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DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS
successfully led their buyers through this process. on the Internet. One successful example brings new
Many years later the internet emerged. The required other examples, and within time now the classical
sales channels and the power of the guardians of the
time to find information about a specific product information, the sellers, is no longer there.
changed significantly. With a single search on Google,
now each one of us disposes of much more than a per- Now there are buyers who know more than the sell-
son really needs. Now we do not search only products ers, and one has to be ready for this, now the sellers
and information related to the products, but also de- should also become more familiar with their products
tails and history about the company, experiences of and the products of the competition, as well as with
other users, alternative options… The companies did the discussions on the Internet – the experiences and
not change immediately, frankly speaking even today the perceptions.
there are many that haven’t changed. They were still
guardians of the information and they shared them on The approach changes, now marketing and sales
the internet with carefully adjusted doses. intertwine more than ever. Today marketing people
are the ones who are obliged to produce the content
However, there were companies that were not which should inform and educate the buyer with a
afraid to publically expose all information. These single clear goal, which is to sell them the product
companies started to share with the public their of course. Now the marketing strategies through con-
knowledge and experience, in their web-sites, blogs, tent are much more developed and they include more
video advices, etc. When this is properly done, the segments of pure sales. This does not mean that the
company becomes relevant for the products and the role of the sellers is less important, however now it
services that it speaks of. It proves its expertise and has significantly greater cohesion with the marketing
this becomes an important reference in the decision activities and it requires a different approach.
of the very buyers where to buy a specific product. In
addition, this user content pushed these companies Ultimately, the goal is not to prove whether mar-
on the top of Google’s results. These companies were keting or sales is more important today, although
not supposed to inefficiently spend money for a classi- there are more frequent discussions on this topic, the
cal form of advertising and sale, now the buyers found goal is to make these two activities which were sepa-
them and they came directly to the companies in or- rated in the past to merge into one, to learn from each
der to buy the product. other and to improve the result of the company. The
The key in a company is to accept such a different era of the so called inbound content
strategy which in the long run may largely affect the marketing is already present and we
development of the company. This approach provides must accept it seriously because every-
a vast advantage in the position that a company has thing contrary to this is like banging the
head against the wall.
September 2016 (photo: commons.wikimedia.org)
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