Just Like Cats And Dogs - Advertising And Marketing
Advertising and internet marketing are just like cats and dogs. The dog (marketing) listens to you and is faithful. The cat (advertising) is also your pet but, his reactions are totally unpredictable, when you reach down to pet him, it is just as likely to bite you as let you give him a little loving. Yes, there are both pets but the reactions may be completely opposite of what you expect. Too many marketers, both newcomers and experienced, confuse advertising and marketing, believing that they are both the same animal. That’s a big mistake.
How many times have you devoted countless hours developing an advertising campaign and then watched it flop and do nothing more than swipe your hard-earned dollars. Then another time, a hastily built campaign made you a small fortune. Either way, advertising is only effective while you are pumping money into it and in the long term has no lasting results.
Internet marketing is much more like your pet dog. You develop a bond of mutual love and respect and when you walk through the door at the end of a long day, the dog is sitting there, wagging his tail and happy to see you. When you throw a stick into the field, you can always depend upon the dog to return it to you.
Advertising has it’s place and you will use it but, marketing will help you build a sustainable business. In marketing, you build upon a basis of mutual trust and respect and your clients will respond in kind. When you do advertise to your client base, only promote the best of products-products that you would use and believe in. If you ever promote a product that doesn’t deliver on what it promises, you are cheating your clients and ultimately yourself. You will lose all of the trust and respect that you have worked so hard to create.
An excellent example of marketing is in your choice of a stockbroker. A good stockbroker builds on the trust of his clients and if he ever leaves his current company, he takes his client list along with him. His clients trust him and not the brokerage firm that he is working for. He has helped his clients become successful and in doing so, he has also become successful. You never trust your money to some faceless company, you trust the broker that you respect and build a bond that overrides any advertising that his company may do.
Yes, go ahead and use advertising but, remember that the only long term results that you have come from building that bond of trust and mutual respect that comes from marketing not advertising. One final note, don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Only promote products that you trust and respect.
Stan Pontiere has been an online marketer since 1997. At first part-time and then full-time since 2004. For further information on Marketing on a Shoestring please visit: http://www.marketingonashoestring.web44.net or my blog at: http://www.internetbizops.myccblog.com Please feel free to reprint this article as long as the article and resource information are left in tact.
Tags: advertising, business opportunities, internet marketing