At the beginning of the Internet-Era marketing “experts” led people into thinking that the simple fact of having a website would have made them “rich”. To some extent this legalized scam (turned out into the infamous Internet-bubble) has worked efficiently luring the greed-part of our “self” and still preserves its momentum. ? Time passed but the song remains the same ( ?Led Zeppelin :)) “Make Internet-monies fast!” the “marketers” shout, “go blogging-tweeting-socialnetworking and get rich!” (yes, websites and e-mails aren’t mainstream anymore.) The (booby)trap of this new scam is – again – the focus on empty technologies rather than on ideas, contents and experiences. It worth nothing to have a fancy Facebook page, a zillion of (purchased) “like” or “+1” ? if you ain’t nothing to share. That’s the triumph of Aristophane’s Inferior Argument over the Superior.
Introducing Uros Baric, a young, talented classical guitarist from Slovenja. Baric runs a blog plenty of useful, firts-hand information about playing, (video)recording, digital audio and video workstations, blogging, classical music self promotion, and runs his own recording label too.
What makes Baric’s Internet presence unique is that instead of re-posting someone else’s re-post of something, he shares his own experience. He explores ideas, tries ?it into the wild and ? shares the results: in one sentence, he builds knowledge.
Thanks to his experience, just to provide a couple of examples, I spared a lot of time and money not purchasing a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera and, on the contrary, I discovered the brilliant MuseScore notation software. That’s definitely turned me into a “customer”.
So, unless you’re a big company whose drive is, for instance, the price (and maybe even if you are), monetizing the Internet-Self implies time and effort to “give” people your experience and establish “confidence” to create a business relationship. This is nothing new, as Giancarlo Livraghi wrote back in 1997 is his “Price, Service, Trust” quoting Jonatha Moules:
Many of the virtual shop windows highlight massive discounts in colored flashes, apparently in the belief that cut-price offers are a key factor in successful selling …..
Massive discounting is certainly viable online ….. And since only a small proportion of Internet surfers currently use the medium to shop, low prices appear to be a good strategy for drumming up business.
But the assumption that electronic commerce requires less marketing spending, or is only viable through pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap strategies, is to misunderstand the new medium. One of the most important characteristics of electronic commerce is that it re-writes the rules of selling, but not necessarily in the way you expect.
Werner Knetsch, managing director of the German arm of the consultancy Arthur D. Little, argues that many assumptions about selling online have proved wrong. ?The real challenge is creating a clear value proposition for customers. In marketing, being first and attracting customer “hits” on the web site have not proved as important as being well prepared for your new market. Remember, only 6% of visitors will buy something. ?
Think of it, when you will assess the ? “digital marketing strategy proposal” from the next “Internet Marketing Guru” knocking at your door.
Lexis-Nexis Italian partner, Giuffrè Editore, is active in both the editorial and software business. One of its tool is a java application to handle the electronic document filing to the Court’s dock.