The Web: More than just another component of your marketing mix

We live in amazing times. We are at the epicentre of a technological and social revolution. And internet technologies are leading the way.

For a marketer, the shift to web-based marketing has evolved dramatically. This evolution has been somewhat progressive in the past 15 years, but in recent years, we have seen an explosion of possibilities. The on-going convergence of media, software, data and personal communication to internet based applications is changing business like nothing else in recent times. Marketing strategies used to be executed through a wide range of channels, including web.

But now web has become the dominant media for most businesses today. In fact, I would argue that the web has become the dominate strategic component in a marketer’s tool kit for the vast majority of businesses today... whatever the industry or business model.

I predict that the web will come to be known as the Great Equaliser -access to markets otherwise impossible to reach by small businesses are now well at hand. SME’s are well positioned to take advantage of this phenomena, but most are not leveraging its true potential. What is needed is a shift in paradigm – a new way of looking at business given the power of these new technologies. I personally have had to relearn marketing from the ground up. My original understanding of how to price, segment, target, and advertising are no longer valid.

Marketers are being forced to rethink old strategies to move towards web-centred ones, and this can be very confusing. The good news is, there is an abundance of data, research and direction available to us now. The inherent quantification of the web allows for innumerable case studies, white-papers and analytics – all available to anyone who looks. But, it pays to hear from an expert.

We have just added a new partner to our NuFocus team named Dave Gallant, and he is, by all measure, an expert at this. He has literally spent the last 4 years building his presence online and mastering web-based marketing through the use of social media. We are very proud to add him to our already extensive team of experts on this subject.

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