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Much of marketing has and always will come down to how effectively a product, service or idea is communicated. Many years ago (and to some extent still today), this would mean how good a speaker or street vendor was at selling his or her product. How confident they were in conveying all the necessary information and how charismatic they were as individuals more often that not would be the deciding factor in how well their product or service sold. Obviously, other factors came into play as well, but nevertheless at the centre of all successful businesses lay good communication. In our current climate of course, the modes of communication have taken a massive shift towards the digital, and accordingly, communicating your product to a wide audience must now be done via a whole new cross section of digital platforms.
YouTube
The phenomenon of YouTube has totally revolutionized the way in which we consume and share media. Prior to its inception, our concept of what was possible in terms of viewing film and video content was limited to which programs and commercials were on television and which video cassette tapes were available to rent from the local video store. However, through YouTube, individuals can now access millions upon millions of hours of completely diverse content, ranging from music videos to feature films, to instructional videos and all entirely for free. For those wishing to market their business or ideas online, YouTube is of course a prospective goldmine. Not only are you able to build your own online channel and upload promotional materials yourself at zero cost, but you can have commercials for your product inserted at the start of featured online videos watched by millions of people.
Facebook and Twitter
In today’s digitally-oriented society, you simply cannot afford not to have a presence on Facebook and Twitter. As with YouTube, accounts on Facebook and Twitter are entirely free and provide you with fantastic opportunities to communicate and promote your goods and services. Advertising on these sites or promoting your own Facebook page through web links or online giveaways will undoubtedly lead to far greater coverage than if you were solely to use more conventional marketing techniques. With such a vast majority of the population now using these sites in their day to day lives, by tapping into social media sites, you are effectively tapping into a potential market of millions.
Digital signage
In many respects, some of the oldest methods of marketing still remain among the best. Despite the internet now taking precedence as the central platform for promotional materials, far more conventional forms such as posters and billboards still remain, which proves they are still a very powerful tool. Digital signage in fact takes these traditional forms of advertising a step further. By combining the concept of the billboard or poster with the digital technologies of today, companies such as Saturn Visual are embracing the best of old and new in order to offer a proven contemporary marketing alternative.
