Did you know that the Internet marketing job market has grown over 300% since 2009? (Hess 2012) 93% of marketing professionals implement tools such as social media for business and 82% of the world’s population is reached through social media. (Hess, 2012) Additionally, analysts estimate “ that online ad revenue will increase to $39 billion in sales this year, while print ad spending will fall to about $34 billion.” (Blume 2012)
The shift to digital media poses a threat to traditional marketing media jobs. With digital marketing tools such as Google’s AdWords, where organizations place low cost digital ads with an 80% reach (support.google.com), organization’s no longer need to set aside large budgets needed to carry out expensive traditional print media strategies such as ad space in print publications. The shift has become detrimental for print publications and print houses even at early stages of Internet marketing adoption. In example, “The Washington Post reported print advertising dropped 14 percent for the quarter of 2008, and was down 16 percent for the first nine months of 2008.” (Ahrnes 2008)
In addition, “Time Inc., publisher of Fortune, plans to slash 600 jobs, according to a report in The New York Times. Gannett Co., publisher of USA Today, plans 3,000 job cuts, according to Reuters, and the Tribune Co.’s Los Angeles Times plans to cut 10% of its workforce.” (Tellabs 2008) Fast forward to 2012- 72% of marketers shifted budgets from traditional to digital, (Hahn 2012) furthering the deterioration of the traditional media future.
Additionally, traditional marketer’s jobs are shifting as well. Marketing on web 2.0 technology requires various skills that traditional marketer’s lack, such as being able to analyze and strategize data gathered through tools such as Google Analytics. According to DataXu, when asked which factors significantly reduce an organization’s ability to successfully develop insights from digital marketing data and to act on them in real time, 28% said lack of needed analytic skills.(Hahn 2012) Surely, with the advent of the Internet as a marketing tool, marketing in itself has become a new job.
Internet marketing has allowed other new job opportunities to open, including: web design, mobile content design, SEO optimization specialization, Internet content management, Internet marketing teachers, data analysts, virtual convention managers, amongst many others. (Salisbury 2012)
The Internet provides an extremely close connection between a customer and an organization. Very often, this crucial relationship is misunderstood and organizations fail miserably to implement strategies which are sensitive to a customer’s perception of a brand. In example, Habitat, a high-street furniture retailer, Tweeted phrases relating to the contested Iranian elections to boost its mailing list (Bradshaw 2009), totally disregarding the perceptions of these clients and ultimately managing to offend its client base. Therefore, perhaps the most important and often overlooked job of them all is- Internet marketing psychology.
What do you guys think?
Additionally, can traditional and digital marketing co-exist at a balanced level of profit for both media’s? Explain with examples.
References:
Ahrnes, F. (2008), “Washington Post Co. Earnings Plummet in Third Quarter “, Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/10/31/AR2008103101021.html?hpid=topnews
Blume, A. (2012), “Online Ad Spending Now Surpassing Traditional Print Spend”, Retrieved from http://www.alanblume.com/blog/
Bradshaw, T. (2009), “Twitter do’s and don’ts for brands”, Retrieved from https://onlinecampus.bu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-52647-dt-content-rid-290654_1/courses/12sum2metad737sol/course_documents/TwitterDosanddonts.pdf
Hahn, J. (2012), “72% of Marketers Shifted Budgets From Traditional to Digital in the Past Year”, Retrieved from http://www.dmconfidential.com/blogs/category/Marketing/3436/
Hess, S (2012), “New Media and Internet Marketing Jobs [Infographic]”, Retrieved from http://www.webpronews.com/new-media-and-internet-marketing-jobs-infographic-2012-04
Salisbury (2012), “Internet Marketing Creating Jobs”, Retrieved from http://www.salisburyareafoundation.org/internet-marketing-creating-jobs.html
Support.Google.com (2012) Retrieved from http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1704410
Tellabs, G (2008), “Print media companies slash jobs as economy sputters” Retrieved from http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081029/FREE/810299995/1078
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