Are You Facing an Extinction Level Event? Outbound vs Inbound Marketing

I Don’t Want to Do That Kind of Advertising!

I tutor ADD and ADHD kids, part-time. It is how I started in business online and, in one way or another, I have been tutoring and coaching kids for more than 30 years. Tutoring is something you become addicted to. Tutoring, coaching, and mentoring children is incredibly rewarding, the kids give you so much back! It is also a way I can give back, paying it forward by helping kids in need of my help.

You might be asking:

What any of this has to do with advertising, outbound marketing, the Internet, and/or inbound marketing?

I’m glad you asked!

I was working with one of my students, a very bright young man who attends one of the best catholic high schools in the area. I will call him Bill. Bill had a paper due on dinosaurs and the questions had to do with social behavior, communication, auditory and visual (i.e., body language), and other visual displays (e.g., crests, horns, etc.). It was an interesting assignment, particularly for someone interested in paleontology and paleoanthropology. One really doesn’t have a lot to do with the other…but as a physical anthropologist and a scientist I find the “old stuff” fascinating.

Well, one of the questions was actually a typical high school level question:

Did the dinosaurs instinctively know they were heading for extinction?

Now, we could get into a whole discussion on the topic but it is really kind of a dumb question…sorry! In actuality, how could they have known? Even if you anthropomorphize, attributing all sorts of human characteristics to dinosaurs, and with Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park I through III there certainly has been enough of that, how could they have possibly known that a huge rock was going to fall out of the sky and cause an extinction event the likes of which the Earth had never seen before or since…maybe!

Now you are really asking:

What the heck does any of this have to do with advertising, outbound marketing, the Internet, and/or inbound marketing?

Interestingly, I was recently discussing advertising, the Internet, and inbound marketing with a prospective client, complete with a detailed report on just how to boost sales and develop a relationship with current and prospective clients, the whole shabang!

The report detailed a strategy that included fixing their static website, something as extinct as the dinosaurs in its efficacy, integrating Web 2.0 (social media) into their marketing strategy, and developing both a video and article marketing strategy in order to enhance their authority online and increase traffic. The plan would increase traffic not only to their website but through the doors of their business; and thus allowing for a very real opportunity to convert Internet traffic into sales, both online and offline.

To my amazement, the business owner looked at me and said:

“I don’t want to do that kind of advertising!”

Yes, in a world in which the Internet is not just a cool toy but an incredibly powerful resource for businesses big and small, a resource that connects to the majority of consumers worldwide, there are still business owners who “don’t want to do that kind of advertising!”

Do you get the connection?

I thought you might?

I was witnessing the precursor of an extinction event…that particular business’s extinction!

I am relatively certain the dinosaurs didn’t have a clue an asteroid was going to take a Caribbean vacation, dropping into the Gulf of Mexico, or whatever the dinosaurs called it back then. Yet, just as sure as the asteroid hit and altered the history of planet Earth forever, creating conditions that would eradicate the most powerful beasts to ever walk the Earth, so this particular business would face extinction in the not too distant future! I knew an extinction level event was going to occur.

In fact, if I were a betting man I would make book on it!

You see, people are driving the market now, “Googling” to find what they need, when they need it. The days of the full page spread in the Yellow Pages or the Cleveland Plain Dealer paying off like they once did are behind us; and search-based, new media advertising, along with the implementation of an inbound marketing strategy, is the new advertising and marketing reality.

Ignoring “that kind of advertising” will have an adverse impact on the life expectancy of your business…an extinction-level event or E.L.E if you want to go all Deep Impact, Armageddon, and Hollywood on me!

Ultimately, the transition must be made or extinction will be your business’s reality. Like the dinosaurs happily grazing on grass, or eating each other for lunch, the end of outbound advertising is upon us. The transition to a new form of marketing, inbound marketing, has arrived and has, at least for the time being, transformed the landscape.

To use another evolutionary phrase here:

It is “survival of the fittest!”

Those who are willing to adapt will flourish; and, those unwilling to make the necessary transition will find they are facing the new reality head on.

The transition does not have to be painful, in fact it can be quite pleasant given the proper guidance and the implementation of the proper strategy. The days of outbound advertising being enough are over, inbound marketing and creating The Ultimate Internet Image will determine your evolutionary fitness and your ability to succeed long term.

It is up to you, extinction or adaptation.

The resources are within your grasp!

Unlike the dinosaurs who had nowhere to hide and no clue what was about to transpire, you have the knowledge and the wherewithal to alter the course and avoid an E.L.E!

The choice is yours!

For a free inbound marketing and comprehensive analysis, contact me anytime!

John Zajaros

Director of Marketing

The Ultimate Internet Image

440-821-7018 (cell)

216-539-7412 (office)

216-712-6526 (home)

Skype: johnzajaros1

johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com

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