New Media Advertising
New media advertising is a rising phenomenon that has become more prevalent across world markets in the past 10-15 years, as the use of the Internet by everyday people has increased everywhere in the world. Over 73% of adults in Great Britain accessed the Internet every day in 2013, which is 20 million more people than in 2006.
What Is New Media Advertising?
New media is usually contrasted to traditional media, that is newspapers, television advertisements, ads in cinemas, billboards and any other tried-and-tested way of marketing products and services that businesses have been using before the rise of the Internet. With new technologies though, a number of ways that companies can use to convey their messages have also emerged, such as blogs, pod-casts, message boards, product reviews, and social networking sites.
These sites can be used by potential clients, existing clients and business owners or their representatives. It is a transparent forum where interested parties can post all sorts of questions and receive answers. Generally, businesses tend to shy away from getting into these types of public discussions with their clients, but in actual fact just the transparency and honest responses to customer complaints and issues raises your esteem in the public eye.
The "Viral Effect"
The other phenomena that new media advertising is excellent at responding to is known as viral marketing. Generally, you should assume as a business owner that people will be willing to share the content and sites you have created with their friends, family, and other networks. This is why it is imperative to create content that is informative or entertaining - as anything else is unlikely to be shared. On sites such as Facebook, if you make regular posts that are interesting or funny, then other users will "like" them. This shows your page on their feeds as well then, increasing your exposure and the curiosity of other people in those networks.
Using the Viral Effect for Rebates and Coupons
Social media sites and other shared Internet sites make an excellent place to share rebates and coupons that you are currently offering. Also, these sites are a good place to share information about any sales that you have coming up. If you have an on-line shop, then you will be able to quickly and easily share links to your product descriptions on social networking sites so users will be able to see what you are offering and go directly to the sales page if they are interested.
Why New Media Advertising?
As in many other places around the world, the UK is going into new media advertising because traditional media is losing its influence on consumers. Especially when it comes to newspapers, which in the past were a source of ad revenue for many companies, as these have been going on-line the ability to advertise for smaller players has all but disappeared. Because traditional advertising has become so costly for small and medium sized businesses, the Internet has taken off as a way to get exposure no matter how tiny your enterprise is.
At the same time, research has also shown that most consumers do all of their research and fact-collection about products that they wish to buy on-line. Therefore, it is much more convenient for them to be able to purchase whatever they need using the Internet as well.
The Feedback Effect
The other reason why it makes sense for businesses to get into Internet advertising is because consumers are more likely to believe feedback from others in their peer-network about products and services rather than marketing or sales text. Many of the more covert and predatory marketing tactics are now well and truly in the public eye, and when people get the feeling that something is too "salesy", they usually back off from making a payment commitment.
By creating entertaining or informative content for blogs, RSS feeds, YouTube videos, podcasts and appropriate content for social media websites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, you can reach out to your readers in a way that they can appreciate and value. In most cases this means positive feedback in the form of "likes" or comments on your posts and of course sharing among users on the network so that as your feedback grows, so does your exposure and organic growth. Ultimately, this type of natural business expansion is the best way to market all of your products and services. New media marketing is most effectively marketed by internet-driven technology such as blogs, RSS, web video productions, pod-casts and social networking platforms.