Interactive Marketing

There's a new term making the rounds amongst industry analysts and trade show circuits: Interactive Marketing.  Like all of these terms, it is both simple and deceptive.   First the simple part.  Think of traditional, old school marketing and you have the classic "push" model.  A business creates a brand - everything that encapsulates their messages and image - and then pushes it on the market.  We as consumers simply sit back and listen.  In simplest terms, "interactive marketing" is marketing that no longer relies on the "push" model of communication.  Instead, the customer and business "interact" in a "two-way conversation."  This two-way interactivity is of course, powered entirely by the Web, and all that new "social computing" it has unleashed.  

If you think this is some guru-driven wishful thinking, think again.  Here's a great ad put together for Microsoft no less:

 

Now comes the tricky part.  How does a marketing organization, that for the better part of century has pushed "brand" at the center of everything, possibly become "interactive?" This isn't just a change in medium, from TV and print to online. This is a change in style, attitude, and approach.  These changes are too big to cover in one blog post, but here's the first lesson:

"Maintaining Web Sites" is no longer enough!

In the "push" model, the Web site was just a different form factor for the same methods.  In many cases, the Web site was an afterthought.  But even when front-and-center, the Web was treated with the similar "control" focus of brand:  never let it look bad.  The requirements for WCM translated thusly:  no broken links, no bad information, consistency of brand, strict approval processes, controlled version management and so on. In short, the Web site was something to be "maintained" hopefully as smoothly and easily as possible.

Not so for those in pursuit of Interactive Marketing.  The goal isn't pushing brand (though that never goes away either!) The goal is engaging customers, getting them to participate. No longer can you simply have a clean accurate site that pushes your brand.  Now, the interactivity, or rather, effectiveness of your Web presence matters far more than the efficiency of keeping it up to date.

For that, your WCM has to get beyond "automating site maintenance," and provide the tools required to engage your customers - constantly reacting to their interaction with you and optimizing the results your business obtains.