Over the past week or so, we’ve been talking a lot about what this year’s Presidential election means for the economy, and for your business.  Today we’re going to look at an example by revisiting our friend the caramel apple seller.  Let’s fast forward to two years from now.  Television networks broadcast only in digital signals; a lot of space on the broadcast spectrum was freed up.  Legislation was put into place to grant the internet part of that freed-up space.  Because television is broadcast only in digital, television advertising costs quite a bit more, however, internet marketing costs haven’t risen all that much, if at all.  Anyone who doesn’t prepare their home televisions to receive digital broadcasts is without television programming, while internet use has grown exponentially as broadband access has spread to just about every community, and continues to grow.

With a degree of spending devoted to technological study and enhancement, the internet works faster and search engines are able to crawl even more websites and deliver customized, dynamic results to searchers.  The caramel apple seller, once having advertised solely on the television, began using the internet to market his product, and now uses the internet exclusively to run internet radio ads, online video advertisement, his informative blog, his caramel apple email campaign and of course his website.  All of those combine to form his custom-tailored internet marketing strategy, and are managed and maintained by his internet marketing agency, leaving him free to discover new caramel apple recipes and communicate with his customers.

Hit the rewind button, to the winter of 2008.  He has an agent handling his television spots, works directly with the local radio stations, and works with a print ad agency to handle all of his mailings.  He’s paying three different entities to manage most of his marketing needs, but he still has to do a lot of the legwork.  The promise of digital television seems vague and distant.

Obviously, we’ve taken some creative license in presuming what the situation might be in two years time.  But before the switch to digital, and before space on the broadcasting spectrum is allocated to the internet, before funds are devoted to researching technology specifically relating to “Next-Gen Broadband,” our caramel apple seller is paying three different groups to run his advertising.  But in order to get a good grasp on the success of his marketing strategies, he still has to acquire and analyze reports.  When we fast-forwarded to the autumn of 2010, he was working with an internet marketing agency, reaching more people with more channels of advertisement.  He’s only paying one entity, and that one entity is producing real-time reports and helping him analyze and understand the results of his marketing campaigns.

Why not get a jump-start on the future of marketing and implement your complete internet marketing strategy?  Why wait for the internet to evolve without you when you and your company can benefit from evolving with the internet?  We’re nearing a time that will be as exciting as when the internet first stepped into people’s homes.  Soon, the internet will be easily accessed everywhere.  Wi-Fi hotspots won’t exist because everywhere will be a hot-spot.