Will Critchlow has some interesting thoughts on whether or not existing businesses starting to do business on the Web should build from the ground up or build their Web presence on the backbone of their brick and mortar reputation. This is a very good topic and I’ll tell you what I think in just a minute. First, here’s Will:

There are a few situations where I would disagree with the conclusion that you always get a mess when you add new marketing to old businesses - particularly in SEO - understanding the basics of SEO (not even linkbait etc. but just keyword research and basic technical on-page SEO) can be enough to form a valuable sales channel for old-school businesses.

In other words, he is somewhat disagreeing with Seth Godin, a recognized expert on new marketing. I think I’m with Will on this one, though in principle Seth is correct.

When it comes to marketing online, you cannot compare it to off line marketing. They are two different things. The way you reach people online is completely different than the way you do it off line. It requires a different approach and sometimes that approach is counter-intuitive to what successful marketers off line are used to. That’s why many traditional marketing agencies don’t do so well online.

Will goes on to discuss link building and SEO. He has an interesting suggestion regarding viral marketing techniques online. I think that kind of marketing online can work for a lot of businesses if some thought goes into it. An example he gives is this one for a dating website.

That approach will work for many businesses, but what if you have a traditional real estate business, or a law practice? Can that type of marketing work? I think so, but you do have to give it a lot of thought. You obviously don’t want to talk about dating a unicorn, but you may be interested in a humorous take on ambulance chasing if you have a personal injury practice in your town. Or maybe you can make fun of real estate agents and drive people to your real estate website.

Online, people like to see things that are entertaining. If you can get them to laugh, especially at you or themselves, and capture their imaginations then you’ll get much further. You may set up a separate website to do that or you might just add a folder to your current site. Either way is fine, but the bottom line is, advertising online is not like advertising off line. You have to think outside the box, and sometimes way outside the box.

Marketing has been around a long time. Without it, most businesses would never have survived. Though I’ve met some business owners in some towns who say they’ve never advertised. I guess their service is so good their customers just talk about them. That’s the best kind of advertising there is - and you don’t have to pay for it.

But most of it, even if our service is darn good, still have to pay for some form of marketing.

Traditional marketing works. So why abandon it, right? Internet marketing works. So we should use it, right? Well, it depends on who you talk to.

The key to any kind of marketing, of course, is effectiveness. The bottom line: Will it increase your ROI? Traditional modes of marketing like the yellow pages are being replaced rather quickly by online versions of the same product, except that the online version is much more flexible and versatile and has the power to increase ROIs tremendously more by reaching a broader base of people interested in your core product or service. Other modes of Internet marketing are doing the same thing. But this is no reason to assume that small business owners should abandon traditional marketing streams.

Sure, you can give up on some of those methods. If you find that your reach is declining through certain traditional marketing methods that you used to see gains on then that could be a sign that it’s time to try something different. But there are still traditional marketing practices that work. That’s why I recommend something I call integrated marketing.

Integrated marketing is taking the best of traditional marketing and coupling it with the best strategies from Internet marketing to tailor a marketing strategy that works for your business. We will examine your business model to see what you have done in the past and to evaluate your current marketing blueprint. If something is working for you then we won’t change it. But if it isn’t then we can find something to replace it, something that will increase your ROI.

Today is the day to look at changes to your marketing plan, changes that could propel you into the 21st century and reach more customers with fewer dollars. Find out how now.

Doing a little online marketing doesn’t mean you have to abandon your traditional marketing efforts. No matter what you do online, you still need to reach at least a segment of your target marketing through off line marketing means. I suspect that you always will.

Newspapers have been around a long time. People didn’t stop doing newspaper advertising when radio came around. They added radio advertising to the mix. The same is true of television. They didn’t stop their newspaper and radio advertising. They simply added TV to the mix. And that’s the way advertising is developed over time. You don’t have to abandon the tried and true methods. Just add the newer ones to your advertising efforts.

But don’t do this overnight. Do it gradually over time. In other words, run a few tests first to see how you do. If it doesn’t succeed then you’ve lost a little, but not much. Also, try tweaking your test and running another. Just because you tried it once and it didn’t work doesn’t mean it won’t work the next time. Try to learn what the successful people are doing in the new advertising medium and emulate them.

Online advertising does work. Like traditional advertising, there are certain principles that work better than others. Learn the successful principles to your advertising efforts - online and off line - and add it to your mix.

Traditionally, marketing and sales have gone in hand. But they are not the same thing. Marketing is the the entire process of creating, pricing, distributing, and promoting a product or service. It can be something as simple as a mailing label on a box you send through the mail (the label has your return address and logo on it, doesn’t it?), or it can be something more complicated like a multi-tiered market research initiative.

Sales is the actual process of getting the product into the hands of your customers. The two disciplines are related and need each other, but if you don’t understand the difference between marketing and sales then you could spend a lot of time on useless activity that doesn’t pay off.

Online, the distinctions are still the same. Marketing is presenting your message to consumers not yet ready to buy. Selling is getting your product into their hands.

Online marketing, like traditional marketing, is the entire process of building relationships with people who want what you have to offer. The very idea of creating a product involves marketing. Pricing is marketing. Distribution is marketing. Customer service is marketing. But sales is simply explaining to your prospects what the benefits of your product are and making it easy for them to get it.

These distinctions are necessary because you need to know which tools you are going to use to help you achieve your objectives. Do you need a blog? Are you going to have a live chat box on your website? If so, who will respond to messages and what kinds of customer service needs will you address through that tool? All of these are questions you’ll need to answer and when you do, you’ll find that your business will run a lot more smoothly.

Throughout most of the 20th century, marketing came to be known as its own science. In some circles, an art. Marketers learned from the businesses and market leaders who came before them - people like J.P. Morgan, P.T. Barnum, and traveling hawkers became the model for sales and marketing teams all throughout the U.S. As technology became more of an influence in the business world, marketers began to adopt these new technologies - TV, radio, the telephone - to market their products and services to the ideal customer. But they didn’t stop using the tried and true methods of the past.

Well, thanks to the Internet, there are new technologies that marketers can adapt to put their products and services in front of customers. That doesn’t mean you should stop using the methods of marketing that you are currently using and have been using for most of your life. Those methods still work.

Particularly at this juncture in history, the old and new methods of marketing should be seen as complimentary and work side by side. As the Baby Boomer generation ages, members of that generation will continue to rely on their ideas rather than the new ideas of younger generations. Traditional marketing methods will still need to be employed to reach that generation. But the new media opportunities that are presenting themselves today are more effective for the younger generations. That’s one reason integrated marketing is desirable.

But it’s not the only reason. Marketers have always segmented their target markets. The reason this is effective is because different audiences require different approaches. And if you can figure out how best to reach a particular segment of your market then you should use that method of delivery to get your message out. Today, some of the biggest users of new media online are in the 40-50 age group. That means you can still reach them through online marketing if your marketing message is effective and carefully packaged to appeal to that group.

Integrated marketing is the next wave of online business marketing. While online marketing works for some groups, it doesn’t work everywhere and for everyone. Even younger generations still read magazines and do off line shopping; you’ll still need to reach them through traditional methods of marketing. The big question is, where - online and off line - do they hang out and what kind of media and message will get their attention?

When we speak of article marketing we typically mean online. Internet businesses have used article marketing as a way to build links to their web properties and to drive traffic to landing pages and it’s a very effective method of marketing. But traditional businesses can use article marketing offline just as well. It does work a little bit differently.

Your offline articles can be published in many places and serve as a way to build your reputation plus send more business to your brick and mortar store. Essentially, what you do is write articles for magazines, trade publications, newspapers, and other periodicals. The bylines some times pay but the real benefit is the boost in credibility it serves you and the new business you can gain from your efforts.

But today it is necessary to think beyond the online/offline divide. Your business can benefit from article marketing online and offline and use both strategies to compliment each other. The idea is to get new business and increase your visibility as well as your credibility. If you are a brick and mortar business person then you’ll want to start a website. If you run an online business then you can still use offline marketing tactics to get people to visit your website. The interplay between online and offline is growing and will continue to grow into the foreseeable future.

When it comes to marketing your business with articles, I recommend doing your research on keywords and topics early on. Then, narrow down who your target audience is. Your audience may be different for online and offline and that’s OK. It could be the same. Either way, you’ll need to figure out who your target market is and write toward that market. Then you need to research publications from which to receive a byline.

Article marketing is effective online as well as offline. Try it! I’m sure you’ll agree.

Well, I could go on and on about traditional marketing, but today, I thought I´d let some of the best in the business hand out the advice and I can just comment.

Customers buy for their reasons, not yours.
- Orvel Ray Wilson

How true! This is something to remember when you are planning your traditional marketing campaigns. What do your customers want?

“People don’t want to be “marketed TO”; they want to be “communicated WITH.”
- Flint McGlaughlin

Yet another great traditional marketing tip. Whether you send out a paper newsletter or just market with ads, make sure that you are really communicating with your clients, not preaching at them. A good way to make sure you have that is to really focus on what your target market is like and who they are.

Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.
- Al Ries

If you get the strategy figured out and get your timing down . . . the rest of your marketing should be pretty easy! Not to mention,you´ll find that these traditional marketing techniques are very effective and if you focus on them first, you will usually be far more successful.

There you have it. Traditional marketing advice from some of the greats. We can learn so much by listening to those who have already been through the marketing game.

Would you tell one person about your business, but not tell their friend standing on the other side of you? Would you invite someone to dinner without inviting their spouse? Of course you wouldn´t! So why would you stick to marketing your business offline when there is a whole world of potential customers online? Integrated marketing is the key to reaching as many clients as possible.

While traditional marketing is still a very good thing, it certainly isn´t the only option out there these days. No business can work to its full potential without taking advantage of integrated marketing, since the internet opens up so much more to you. Even local online advertising can be a huge plus for your business!

Integrated marketing doesn´t have to be terribly complicated. Just setting up a blog or website online can be one way of starting to branch out. You can use online ads, but there are plenty of other methods of gaining publicity as well.

There are plenty of traditional marketing techniques that can help increase your sales and make your business more public. The traditional marketing ideas that have survived this long have done so because they are successful, so you can use them with confidence.

1. Contests. These are always a popular method of traditional marketing. You can really make a contest work for you, especially if you are giving away some great prizes. The media is usually more than happy to broadcast contests for free.
2. Affiliates. Getting other people to sell for you in return for a small percentage can really help boost publicity. After all, what is better, having one person talking about the business or ten?
3. Sponsoring. This is a traditional marketing technique that is very popular because it works. Sponsor a Little League team or a high school soccer team to get more publicity. This will have your business logo plastered everywhere. Or you can sponsor events, with your logo on the tents and chairs.

Traditional marketing is a great way to go these days. Even small businesses can manage to get some traditional style publicity and make more sales off it. Look around at other small businesses and how they are doing marketing in your area to get some ideas, then make them all your own by tailoring them to your business.

Traditional marketing techniques dictate that we should give people the “why”. Why should they buy your product? Why should they hire you to perform service? Human beings are curious and we´re always looking for a reason behind everything, something that often presents itself when we are told to buy.

Your advertising campaigns will be far more effective if you give people a good reason to buy from you. There are several ways to give them the why in your ads.

• Offer a Q and A. Having a mini FAQ in your ad is the perfect way to get your point across.
• Dialog. A conversation between two people or characters can be a handy method to let people know why they should buy your products.
• Bullet points. Go for straightforwardness and honesty with bullet points that state exactly why they should consider your product or services.
• Leave it to pictures. Using photos or drawings to show the why can be a very effective medium in traditional marketing.

Traditional marketing has a lot of little tricks and nuances to learn, but giving people a good reason to go with your company for their needs is a very good start. You´ll be surprised at how well people respond to reason!