Getting The Word Out

As far as marketing and advertising the internet is a veritable marketing machine extraordinaire. Due to the vast and global power of the internet we can see everyday how advertising has become less of a wasteful exercise and its value has become more easily and efficiently measurable. Speaking in terms of efficiency as well as sheer size, the advertising industry has begun to outgrow its apparent infancy. With its roots deeply planted in the late 1800, advertising was spearheaded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker. His visions surpassed those in his time and he was the first to invent the department store as well as the concept of price tags which were used to eliminate price haggling. His ambitions also led him to be one of the first people to buy space in his local newspaper to promote his store. While he upheld the strict Christian values he lived by in his business dealings, we can’t all say the same. Let’s face it, unless we’re advertising religion, religion and advertising don’t sit at the same table anymore. The concepts that Wanamaker developed have been the very foundation for what the advertising and marketing industries have used to create concepts of their own. But like everything else, there’s a time for change and the industry has evolved. While in his time and to our industry, Wanamaker was considered a visionary, what he could never have foreseen was the internet.

There are many entrepreneurial firms that are now in the business of selling advertisers the modern tools they need to market and advertise effectively and reduce waste. There are big companies who are involved in this process like Google, that are cleverly disguised as search engines when in fact they are probably the most valuable online advertising agency today. There are also smaller but equally successful companies like Yodle who operate in a more local capacity but still find themselves to be very effective in providing merchants the opportunities they need to garner the strength and scope of the internet to peddle their wares. Not convinced? Have a look at some yodle reviews and see for yourself how the internet and companies like yodle have revitalized whole industries by putting merchants in the direct view of the customers they want to target. New age internet advertising may take some exotic forms but they all have one salient thing in common which is a deep desire to replace an old and seemingly defunct approach to advertising with one in which advertisers are only obligated to pay for actions by consumers that are real and measurable. Some examples of these actions are web link clicking, video sharing, call placing, and coupon printing or finally and most successfully, buying something. In its simplest and most basic form, using the internet involves querying a search engine with what is referred to as keywords then scanning the offered results as well as the links that are sponsored by advertisers. In effect, the consumer is able express his intention twice and let merchants know that hey, what you’re doing is working!