With the arrival of the next great internet boom – the internet marketing boom - the possibilities are limitless. The internet is exploding with new features and technologies such as interactive shopping, podcasting as well as newly emerging E-marketing tools and ideas. Among these new features are WiFi advertising (advertising to users of your WIFI network), and Internet capabilities on wireless phones such as 3G (AT&T’s network).
For those of you not in the industry, internet marketing is the buzz in the advertising and marketing world. With ever changing technology and improved techniques, and a now solid foundation of return, internet marketing is slowly coming to the forefront of marketing discussions.
And this internet revolution is even outpacing newer, less conventional forms of marketing and sales. Take for example traveling on any major airline. E-ticketing is available 24 hours a day and is convenient (whereas if you call the 800 or 888 number, you will be billed a transaction fee); you can print your ticket(s) 48 hours before the flight or 1 hour before the flight, at no additional cost attached.
I think that it is important that the advantages and disadvantages are carefully studied in contrast to traditional marketing. But that doesn’t mean the industry is without its evils. Issues that are still prevalent in and around internet marketing include: spam (which needs to be more heavily regulated), consumer loyalty (which needs to be studied more), and the different advertising strategies and performance that internet marketing has over traditional marketing.
However, one of the largest concerns of the general public is security and privacy on the internet. For example, if you read my previous post “Flirting with Diaster”, the attached You Tube video has a prime example of this: When Sarah Lacy asked the audience to begin asking their questions, an audience member stood up and said “What is the biggest obstacle that Facebook faces?” Zuckerberg replied “Building systems that allow users control of their applications/information.” The audience member replied, “Is it a security issue allowing users to control of their applications/information?” See how security is reiterated each time the audience member asks a different question? I have to say, it is a major concern of the general public, and must be addressed.
On the other hand, Internet marketing has truly revolutionized the marketing industry as a whole; traditional advertising and marketing firms better sit up and take notice and quickly adapt to the to the ever changing internet/technology as the general public consumes more media, does more searches, and spends more time online. Additionally one major advantage that internet marketing has that stands out ahead of traditional advertising is that with internet marketing you are able to customize and personalize your site from start to finish, making the process interactive between the internet marketing agency/firm and the client. And these custom solutions are growing the internet eco-system. For example, custom interactive shopping has revolutionized the way the general public shops, while improving the online shopping experience.
With that said, do you think internet marketing will revolutionize traditional marketing? You be the judge.
Some weeks ago while finagling with an Expression Engine template, it occurred to me that it would be pretty neat if EE could add a “_selected” next to my menu item’s class name if a visitor was on that particular page. This would effectively give me the power to do things like: make the menu item that corresponds to the current page highlighted while the other menu items stay normal. So, I set off to research the documentation of EE for plugin programming. This is what I’ve created for you to use as well: