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When I was a salesperson in the consumer electronic industry, there was an old saying that went “We’re not in the business to save the world from bad hifi.” I always hated this saying because most of the places i worked sold high-end audio and video equipment, which in effect meant that what we were selling was typically better than our competitors. Additionally, we sold A/V gear based on the experience one would have versus how costly it was. But if you still don’t totally get this old saying, it basically meant that sometimes it wasn’t the best idea to try to sell the highest end equipment because its not always the best solution for everybody.

A typical example that a sales manager would give us was the power of branding. If we had a customer that came in and asked for a particular brand like “Bose,” he questioned the effort one would have to exert to try to sell that customer anything but for what they asked for. After all, the brand wasn’t cheap to begin with and the fact that the customer asked for it meant that they were already familiar (and was already sold) on that brand.

This scenario isn’t to far from the truth from what happens in our industry either. Potential prospects may not understand all of the Internet marketing mediums that exist or care to understand them. A vetran user of e-mail marketing for example, may not want to hear all the benefits of search engine marketing. Sure, a targeted search engine marketing ccampaign may serve them best to their needs, but after all, that wasn’t what they asked for.

This of course doesnt fit every senario out there. But, I do beleive that its up to us to determine the best solution for our clients. However, if you just consider for a second that the client may have also done some research or is experienced in a particular medium, it may not just make sense given the time and effort to try to convert them into another medium. Do you remember how you felt when you went into one store for a particular item and came out with another? Sometimes you may even wonder if you made the right choice.

The main point from above is you should size up each situation and sell what you think your customer would get good results AND feels confortable buying. Its much easier to sell a service or product to an individual that has already purchased them in the past. Additionaly, their experience and “call objective” shouldnt be ignored because in thier point of view, its been tested and well thought out.

So the next time a customer asks you your opinion or wants a particualr medium, just remember who’s paying the bills and if it makes sense to sell against an uphill battle. Whether its the best solution or not may not matter. What really matters is that the customer is happy with the solution.

When in social or networking events, I’m usually asked what I do for a living, which is kind of a tricky question to answer. If I reply that I work for an “Internet Marketing company”, I usually get a glazed-back look of mixed understanding. So naturally I proceed to tell them that I’m the guy that invented the annoying pop-up or spam e-mail, which typically leads me to dodge a punch in the nose. (That’s a Joke…but not too far from the truth.)

But in all seriousness, Internet marketing is loosely defined for most people in that they aren’t sure what it is or what it does. This becomes evidently clear in front of new prospects that want to know more about getting their business online and promoting their business into cyberspace. Even responses such as “We help your company get listed in search engines” or “we help customers find you online” is typically not descriptive enough for the guy that has been purchasing radio and yellowpage advertising for the last couple of decades.

This is unfortunate because the above phenomenon typically leads to general misunderstanding as to what one can expect when diving into online marketing…the so-called hottest advancements since television. So to benefit all, I thought I would take a stab at offering a more descriptive definition to marketing online for those who are unsure of what the web has to offer.

First, i would like to lay out the elementary components of the marketing mix (also known as the 4 P’s):

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion

The main reason why I choose to spell out marketing in this fashion, is that many businesses that I have had the pleasure to meet with are only most concerned with the last variable “promotion” as the cornerstone of their strategy, when unarguably this is really only 1/4 of the marketing equation. I believe that this is significant point because most marketing problems rarely occur from this variable alone. I touched on this subject just a few of posts ago when i was discussing if search engine marketing was really marketing. In any regard, the message is simple. How you communicate, price, and place your products are equally as important as how you promote them.

With that said, here is what i believe to be the 4 key fundamental results of online marketing:

1. Increase or position branding & exposure
2. Generate Sales & Leads
3. Maintain or develop customer intimacy
4. Reduce operating costs

All of which utilize the 4 P’s of marketing in some capacity. (If you believe I have left something out, please don’t be shy.) Although you would beleive that generating sales or increasing leads would be the most important for any company, you can’t deny the importance of the other 3 as significant marketing outcomes that businesses also want to achieve.

Therefore, getting back to brass tacks, I would like to reply to those interested in what I do: “I help companies use the web to increase their exposure online, generate business, and stay in touch with their customers while reducing their overall costs.” All of which may not sound perfect, but I believe its the beginning of a solution to an age old marketing problem.

Looking to purchase a new home or buy that new car? Whats that you say? Business is slow and your going to buckle down until the economy picks up?

If any of the above sounds familiar, your not alone. Many businesses are feeling the pressure of slowing purchasing behavior. When times are rough, its easy to cut advertising and marketing dollars, as these are simple expenditures to cut. But did you know that there are benefits of economic recession?

What seems like a logical move to reduce immediate expenditures could actually be detrimental to long term growth. In fact, many businesses look at a recession as a time to grow at their competitors expense. As budgets tighten, those that focus their company’s resources and seek to reinvent themselves are positioned to succeed.

Refocus Your Marketing & Advertising Resources
As you know, the lifeline of any business is its revenue. Without consistent advertising or marketing, getting business is likely going to be harder to accomplish regardless of your company’s size. In lieu of cutting these expenses, consider refocusing your marketing efforts to “bread and butter” cash cows and positioning your company’s competitive advantages. Secondly, choose highly focused direct marketing mediums (such as the Internet) that offer predictive ROI scenarios. Lastly, tracking response is key, so make sure that predictions are conservative and that you have qualified resources available to push sales through the chain. After all, nothings worse than having qualified prospects hit a brick wall due to shoddy salesmanship.

Seek to Reinvent
Remember when personal computing was dominated Macintosh? Did you pick up an iPhone on the 11th? Companies that seek to continually reinvent are true marketing companies at heart. They scan the marketplace for niche’s to serve and use their strengths to dominate other verticles.

Seeking to reinventing oneself is never easy. However, asking a fundamental question of “what is our business” is a great place to start. The important thing to remember is to keep your response as macro as possible. For example, if you run a “Bus Company” your really in the “transportation business.” Believe it or not, although adopting another form of transportation vertical sounds out of the ordinary, most forms of transportation exhibit similar traits. People still need to go to point A to point B, its just a matter of how they get there!

In my opinion, continual Innovation and marketing are the true drivers of business. Without the two, no company can seek a competitive edge or get their products into the marketplace. Although a recession is typically tied to an overall slowdown, if you want to position your company to launch ahead of your competitors during the turnaround, increase your focus on marketing and reap the benefits of the recession.

As you might have already noted, we have been hard at work for the last couple of months.  To start, we completly revamped our entire website and have added several new services including: mobile marketing, social marketing, radio and TV, and more.  These and other enhancements have made it possible for our agency to become a one-stop-shop for online and offline media, which in turn has saved money for our current and prospective clients.  If you are already doing online marketing or considering it, you might want to check out what our integrated marketing agency can provide you.

In addition to the above, we’re pleased to announce the release this blog to compliment our already popular online marketing blog iBlogMarketing.  With this blog, we plan to have more industry news relating to internet marketing, the search marketing industry, and events that our company is involved in.  IBlogMarketing on the other hand, will still focus on providing solid online marketing resources for new and advanced online marketers.  A refresh for iBlogMarketing will be comming shortly!

Lastly, iBlogBusiness & iBizRadio, the web’s largest business blogging & podcasting directories are enjoying their 3rd successful year thanks to many industry supporters like you.  Thanks to your support,  we are happy to announce that we will launching two new websites targeted to business.  Please stay tuned as these new websites will be out shortly.