Marketing Is a Lot Different Today In the Information Age

Most new entrepreneurs think they know a whole lot about marketing, but really they don't. Oh sure, they might be able to garner lots of friends on Facebook, social networks, or use trickery tactics like SEO strategies to beat out more legitimate companies online, but how much of that can they really convert to sales, aka; hits don't equal revenue conundrum. Okay so, let's talk because I come from the old school.

You see, when I started my company there was no internet, no fax machines, and portable phones were only for the top executives in corporations or the military, so, you had to do it all in the real world, where it really counts. Now then, recently I read an interesting book, it was written back in 2000, but it foretold much of what we see today, namely that "everything" had changed "forever" and it would never be the same again when it came to marketing.

I'd like to recommend this book to you because I think it is of value to all the old timers, and all the new kids that think they know everything, but don't seem to be making much money from their marketing efforts. The name of the book is;

"The End of Marketing As We Know It," by Sergio Zyman, Harper Business Press, NY, 2000, 272 pages, ISBN: 978-08873-09830-0.

This author also has real world experience, he was the head of marketing for a major soft drink company, until he started his own marketing firm. He saw the changes with the future of "new marketing" in the information age. He reminds the reader that "popularity online" and hits, or click-throughs is not "making money" because it's the conversion ratios that matter, that's the scoreboard. The clicks or hits are just sparks, so it remains the marketer's job to use those sparks to start a fire.

He admits the value in brand building online; that is getting people to want to buy what you are selling. Still, he points to the science of marketing, the metrics, the math, and the reality of achieving sales goals, not merely attaining traffic. He suggests that marketers online "fish where the fish are" and to target your potential clients online, that clicks are worthless, unless they lead to sales. Perhaps he was ahead of his time. He basically describes the rational for Big Data marketing mining, and how that changes the game completely.

You see, sometimes it pays to understand the cross-over of trends and how to unite the virtual world with the real one, that is if you want to make money and not just get lots of hits and play a popularity game online. Indeed, perhaps the philosophy here, and his arguments are of value even to the know-it-all so-called online marketing gurus. Please consider all this and think on it. I hope I didn't offend you, but if I did, realize you aren't my market, and I don't want or need your hits or clicks, see that point?