What is Interactive Marketing?

It's not just a fancy name for marketing.  It isn't synonymous to Internet Marketing and Online Marketing.  It is the practice of responsive marketing, which is the smartest marketing practice that is available.  It's based on the same principle of closed loop learning.  First, you have to understand the traditional advertising method in order to understand what Interactive Marketing is.

The traditional advertising method is comprised of creating and conveying a message to a select target group of consumers.  The message is conveyed and the feedback is measured by the change in sales.  Think about it this way.  A = Advertiser, and C = Consumers.  A sends a message to C, and then C interprets the message by either buying or not buying.  The most important element for measuring the effectiveness of advertising is C's interpretation of the message.

This is where the answer to the question of "What is Interactive Marketing?" all comes together.  A marketer gets smarter by analyzing specific feedback.  In an Interactive setting, a marketer can specifically measure C's feedback by honing in on how the message is interpreted.  This enables an advertiser to learn how to improve the message.  Although there have always been methods available for measuring specific feedback, they weren't used often because they were so costly.

The Internet enables marketers to track all consumer behavior in order to collect specific feedback.  Internet marketers are able to become smarter and provide a compelling message that is clearly interpreted.  This is why only a few years of Internet marketing experience can equate to a career lifetime of traditional marketing.  Just think what an Internet marketer will know at the end of a career lifetime.

Interactive marketing is a powerful practice that improves the efficiency of your advertising, and it translates into more revenue and higher profit margins.  Internet marketing is the new wave and your competition has been using it for some time now, so isn't it time for you to realize the benefits too?  Next week I will discuss the downsides of using ROI as a main performance metric, for marketing efforts.