Kris is right. Marketing has to be far more than dumping “content” on your audience. It has to engage customers to build long lasting relationships.
Mark Guarino hints at how advertisers will pay for “engagement”.
How can you make money from the Internet? It’s the question of the decade as advertisers struggle to create a business model that works. The model currently holding sway – click-based advertising – determines the price of ads based on page views.
The more page views, the more money that advertisers will pay, which means sites have embarked on a mad scramble to lure visitors under any pretense. Look for advertisers to reward sites that engage their visitors more in 2010.
The idea is that the click-based models encourage surfers to skip across the Internet rapidly. Getting visitors to slow down on a page – in essence, hang out and play with the toys: social media, video, photo sharing – might bring advertisers more bang for their buck.
“They know the more time you spend with their brand, the more likely when you go to the store, you’ll chose that brand,” says [Brian Morrissey, Adweek’s digital editor]. “The way advertising is measured and priced right now doesn’t match up to that.”
It could come in the form of social media. It could come in the form of a tool that helps you conserve energy. Regardless, information alone isn’t enough. An audience needs/wants guidance through all the information and, better still, a means to make the information useful to specific needs.
Engagement builds relationships. Relationships lead to trust. And trust closes sales.