Marketing Through Emerging Media
In today’s fast-paced world, getting your marketing message out in front of your target audience is more challenging than ever. This is a direct result of the dynamic nature of the Internet; each day there seems to be a new method or channel to reach the target audience. This phenomenon is called “Emerging Media.”
Emerging media as a whole concept is exciting as it brings to all of us new opportunities to grow our businesses, but it also can be overwhelming. Today, as a result of emerging media, it often seems like there are too many communication channels to understand, let alone, take advantage of. This makes it difficult to know which are best to leverage given the target audience that you are trying to reach. This is precisely the reason you should hire an interactive advertising agency; to guide you in selecting the best, most effective channels to achieve your business goals.
Rhythm Interactive is a full service interactive advertising agency that helps clients leverage the Internet to disseminate their marketing communications. It is our responsibility to match client business goals with the emerging marketing channels that are best suited to achieve those goals. Listed below are some of the channels that may be considered:
Email – It has been around for a long time, so should it be considered emerging? The answer is yes. Email now encompasses dynamic data, individual customer profile trending, detailed tracking systems, seamless integration with most CRM systems, viral components, and enterprise level support. It literally is a means to communicate your marketing messages on an individual basis. This next generation of the email platform is truly emerging, and every business that is serious about marketing should take advantage of it.
Short Message Service (SMS) – In a nutshell this is the technical name for mobile phone text message. It has been around for a long time, but it is truly emerging as a new marketing channel. Mobile text message users encompass over 70% of cell phone owners. This equates to a staggering number of people. Today, SMS can be integrated with email, websites, and even printed marketing materials. It is effective and should not be overlooked when considering your marketing mix.
Voice Recorded Messages (VRM) – Been around for a long time? Yes! But technology has embraced it in terms of the Internet. Some people still prefer voicemail messages for numerous reasons. Automated VRM’s can be easily integrated with email and websites. This is a terrific opportunity for marketers in terms of achieving a “marketing to the individual” approach.
Social Networking Websites – Been around for awhile now, but emerging in terms of critical mass. Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and MySpace now have broad and diversified user groups, and the user numbers justify B to B and B to C marketing efforts for most companies.
Really Simple Syndications (RSS) – Another one that has been around for awhile, but emerging in terms of skyrocketing usage. According to Ad Age, RSS subscriptions are up, and over 63% of product marketers use or plan to use RSS feeds in their marketing mix. Jump on this one – it’s hot!
These are just a few that are red-hot and extremely effective for marketing purposes. Some I didn’t mention above, such as podcasting (Feedburner recently reported that their podcasting subscriber base is increasing by more than 20% per month) and Internet 3-D (more and more sites are being launched) are also channels to consider.
Emerging Media may seem overwhelming, but the opportunities are huge. Contact us today to talk over success statistics and how we can help your company reach its growth goals.