Larry Kilbourne's Website

By Larry Kilbourne

It seems almost trite to observe that a chief result of the Internet revolution is that it has democratized an astounding range of human activities, making them available to anyone with a connection to the Web. Before, many of these were off-limits to those not possessing specialized knowledge and often, significant financial resources.  Thus in the retail world e-Bay showed us how anyone could become a seller of goods without any investment at all in brick and mortal stores.  Or take publishing, where not so long ago one needed an agent, publisher, and a contract. And the list goes on....

However, the blessings of opportunity afforded by the Internet can be deceptive: Ease of access to and ease of execution of a range of activities should not lull us into the mistaken belief that it is also easy to obtain good results from these activities.

Two cases in point relevant to marketing are the use of online surveys to obtain real-time business intelligence, and, the use of webinars to reach geographically dispersed audiences simultaneously for prospecting and sales.  Both offer significant opportunities for marketing goods and services at greatly reduced costs. But the offer is a two-edged sword.

Until recently, conducting a survey was an expensive and time-consuming business.  If you really needed reliable data, you had to hire a market research company and the costs could be substantial.  Now, for less than $30 you can license software from Survey Monkey or a host of other providers and conduct the survey yourself for a fraction of the cost.

Writing about this some years ago in an article in Quirk's Marketing Research Review, I struck a cautionary note, warning that

... the ease by which [online] surveys can be constructed should not mislead you into thinking that creating and conducting a good survey is therefore easy. (Avoid  the Field of Dreams Fallacy, January 2005)

In other words, while the Internet makes it relatively easy and inexpensive to conduct a survey, it makes it just as easy to conduct a poorly constructed one that will yield unreliable data.  It may be exponentially cheaper to conduct surveys online compared to paper-based or telephone surveys, but it still requires time and careful planning and some degree of expertise to undertake a survey that is going to provide you with useful, statistically reliable information.

The same is true of webinars, which I'm currently writing about in a series entitled "Ways Webinars Fail."

Webinars have fantastic marketing potential in my estimation because of their relative ease and affordability as means of prospecting for new clients and educating current customers.  While a "roadshow" to introduce a new product can easily (and conservatively) exceed $50,000 in costs, or a professionally produced video $20,000 or more, you can showcase your product via a webinar at a fraction of the expense.  Who would object to this?

I have seen companies spend great sums of money on roadshows, video productions, or other pricey marketing campaigns, yet draw the line at spending comparatively little on webinars because past experience has convinced them they aren't effective and worth the cost.

The reason for this often can be found in looking at the webinars they've attempted or to which they've been exposed: Slapdash affairs using poorly designed PowerPoint slides and conducted in an off-the-cuff manner, leading to dull or confusing (or both) presentations.  Little wonder they lack credibility with many.

The problem, here again, is that we have been seduced by the ease and affordability of this medium into thinking that it must be correspondingly easy to produce high-quality results.  It simply isn't.  Good webinars must incorporate a lot of the time and effort found in professional video productions.

In these two instances, and many others, we need constantly to remind ourselves that if the Internet has broken down barriers to marketing activities once beyond our reach, it hasn't negated the elements of skill, careful planning, and attention to execution that are required to ensure good results and an acknowledged ROI.

In short: faster, cheaper and easier doesn't equate to better.

Copyright © 2009 by Larry Kilbourne, Ph.D. Dr. Kilbourne is an independent marketing consultant. He may be reached at lkphd@yahoo.com