Guest Teachers on 10/26/06

The guest teachers that came in to teach us a lesson on Internet Marketing were really informative. They seemed to have a lot of experience in the computer and internet business, across a number of avenues. They went over key aspects of marketing in general, and later focused on direct marketing. They mentioned all of the ways that the internet is used in helping companies to directly sell or market their products and services. I learned of many useful websites as well. Two key things that I learned from the lecture that stood out are in regards to list databases, and the website Local.com, whose headquarters are situated in Orange County.

Local.com

The guy who worked for local.com explained to us that it was an “I.Y.P.” or internet yellow page service. It is an interactive services, that even offers user reviews and maps in addition to contact and location information of local businesses in any area. With local.com, one may search for local businesses, products and services. They have the option to do a business search, a people search, or a job search.

The most popular and the leader in regards to service-directory websites, is Super Pages. Superpages.com is a mixture of the yellow and white pages online, and the premier destination for those who want to locate a U.S. business, maps and driving directions, coupons, and order phone books. It is also a place for businesses to advertise and promote their business, as ad space can also be bought from this high-trafficked website.

I have already benefited from local.com, as I have found some local businesses and products that I am interested in, after having done a search using the website. I did a product search for “music” in the location “Long Beach, CA” and found many different record stores, music schools, and music businesses such as the music business registry. It was a very useful tool to help me find the businesses that are of most interest to me, as I am looking for someone who offers piano lessons locally, as well as great record shops.

http://www.local.com

http://www.superpages.com

Lists Developed for Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is that such as telephone marketing and direct mail like catalogs, envelope mailers, self-mailers and shared mail. We learned about addressable media, such as those personally addressed (ex.- Dear Samantha, check out this special offer we think you would like.), and mass media, which is just one standardized mail out format.

I thought it was awesome how companies can make their own lists, as far as who they want to send their mail to, or who they want to call. There are websites that offer services for a fee, to segment the customer or business information in their databases, and give you the ideal set of recipients for the direct marketing. This way, promotional tools or messages can be tailored to address the correct market segment. For example, a local 24 hour fitness can buy a list of contact information of people who shop at a near-by Trader Joes health food specialty store, or they can buy a list of people who attend the local Bally’s gym.

www.experian.com

It is amazing how a company can select the people or businesses they want to market to, and all the information is available. People at these list database companies are paid good money to constantly maintain the lists, so they are always trustworthy and useful. I plan on using the two services, an iyp and a list database service such as the ones we had learned about in class, in future business endeavors.