Underground Web Designs Blog

If you read much online business literature, it seems there are two camps about how to do business online. The first focuses on more traditional advertising, while the second focuses on authentic communication. Which one works better? To be honest, at this point I don’t know. I’ve read good arguments for both. Before we get in too deep, how about some definitions first. What exactly do I mean by Traditional Advertising and Authentic Communication?

Well, when I think of Advertising, the first thing that comes to mind are big TV ads or billboards it Times Square. It’s big, it’s in your face, it’s usually expensive, and it’s only purpose is to make you buy something. On the internet this translates to extensive use of Pay-Per-Click campaigns, highly tested and optimized landing pages, and exacting sales copy designed to create an irresistible desire in people to buy a project.

By contrast, “Communication”, in the context of selling something, involves a much more personal connection with your audience; at least to me it does. To me communication is what blogs and social media are all about. It’s about putting your stuff out there and asking people flat out what they think of it. YouTube, Facebook, Squidoo, and Digg are all great examples of this. Communication is all about word of mouth and “viral” marketing.

Now, the question of which works better? Like I said at the beginning, I don’t know. When I first got into online business, I was deeply prejudiced against traditional advertising. Coming from a consumer’s point of view, I didn’t (and still don’t) like it’s generally impersonal, in your face nature. As I grew a bit more experienced however, I came to see that for all it’s faults, traditional advertising does produce results, which is good from a business owners standpoint. On the flip side, while much more “consumer friendly”, communication based advertising can be much harder to make work. It requires a lot of time, and a fair bit of skill to write things people will read and engage with. It takes even more skill (and dare I say luck) to produce a successful “viral” campaign.

Personally, I still prefer “communication” based marketing, because as a consumer I prefer feeling like my opinion and feedback is appreciated and acted upon. Because the internet is such a flexible medium and makes communication so easy, I think it would be a shame for it to become filled with blatant “interruption advertising”. Having said that, I’m not 100% sold on either method, and would love to hear what you think and how you market your business.

Do you use “traditional advertising” or “communication marketing” to sell your products or services, and why did you choose the method you did? Please post your experiences in the comments section!

Tags: ad, advertising, communication, pay per click, viral

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.