Thursday, March 5, 2009

31 Blogs to New Media Marketing - WELCOME

Welcome to our blog series on New Media Marketing. Over the next 31 blogs, I will try to provide a working overview of the various aspects of this subject. Even though New Media Marketing utilizes new technology, its use in your business will be both an art and a science. This is true for most successful marketing programs. The first thing I would like to do is start utilizing the short-cut NMM whenever I refer to the words New Media Marketing. Over 31 blogs, this will shorten my typing efforts.

This first blog (Blog #1) provides some definitions and a road map for the following next blogs. So let's see how Wikipedia defines NMM:

"New Media Marketing is a relatively new concept utilized by businesses in developing an on-line community which allows satisfied customers to congregate and extol the virtues of a particular brand. In most cases, the on-line community includes mechanisms such as blogs, podcasts, message boards, and product reviews, all of which contribute to a transparent forum to post praises, criticisms, questions, and suggestions.

One of the primary arguments to promote New Media Marketing is the premise that traditional advertising is losing its influence on consumers. Backed by statistical evidence demonstrating a growing trend of consumers making purchasing decisions off Internet research and referrals. These advocates strongly adhere to the notion that consumers are more inclined to believe feedback from like-minded peers than corporate marketing verbiage dispersed through traditional television, radio, direct mail, or newspaper advertising."

The bottom line is we all want to boost our business. In today's economy, this also includes cutting costs - but wise sages say that is not a time to cut marketing costs - yet one still needs to cut costs. NMM is the ideal solution for this dilemma. Using the powerful tools of NMM will help separate you from your competition.

NMM's key factors are the same for any successful marketing program today:
  • Time: As business manager, owners, and entrepreneurs, we are constantly struggling to do more with less time. Couple this with the fact that our clients/customers' attention spans are constantly decreasing, and thus demanding simple, straightforward messages. This results in a business environment that is marked by both buyers and sellers who are more knowledgeable, demanding, and impatient every day.
  • What and How we say it: Your marketing messages, how they are crafted and delivered is key factor in all our marketing efforts. Today it is form over function. We no longer dictate content - our clients' needs and wants do.
  • Creating Community: One-way communications is no longer sufficient. Our communications must be two-ways. We must not communicate with clients but must dialog with them. NMM is based on the assumption that building an online community is one of the most important things your business can do.
So what vehicles does NMM utilize? An integrated NMM program utilizes the following:
  • A web 2.0 web site
  • Blogs
  • e-zines (electronic magazines or newsletters)
  • Podcasts
  • Emails
  • Social Media
We will cover the above during this blog series. We should point out that there are things that NMM cannot do:
  • Replace actual and direct physical contact
  • Replace other forms of advertising - since some of your target may not use new technology, other forms of advertising including print cannot be totally abandoned
  • Will not provide instant and immediate gratification - NMM is a process, not a magic pill that one takes and business is successful overnight
The series will consist of the following eight parts:
  1. Introduction - "Seven-Click" model targeting your audience, creating content, power of the brand, and building relationships - the opt-in
  2. WEB - Web 1.0 vs. 2.0, what makes a good web site and audit, how to say it on the web, widgits, wikis, dashboards and other strange sounding things, SEO
  3. BLOG - Blog essentials, telling people about your blog, business applications, and forums
  4. E-zines - e-zines essentials and promoting your e-zine
  5. Podcasts - Podcast essentials and telling your audience about your podcasts
  6. Email - understanding email marketing, types of email, designing email, email list building, spamming
  7. Social Media - intro to social media, personal social networks, business social networks, and social media servies
  8. Other - e-PR and Mobile emailing, tracking your NMM results and summary
Blog #2 of our New Media Marketing Series will be posted Friday, March 6. Topic: "The Seven Click Model" - One of the reasons for NMM's success is the fact that it relies on collaboration. So please comment on the blogs as you read them.



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