Somebody reads my online marketing column!

Writing a monthly online marketing column for NZMarketing Magazine has it's good and bad points.

Good: I get paid for it!

Bad: No comments field.

But it was great to get this email from Greg Randall at Alkemi, responding to my latest column, where I talk about the ongoing task of educating marketers about the possibilities of online marketing.

It's free advertising for Alkemi, but hey, they're doing something really well. If you're interested in the whitepaper Greg mentions, leave a comment.

Simon,

I just read your article about the Online Myths in NZ Marketing, and really liked it. I believe your question at the end of the article is extremely valid. I attend many of these “Brainy Breakfasts” and listen to my colleagues bamboozle the potential market with acronyms and ridiculous jargon.

In terms of your questions about what should be done, “dumb down online”, or “shout from the rooftops”, we do both. We need to be seen as strong advocates for the Online Channel, but at he same time be able to communicate in language people can understand. Many Online Companies capitalise on ignorance, we disagree with this approach and feel transparency is key.

Our company’s success relies on the ability to educate our clients. We do not expect our clients to understand the technical elements and the jargon in order for them to make money online. We have a very complicated service offering and internally our team easily fall into the trap of “jargon speak”. The analogy we use is being “inside the bottle, and reading the label on the outside requires serious mental contortions.”

The more we educate our clients the more services they will eventually use with us. Because of this we have developed a client “Learning Path” which is driven by our Marketing Manager, who has a key account function solely for this purpose.

One of the key mechanisms for facilitating learning is our ability to communicate wins within the Online Campaign. Because we are so results driven, we ensure our clients investment has strong ROI. Once we show a $5,000 investment translates into $100k in revenue (for example), the learning happens quickly. There are key metrics (such as conversion and media cost of revenue – jargon - sorry) which can easily translate campaign effectiveness for our clients. Impressions and click through rate or indicators of campaign performance, however, add little value to the client.

Paul Webster is very aware of our approach. He has seen the results we have delivered for both Avis New Zealand and Budget Rent A Car.

Take care, and great article.

FYI - I have attached a white paper which provides our approach, and is one example of an education tool.

I use the "reading the label from inside the bottle" analogy a lot myself. I first came across it from Roy H Williams. It's a very vivid analogy!

Why did I post this? Because the biggest need in business, in society, right now, is for the smart geeky people and the conservative, business-minded people to speak something like the same language.