Easy access by anyone and the credibility factor

In traditional mass media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines), marketers had to have a lot of capital just to get their message out. In cyberspace, that is not the case. Everyone has the ability to contact millions of people. The old media gave advertisers a certain amount of credibility, because it took financial backing just to get on TV or in the paper. Online marketing does not have this built-in credibility, because the sophisticated people online realize that there is no "barrier to entry." So it is vital to build your credibility and rapport in other ways.

Promotions done online are similar to signs tacked to light poles or flyers pinned to a bulletin board at the laundromat. They have no credibility behind them.

It is true that anyone with enough money can buy an ad in the newspaper. If doesn't matter if you're running a scam or if you're Mother Teresa. If you've got the money, you can buy the ad. In spite of this, newspaper advertising has a certain amount of credibility that is due simply to the fact that someone invested money to run it. The longer the ad runs, the more money it costs, the more credibility it builds. That is why one of the fundamental rules of traditional mass advertising is frequency and repetition. In traditional mass media, success comes from running the same message, with very little information content, over and over again, for a long time.

Online, that is a recipe for failure.

To be market successfully in cyberspace, you must have a constantly updated message, with extensive information -- just the opposite of the traditional advertising approach.

In the online environment, nothing has any automatic credibility, no matter how long it "runs." In fact, the longer something is online, the less effective it becomes. Online, people expect things to change. If something stays the same week after week, month after month, it gets ignored.

A year or two ago, the direct marketing industry "discovered" the online services and the Internet. Hundreds of reports came out showing how you could "make your fortune in the coming information society." These were little more than the old, tried and true direct marketing "how to" reports with one small change. Instead of running classified advertising in the back of The National Enquirer, now you could run classified ads online for a lot less money.

There's just one problem with that approach -- it doesn't work.

To build credibility, you must build relationships. This is done by interacting with your market, by getting involved online in the things that interest your market. You simply can't have credibility without making an investment. In traditional mass media, that investment comes largely in the cost of getting your message out. Online, where the distribution cost of information is not a factor, the investment must be in the content and integrity of your message.

Easy access by anyone and the credibility factor

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