With the advancement  in TV viewing, such as DVR and Tivo companies are having to change the way they advertise their company’s and products. Now, since the average consumer can fast forward through commercials and completely skip any commercial that is not of interest to them, companies have had to leave the shotgun approach to their marketing and find ways to market to small specific groups of people. Here are some of the ways companies have tried to market their products to me just in the past week.

• Every year on my birthday I get an email from several of my favorite restaurants containing free meal coupons.
• Every morning when I eat my bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios I see that they are offering cash prizes at www.nutsabouthoney.com.
• When I watch TV I learn that I can download the song that is playing on the State Farm commercial at www.statefarm.com/teendriving
• I also can get free can of paint if I go to Glidden Paint’s website.

The only thing I have to do to get these “free” offers is give them some information about myself, such as my name, mailing and email address.  They in return will send me the free promotional product and continue to advertise to me as a target market through the web, email, direct mail, etc.

All of these companies have had to redesign their marketing programs to utilize the most important marketing tool they had; their website. I believe that as the average consumer gets more power through online communities companies will have to change the way they market their products, services, and company. Here are a few of my observations/predictions about what marketing for small and large companies alike will look like it the very near future:

Be Online or Be Extinct
Most people already will check a company’s website before they decide to do business with them. What they find can often super-charge a sale or kill it before it even happens. Having an online presence that communicates the value that your company provides is more important now then ever before.

START NOW: Your company must build a well managed online presence or it will become extinct.

Start By Giving Value
In the past people bought from a company simply because they were told about value, but in the near future people will stop listening to a company’s claims and start ask for more tangible proof. This is because with all the online communities they are apart of they will have access to more real (unbiased) information about products, services.

START NOW: Your company will have to earn customers by giving (not claiming) value before receiving value.

Create Original Lists Of Prospects
Right now any company could order a mailing list of a specific target market, but in the near future companies will build relationships with their prospects using personal & original lists of prospects. This information will be collected in exchange for the value that is given to prospects.

START NOW: Your company will need to build personal lists of prospects to continue building a relationship based on trust and value.

Create A Resource That Provides Valuable Information

After companies have given value and created an original list of prospects, then they will start to create a resource for their target market to gather information that is important to them. This information is not necessarily about their products/services, but information that will provide even more value to their customers and not yet customers.

START NOW: After you’ve given value and created a personal list of prospects you then can start to create a resource that will work to communicate value. This can be done through blogs, weekly e-zines, workshops, online videos, etc.

The marketing scene is starting to change rapidly and the great news is that it is not to hard for you to adapt your marketing system to match whats going on. I will say that it must start with your online presence and website, so this week I’m going to have a few more posts on this topic. I’ll share some low cost and some free tools that you can use pretty quickly. I’ll share some benefits of a great website. And I’ll try to get another expert to weigh in with his opinion as well.

Stay Tuned For:

07/01/09 - 6 Benefits Of A Marketing Driven Web Site
07/01/09 - No Cost To Low Cost Tools To Build Your Online Presence
07/03/09 - Better Marketers: Interview With Marketing Professional