eMarketing Association Blog

1. Dealing with the IT Department - It's been IT vs. Marketing in many circles for too long. It's time we understood that we need to partner with our IT friends to implement our marketing programs. It's simple, we need them and they need us.

2. Continuing Education - Marketers of the 21st century, need to be constantly learning. Knowledge in marketing comes with an expiration date, and continuing professional development is a necessity. Take a class, get a certification, read a book, attend a seminar or conference whatever works for you, but keep learning.

3. Bad Marketing - Anyone can call themselves a marketer, web designer, SEO expert, consultant and so on. There is a lot of bad marketing out there as a result. Poorly created and executed marketing programs degrade our profession, and create mistrust between clients and marketers. By doing marketing right, you help to tip the scale in favor of our profession.

4. Lack of Trust - Spam, identity theft, intrusive advertising and technological glitches have left many mis-trusting of marketing in general, and especially eMarketing. You are either part of the problem or part of the solution.

5. Know-It-Alls - Nobody fully understands all aspects of eMarketing. There is simply too much to know, and whatever you do know is changing at supersonic speed. If you are going to be an expert, you will have to specialize in one aspect of emarketing.

6. Ethical Practices - The Internet has spawned a unprecedented mass of un-ethical businesses. There have always been scam artists and bottom feeders, but the Internet seems to have brought them out in epic numbers. Make sure your own practices are squeaky clean and try to educate your customers about some of the pitfalls of ecommerce.

7. Corporate Culture - In many companies no department "owns" the website, and every department "owns" the website. Websites should belong to marketing, not finance, operations, IT or legal. It is difficult to produce good marketing by committee, especially when the committee doesn't have a clue. Collaboration is important, and your associates should provide input, but marketing should make the final decisions.

8. International Commerce - The Internet has made products and services available around the world as close to customers as their living room (or wherever they have their computer). This new world channel allows for unprecedented revenue flows in and out of foreign countries, and that impact could eventually have a dramatic effect on our domestic economy. We have a lot in common with people of other cultures and countries, but there are differences. Understanding is the key to good international commerce as well as relations.

9. Intellectual Property - It has never been easier to steal someone else's hard work. Everything from music, to software and images are lifted from the Internet every day. This is a bad thing.

10. Customer Expectations - Never before have customers expected so much. Managing your customer expectations is vital to marketers, because if you don't your competitors will. Without customers you will not have a business, take the time to get to know them, treat them with care and respect, the same way you want to be treated as a customer.

Number 11 - Free Bonus Challenge for Marketers

11. Love - The dictionary defines love as a benevolent concern for the good of another. Relationships with your associates, employees, customers and even competitors can dramatically affect your success and happiness. At the end of the day, it is still people, not technology, that makes our profession and our lives worthwhile.