As I meet with clients from Indianapolis and across the country and work with developers and designers from across the world, it often comes up - why the web?  Why should we all be devoting so much time and attention to Internet-based marketing versus the traditional marketing machines that are already tried and true?  Why is web marketing better than traditional marketing?

First and foremost, is the concept of permission marketing versus interruption marketing.  This is the idea that there are customers looking for exactly what you have to offer without you reaching out to 1,000,000 people with a shotgun approach ad.  Only the most targeted of customer needs to even bother knocking on your door or wasting your time.  If you run a Toyota dealership in Tuscon, why waste time taking calls from someone interested in a Fiat in Fargo?  At the same time, wouldn’t it be nice to get calls from someone in Tulsa that is, in fact, interested in Toyotas?  Afterall, the world is flat and you can ship that new 2009 Avalon right over.

Secondly is metrics, measurability and scalability.  The typical small business used to run a classified ad in the Sunday paper as a one shot deal and sit by the phone in hopes of calls.  In today’s fast-paced, web driven marketing world, you can deploy your message, measure results, modify your message and make it as small as your local market or as large as a global campaign within days all with the few clicks of a mouse and a little help from some web design pros.

I’m sure I could go on for hours, but I’ll close with the notion that the web is where your customers are.  If you’ve noticed that your “yellow pages” ad and billboard aren’t delivering the calls that they once did, then you’re not alone - it’s okay.  Use of the world wide web as the first stop for information on anything from sports scores and movie times to big decisions like airline tickets and new homes will continue to grow.  You can be the champion in your business by helping to create an effective web presence.

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