This network of information, and that’s what we often forget is that the internet was built to collect and correlate information, has grown out of control and requires a shift in perception. Each mode of communication has its own language and rules, but how do you rule a database generated by the zeitgeist? So far the only thing that governing bodies and infrastructure have attempted to do, as always, is control this medium. There was alleged Pentagon documentation on the need to treat the internet as an enemy weapon for god sake!

Having said that, there is some infrastructure utilising the internet effectively: “Criminal” activity is the big one. The porn rings, bot networks and pirate trade the list goes on and the labels even longer. They’ve taken advantage of this new, incredibly intricate, medium and exploited it to the hilt. The Marketing world is in a shambles, how do you keep up with an open market free for all like the internet?

So far the answer in Australia has been the ridiculous hope that peoples “over 35 don’t use the internet that much”, a mentality that has been proliferated by the government with its ridiculously slow rollout of its so-called broadband policy. As the figures are coming in and proving the naysayers wrong, that cry is changing. Marketing has taken a bold leap into the on-line marketing world and clung to the largest of the few legal forms economic infrastructure on the web.

Google.

Adwords.

That’s our answer?!? We’re facing a revolution and Australia’s marketing creative throws their hands in the air and cries: “Adwords!”?!?

I don’t need to tell you how ridiculous that sounds.

What Australian marketers need to do is the same thing that marketers do best. Look to other markets. See what is happening in America and the UK and witness the way that it has shaped the face of their economy…. ok… Now I hear you all chuckling to yourselves, the internet was punishing to economies when it first started to get really fast in the larger markets. But let’s look at them and learn from their mistakes as well! So far, these markets have failed!

There will be more on how I see the marketing world needing to changenext week so please leave your comments and come back to find out what we believe needs to occur an why.

One thing that constantly surprises me is the corporate sectors misunderstanding of on-line marketing. Regardless of the difference in the way that the internet has changed our consumption of information, one fact still remains the same: a good marketing campaign requires solid planning and a strong hook. In fact if anything the internet has made this even more important.

All too often I find that business owners and marketing managers are quick to throw money at the internet without actually understanding how it works. Unfortunately certain businesses (who shall remain nameless… for now) are taking advantage of this naivety and returning little to no results, by utilising techniques (such as AdWords and SEO) that show some growth and minor financial return for the marketing budget.

Understandably business owners and marketing managers have grown wary of all things web based. This means that those businesses who are trying to build proper campaigns are being seen as door to door salesmen selling nothing more than snake oil.

On the flip side we see that many business owners and marketing managers have cottoned on to the concept that on-line marketing is the way forward and is returning something (unlike many sites developed prior to the .com boom). They hear all of the “experts” running around talking about buzzwords like “SEO” and “Social Media” and trendy products like “Google AdWords” and they want a piece of the pie.

So what does this contradictory combination mean to the legitimate on-line marketers of the world? It means that these businesses end up trying to feel out the water and gauge results using small budgets, in a conservative effort to see if these forms of marketing can work for them. They know it needs to happen NOW as the competition is on the same tip, but they can’t afford to trust legitimate on-line marketing businesses because they’ve been burnt before.

This in turn places both businesses in a bad position from the start. A Google AdWords campaign needs to be well researched for a start and secondly it takes money to get results. Many businesses utilising the AdWords system have spent thousands of dollars on pay-per-click with on-going analysis of what is and isn’t working for them. This means that the business paying for the advertising will not see the results they want despite the best efforts of the company providing the service.

Before it gets to this point it is up to the on-line marketer to ensure that they have informed the client to the best of their ability. A strong web campaign should not start with AdWords, first and foremost the business needs to have a strong site with easily accessible information. If a visitor to the site cannot find what they want in less than ten seconds they will navigate away. As you can see if this happens the money spent on a campaign that gets them to click through to the site is wasted.

Like any campaign an on-line campaign needs to be worked on from the ground up. If the company doing your web marketing has not taken the time to develop your on-line campaign in sync with your off-line campaign then it is likely they are spending your money on advertising without having planned out a strategy that works for your business.

For on-line marketers don’t try to sell the buzz word or product of the moment, it may bring you money straight away but you will lose clients when the bubble bursts. Be sure to review what your clients business actually needs rather than jumping on the latest web bandwagon. We have seen on-line marketing crash before (we all still shudder at the ramifications of the .com bust) let’s not let this happen again or businesses will lose faith in the web all together.

Can someone please tell me the point of Alexa rankings? I am a little flabbergasted by the point of them to tell you the truth. Many people use Alexa Rankings to get free “Site Ranking Statistics” that they then use to sell their dubious SEO wares and it’s really beginning to upset me because they are really not an accurate representation of the popularity of your site.

These rankings are allocated depending on the amount of people who use the Alexa Toolbar that visit your site. Now I don’t know about you but until I started working in this On-Line Marketing space I had never heard of Alexa. The only people who I know who actually have the Alexa Toolbar installed are Search Market Professionals.

So yes this does provide accurate statistics regarding people using the Alexa toolbar who visit your site but in reality they have no real relevance to Page Ranking or volume statistics at all. Other sites like Compete have a go as well but their estimations are dubious to say the least. These tools can be used to give a general idea of how your site is performing but they are in no way shape or form an accurate representation.

To get a real understanding of how your site is performing requires actual code to be written into your sites HTML and the site to be monitored over at least a period of a year. Then you can see the ebb and flow of traffic over seasons, what changes and updates work and what really resonates with your audience. Anyone who tells you any different is selling you nothing more than snake oil repackaged in an exciting new electronic way (now with AdWords)!

Don’t be fooled by these people. They will take your money and you will see little in return. We don’t mind if you use another company for your SEO and Search Marketing we just ask that you make sure that you know that they really know what they are saying and they are not just pulling stats and figures out of thin air to get a sale.