When I started building websites, I used the traditional and still dominant marketing model known as The Marketing Mix. This model considers four factors aimed at a target market. The four factors are product, price, place, and promotion. The assumption is that if each of these ingredients are correct, the marketing activity will more likely hit the bulls eye. This model worked extremely well in mass media like print, radio, and broadcast TV.

However, the very success of this model has sown the seeds of its own demise. Today, because consumers are overloaded with targeted messages they do things like fast forward through or mute TV commercials, delete e-mail newsletters, and bounce from websites that don’t engage them within the first six seconds. More and more consumers are less passive and more active about their information diet. More and more are filtering out messages targeted at them, and taking control of their own information needs.

Consumers are now finding solutions to their problems online. They search Google, read online portals, and news sites. They are active on social media like Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. Buyers watch YouTube videos, listen to bloggers’ advice and opinions. They visit company websites only if they believe the content will provide a solution to what they care about.

After persisting with the target marketing model far too long, I came to realize that the full potential of the internet is very different from that of print, radio, TV and other one-way forms of communication. The real power of the internet is more like face-to-face or telephone conversation, which are two-way forms of communication. The real pay off comes not just by building a website, but in building online experiences that engage business and ideal customers in conversation.

Therefore, I use and recommend what I call the conversation marketing model. This model not only takes full advantage of the unique capabilities of the internet. It also provides a way for businesses to engage authentically with people who are increasingly filtering out messages targeted at them, and increasingly taking more responsibility for their information diet.

In this model the business is still shown as a critical part of the process. But it has been dethroned from the center of the marketing universe. Instead of occupying the center, it occupies a space off to one side, where it is of equal but not greater importance than the customer. And the strategy, instead of being housed entirely within the context of the business, occupies a space shared by your customer. This is so, because the new rules require that both the business and the customer be involved in the development of an effective internet marketing strategy.

The new rules are about getting consumer permission, starting a real conversation, listening, being authentic, being useful, and offering valuable content. The new rules are about thinking more carefully about the business and the customer before jumping into a strategy or technology. The new rules are about measuring everthing, and responding constantly and skillfully to visitor behavior and opinion. Marketers everywhere are beginning to understand and use these rules.

Rethinking marketing strategies according to these rules is not easy. It’s a huge leap. My business is to provide resources, and help guide people through the process.

• Read this blog post. Congratulations! This was a good first step.
• Learn more through my introduction to internet marketing workshops.
• Get started by evaluating your current internet marketing strategy and develop a prioritized list of next steps to shift the new rules.

Now it’s your turn.

What’s your greatest challenge in rethinking your marketing strategies according to the new rules?