Pull Marketing

| July 20, 2004, 12:03 pm

Marketers and advertisers when beginning to work online brought with them a traditional 'push' mentality, forcing banner adverts, interstitials, pop ups in peoples way. And surprise surprise, people don't like it.

The internet is a pull medium, people search for the things they are interested in and anything that gets in their way is an irritant.

Much better to aim to connect with as many people who are well qualified and show an active interest in what you have to offer. Optimise your site for relevant searches, post in newsgroups and online communities. The one thing more powerful than advertising is word of mouth. And the internet is global word of mouth.

Customers as advocates, or affiliates is a powerful business model, and one that Amazon uses to great affect. With a network of over 900,000 affiliates recommending their products and earning commission on Amazon's sales.

The internet is not short of people searching for things, the challenge is getting these pre qualified prospects onto your site as efficiently as possible and when they are there working very hard not to disappoint them.

Further Reading:
Online Marketing Basics
Click through rates
Affiliate schemes
Affiliate networks