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Forgotten Marketing - Who is
The Customer?
By Roy Thomsitt
I have witnessed a couple of discussions recently, amongst “internet
marketers”, that made me recall the real world of offline marketing
and how it relates to the world of the internet as it presently
stands. Both discussions revolved around Google, which is not
unusual; and both led me to believe that many online money seekers,
who regard themselves as internet marketers, are a long way from
understanding what marketing really is.
As is often the case, there were those who saw Google as a great
ogre out to stop them making a living, and these people were the
ones stimulating a discussion on Google Adsense.
Google Adsense – Who Is The Customer here?
As far as online advertising goes, Google is a market leader, and
deservedly so. Their pioneering approach has always been well ahead
of the opposition, although others are trying hard to catch up.
However, they have a dual role, as reflected by two products,
Adsense and Adwords.
For the purpose of this discussion, I will concentrate on Adsense,
as this was where many online “marketers” seem to get confused. For
those who do not know about Adsense, this is a partnership product
of Google, through which Google and web
site owners come to an agreement for the web publisher to show
Google ads on their web sites, and share on any income when somebody
clicks on the ads. Adsense has given many web site owners the chance
to bring in some extra income.
What I found so strange about one of the discussions I mentioned in
the first paragraph, was that some people who own web sites see
themselves as the customer, and Google as the supplier, when it
comes to Adsense. Coming from the real world of magazine
advertising, I have no problem understanding that it is the
publisher who is the supplier, and the advertiser, or their agent,
who is the customer.
Those who seek to attract advertising of any form to a magazine know
that, as a publisher, they need first to look after their reading
customers. To do that, they seek to provide good quality material
for the magazine, and present it in an attractive way that will
attract and retain readers. Only when they have done that can they
expect to attract good advertising customers.
Ultimately, those who survive in online publishing in the long term,
and who will depend on advertising revenue, will recognize that an
advertiser is a customer, and needs to be treated like a customer,
not a provider of a service. Google may not be a traditional media
buyer, but they are the first of a new wave of media buyers who will
yield a lot of power for the long term.
For now, though, it appears that many web site owners think Google
owes them a living, and that they, the publisher, are the customer.
Such people may well benefit from a journey into reality, to a
bookstore or magazine stall where they can browse
through magazines and see what publishing is about.
Why Should Web Site Owners Write Copy?
The second discussion was, in a way, related, as it reflected the
way many internet marketers do not see themselves as web publishers,
but people who have to use the latest tools to trick the search
engines. That discussion related to duplicate content, and whether
using such content will get publishers banned by Google. It rapidly
moved on to public label rights articles, and the degree to which,
if any, that they should be rewritten.
Some, like I, argued strongly for rewriting to make a web page
competitive. There was no notable disagreement on that, but when one
individual took the idea on board, the reaction was: “Ok, what tools
do you use?”
This reflects a tendency, amongst those trying to make a living
online, that the solution to any problem is a tool, a piece of
software that does the work for you. That’s all very well for some
things, but for writing an article? Would a genuine
publisher want software to do an article rewrite? No, of course not.
In the long run, it is those businesses that understand their market
place which will survive and prosper. Recognizing a customer is not
a bad place to start; and understanding that they will expect good
quality publishing is another.
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About The Author:
This internet marketing http://www.change-direction.com/What_Is_Marketing.htm
article was written by Roy Thomsitt, owner author of the Change
Direction web site http://www.change-direction.com.
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