Online Direct Marketing – An Impossibility for New-Age Mercurial Minds? 6/02/2008

On the one hand the monitoring of an individuals’ online activity through data mining and intelligent filtering is being described by some as an almost perfect strategic targeting opportunity, but less controlled implementation via blogs and other social networks is where all the hype is and it’s here that marketers stumble across challenging times.

Targeting the individual is getting easier but no matter how personalised the recommendation or information is, many recipients will be passive and prefer to seek out their own information. Consumers can, if looked at in this way, be seen as ‘information foragers’, tracking down the exact information on a topic that interests them, as opposed to topics of casual interest that sees consumers adopt a ‘just tell me’ attitude. Either way, marketers have their work cut out in so far as deciding and evaluating the best place for their products, and campaigns on the Web.

Differing participation levels of blogs seem to prove that people are more interested in challenging than producing information; only about one per cent of people actually write a blog and originate new discussion topics or ‘posts’, and whilst one in ten will respond, challenge or change the existing material the remaining 9 out of 10 remain ‘lurking’, avoiding contribution, and in turn avoiding any hope of marketers have of gathering information on consumer whereabouts and behaviour.

This would be a great tool for viral and buzz methods of Marketing which rely heavily on marketers remaining anonymous and slipping into the role of a consumer, however as with word of mouth communication, it could be construed as dangerous if the original message is then discredited or regarded inaccurate / edited by any extroverts and evangelical types who feel compelled to share their passions, expertise and opinions.

So, it’s time to decide, if indeed at all, how marketers should go about creating a successful direct marketing campaign online? The strategic, targeted approach, where marketers run the risk of targeting faulty and miscalculated information, or just riding the currents in hope of tapping into the right people? Because, as much as some may wish it, all the signs are that the messiness of social networks such as Facebook and My Space, are here to stay. In order to survive, existing direct marketing methods will have to adapt in order to co-exist with emerging consumer behaviour.

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