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My professional background is 25 years of broadcast sales and marketing, not IT.  As a recent 3-year-old internet sales/marketing professional, I want to share some observations about selling the internet as a source of revenue or to address public relations challenges versus traditional media.

Traditional Media
The internet or the company website can be included under the umbrella of the traditional media in the context that it shares the same goal of improving revenue and communicating with current and new customers.

Many business and industries owned or managed by human beings are familiar with the technology and terminology associated with television, radio and print campaigns.  We all know what a tv/radio set is, we all know what a newspaper is.  We are familiar :10, :30: or :60 second commercials and can maybe even ballpark their cost.  We know commercials need to be produced.  With print we know about print size, placement, etc.  We are familiar with the importance of “targeting” a demographic.  We don’t understand the technology behind implementing the above media but we use it because we know it “works”.  (After 25 years of selling broadcast media, I still don’t know how it worked. I just know that it did because my customers were happy about the results = $.)

The Internet
Now throw in this thing called the internet, a new technology and new terminology.  On top of this is the challenge of learning how to use it as a source of revenue.  A common response I get when I first walk into the front door of a company and inquiry about internet marketing opportunities is, “Talk to our IT department”.   If I were to walk in to discuss tv or radio advertising I would be directed to the marketing department.  I have run into very few IT persons who have sales or marketing experience.

An analogy – A car dealership

Sales and marketing professionals do not fix or repair cars and the service department (IT department) does not sell or market the cars, but both are needed with one goal: keep and maintain happy, satisfied customers so that each gets paid.

The point of this maybe self evident by now… It is not necessary to totally understand the technology and terminology before a internet campaign can be implemented.  It is however, important to acknowledge it as a powerful sales and marketing tool (just as tv, radio and print are) to talk to new and current customers, to increase revenue or address public relations challenges.  Finding a person in the internet industry that you trust… now that is another topic.