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Marketing: Online vs. Offline
By Kenny Love
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As a former offline marketer for almost 20 years, and now, an-almost exclusive online marketer, I simply can't say enough wonderful things about the tremendous and significant advantages of "online" marketing as opposed to "offline" marketing.
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In fact, I am now so sold on marketing online, that out of 18 "lead" products I currently distribute, only 2 of them (my science fiction novel and music recordings) are even marketed offline as well. And that is,
primarily, due to consumer expectation and "tradition."
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I must say that the decisive moment came for me several months ago. Upon placing ads in several popular nationally distributed ad sheets with a combined circulation of 9 million, I received very dismal results. In fact, the results were so surprisingly dismal, that I'm embarrassed to reveal them... The insult to injury was that the ads cost over $2,100, yet, were in publication for only a week! What was wrong was that the publications were not "targeted", but of a "generalized" nature. Additionally, they were extremely small ads, and I was not allowed to categorize them.
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I decided the most effective way for me to regain "psychological," control was through, exclusively, marketing online. The benefits? Well, consider that with the right product placed in the right publications, and targeting the right consumers, along with an acceptable circulation to make it all a worthwhile effort you can't lose. What is the "right" product? Well, personally, I am attracted to products that fill a "need."
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What is the "right' online publication? To me, is the one that is, most likely, able to produce positive results (translated, "make money") in a specifically targeted publication. For example, if I desire to promote a business product such as an accounting software package, I would not approach online automobile how-to repair newsletters and ezines. While you may have a few takers, the relating connection is simply not there.
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In short, match "like" with "like." The only possible exception to this rule that I can see is if you provide a diverse group of highly interesting products that can all fill a need, and you are able to carefully cultivate your ad so as to attract a broad-based "general" audience.
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Offline marketing, contrastly, has quite a few vices such as time used in copying, physical product packaging, and mailing expense, to name a few. Next, there is the overcoming of the 3-day minimum postal delivery time before the prospect even receives your offer. Then, you must hope that the
prospect doesn't consider your offer "junk" mail. If so, that particular effort to that particular prospect is a total waste.
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On the other hand, Online marketing allows a marketer to get as close as possible, both figuratively and literally, to the intended prospect. At the very least, the mail will probably be read before being deleted, enabling it to, at least, get 1 step past the "postal" alternative of being considered "junk" and tossed.
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But it's not simply enough to get an edge through the elimination of offline costs by going online either. Still, the 2 most important common denominators of the complete marketing process, are the product and the ad copy. And, you still need to remember that you MUST have a product that not only fills a bonafide need, but one of which the corresponding ad copy is placed in the right online publication, targeting the right prospect.
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So, how do you find out the effectiveness of the publication within which you are interested in marketing your products? That's relatively easy to answer. Simply subscribe to it. Then, when the sample or first issue arrives, contact the various advertisers within it, requesting to know what type of success they have had with their products. They will, most likely, give you a very honest answer. If you have already been subscribing to some newsletters for a while, simply go back and review the past issues for "repeat" advertisers.
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Kenny Love is an online entrepreneur involved in multi-faceted careers. He is a distributor of a diversified line of over 8000 self-improvement video tapes and CD-ROMS and also recently completed his first novel titled, "Millennium Eve," a science fiction work.
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