Traditional marketing is like dropping a penny from a helicopter and hoping it slides down a chimney. It's erratic, hard to track, and the outcome is rarely known.
I've always been confused by Web-based marketers who use one-to-many, top-down techniques. The Web's built-in audience aggregation tools allow for honest exchange of ideas and pain points, which is exactly the kind of information a marketer needs to deliver targeted products. Yet, spammy email blasts and bloated marketing-speak persist. It's time to retire these unproductive methods.
What I propose is transparent marketing driven by audience advocacy and a commitment to value. The community beat managers and the in-house editorial group are marketers by default because of this model's feedback loop:
Traditional techniques, which I consider "passive" marketing, can still be employed at a low-cost level via search engine optimization (you should always do this), microsites, catalog pages, banner campaigns and sponsorships. The key is to keep passive methods in check while allocating the bulk of your marketing efforts toward direct interaction with target audiences.
Put simply: The audience is everything.
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