MSN Predicts…and local online business marketing campaigns change.

Al and I spend a few minutes each day personally checking our google alerts.  I was a little surprised to see MSN making such dire predictions for the consumers.  However, what’s important is the implications it has for local businesses.  The original article is here.

Let’s read between the lines.  Why, exactly, are newspapers becoming obsolete?  It’s no  longer a relevant medium.

What is the shelf life of a newspaper? Maybe a day?

Have businesses ever been able to effectively track KPI’s and metrics on their newspaper ads?  Never.

Are you targeting a broad or a specific audience when you advertise in a newspaper?  You have no way of telling.  Demographics for newspapers just tell you specifics on the gender, age, and postal code of subscribers- but not what they subscribed to the newspaper for… the sports, the lifestyle, the news, etc.

Finally… if you’re just catching up to the “Newspaper Is Dead” fiesta, you’re a little bit late.  Craigslist was the death blow to printed newspapers.  It captured their entire classified ads market share.

Local business marketing is shifting away from the traditional

• Yellow Pages.  Who actually uses this anymore?  Those glossy full page ads are not worth what you paid for them.  www.pipl.com and yellowpages.com have made the conventional yellow pages obsolete.

• Local Television and Radio ads: See you later.  iPhones, and even blackberries, can stream music from online sources.  Why listen to a local radio channel (unless it’s news/traffic/weather) when in-car streaming audio delivers content without commercials?  It’s a technology still experiencing growing pains, and being further developed.  It’s not going away.

TIVO and personal DVR’s make television advertisements almost obsolete.  The introduction of the PC into the living room via HTPC’s essentially gave birth to streaming Netflix, and people surreptitiously downloading tv episodes and movies. Read more about this local marketing opportunity here.

Consumers have become numb to external advertising.  Reaching them with traditional means is no longer effective.  Internal Advertising, where your “ad’s” are allowed into their home, their workspace, and their living room are what is already effective right now.

The most effective way to reach potential clients and customers is now, and has been for quite some time, online. SEO Fredericksburg has never been stronger.

This is the reason iTunes was able to supplant WalMart as the world’s largest music distributor, in under one year. This is why Amazon has made many conventional bookstores obsolete.  Most every Fortune 500 company has gone direct.  They are advertising to the consumer, where the consumer is, online.  This is where lead generation is now happening.

On Point Solutions specializes in custom and creative online marketing solutions.  We know what works, now.  We know, or can discover, what makes your competitions online marketing campaign more effective than yours.  We perform extensive keyword research to find the keywords with realistic ROI, traffic volume, and commercial intent, for your business.  We can even track your conversion stats for you, providing monthly reports as needed.

We offer monthly plans as well as starter packages for the businesses with no online presence.

Contact us today for a free consultation.

Tags: online lead generation, Online Marketing DC, SEO Fredericksburg, Traditional Media