Tuesday, December 15, 2015

By Benjamin W. Luffkin


Consumers take part in interactive marketing every time they check their email or use social media. With every click of your mouse and every phrase you type into your search engine, you as a consumer are communicating with companies that are attempting to sell you something. This is interactive marketing. Atlanta is a major force in this new way of selling, and it is the home of Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association, also known as the AIMA.

An organization of marketing professionals and advertising companies, the AIMA is a membership association run by volunteers. It is a place where members of this profession can come together, network and share new ideas. Professionals work as a team to keep their skills effective and relevant.

The AIMA has something they call SIGs, special interest groups. They have meetings throughout the year to brainstorm about the opportunities to market in eight different areas: email, social media, mobile, marketing automation, digital divas, analytics, digital media and ecommerce. AIMA also has a blog, an awards ceremony and educational seminars.

The company that produces goods or provides the services and the marketing company function as one entity. Through an advertisement, the company attempts to arouse the interest of the consumer, acquire likes or dislikes of the consumer, and then personalize the next ad or email so that is relates to that consumer. Advertising becomes a sort of two way dialogue.

The Internet is the driving force behind this two way conversation. It provides a window into the thoughts of the potential buyers. Before Internet technology there was no easy way for sellers to communicate with buyers. Surveys were expensive and the response rate very low. This two way communication will only get more sophisticated.

Besides the World Wide Web there are other low tech ways to market interactively. For example, when customers call a company to make request, the representative on the phone will tell the customer about other products or services. A radio or TV broadcast may offer a toll free number for the customer to call in order to comment or make a purchase. This is not nearly as economical or effective as the Internet, but it is interactive.

In the past advertising could reach consumers with television and radio ads and with magazine and print ads. Now people often have pay TV or pay radio, which has cut down drastically on the amount of advertising time. Magazines and newspapers are struggling to stay alive since many people rely on the Internet for their news source. Resourceful ad men and ad women have changed the way they market to compliment the way consumers behave. The old methods no longer had the same impact, so they invented new interactive methods.




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