Do What Branding Did To Martha Stewart With Your Own Online Marketing Campaign

Dec 23rd , 2007

by Marsha Maung

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Many people have asked this question before and I’ve spent a lot of time explaining to them why online marketing should be a part of every business’ marketing plan – whether you’re planning to spearhead a local market or trying to penetrate the global souk, online marketing should be an integral part of the business strategy. “Why should I do some online marketing sh** when I only want to sell local?” they ask me indignantly and protective of their stash of cash.

Popularity. Getting famous. That’s my answer.

I ask you to look at Martha Stewart. Oprah Winfrey. I generally like to use women as examples because the stark contrast between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ is more apparent, so, men shouldn’t take it too hard! :-) If you take Martha Stewart, strip her of her titles, her books, her shows, her recipes, her refined clothing, luxurious cars and homes…what do you have?

A woman with a family who cooks! So, how did Martha Stewart become the person that she is today? Well, she isn't much now after all that absconding with money, legal suits and hoopla over the company and such....but just rewind a little....back to where she was a household name for everything wholesome. What happened? How did a simple housewife with a penchant for deep-frying and planting exotic flowers become one of the most rich and famous people in the world? Branding. That’s right! Branding. Martha Stewart is a brand, so, when you take a woman, stuff her name everywhere, put her face on every imaginable and possible ad space possible, put her recipes, advices and cook books all over the cyber world, air space, radio programs, television commercials, you get….Martha Stewart, the incredibly wealthy yet simple-to-start-with woman with an army of branding people behind her.

So, where does your business fit in? If you’ve not already figured it out by now, what I am trying to get at is that every single business starts out like a simple woman. Whether you’re trying to sell to a local market or an infiltrate the international bazaar, it’s up to you. The only way to make the kind of money you’re hoping to make it to create an uproar. And in as far as I know, today, there’s no cheaper, faster and more effective way to generating public attention as the Internet! By creating an online presence, it doesn’t usually mean that you have to be an International brand or cater to the global market. What you want is some place where YOUR POTENTIAL CONSUMERS can find out more information about you?

You would want people who can’t reach you to find you as well….that’s why an online marketing campaign should be in place. The potential is there and you’re creating a platform for the future too. Imagine one day, you get so big that you are considering a franchise program. Do you want to start all over again? Why not create an online marketing campaign that sets you up for something bigger later on and make the transition between local to global faster and easier with a proper online marketing campaign?

Granted, online marketing is not an easy game to play. In fact, some people have mastered the art of marketing a website, a product, a company or a person online so well that we have to say that they have turned online marketing into a form of art! It’s partly because of the fact that where online marketing is concerned, the results are often unpredictable. Because the ultimate decision is not always yours. Marketing strategies are more like ‘tests’ when executed because everyone hovers over the results over a couple of weeks of months. And furthermore, the ‘result’ of an online marketing campaign is hard to measure. It’s not like a movie or a CD release whereby sales can be measured. With an online marketing campaign, the only thing that lets you know whether you’ve been successful is how far up you’re ranked in Google or what’s the increase in traffic like. Increase in sale cannot be attributed to online marketing alone because along with the online one, you would be doing your offline marketing as well. So which is which? It’s often hard to tell.

But at the end of the day, very few companies (if not none) can survive in this dog-eat-dog business world today without online presence and proper branding. And if you’re keen to maximize the full potential of your business, it’s time to get your online marketing campaign going.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer who has been in the search engine marketing business for more than 8 years. Today, she spends her time alternating between being a mother to her kids and mother to her clients' websites and blogs! Now, she is a popular SEO blog content writer and service provider. Visit her website http://www.marshamaung.com for more info and if you want dirty personal details, visit her blog at http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com.