27A: Reading Reflection No. 3

For this assignment, I read the book Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. The general theme pertained to attracting and maintaining customers in the marketing world--specifically online. It talked about how traditional marketing methods like emails, direct mail and telemarketing have lost their effectiveness due to innovative technology that grabs people’s attention instead.

These tips definitely connected to what I’m learning in ENT3003 because so much of what we do depends on consumers’ willingness to accept and try our products and services. If modern marketing techniques are crowding out the old ones, it’s our responsibility to pinpoint better ways to reach our target audience. 

If I were to design a class exercise based on this book, I would have students promote their venture using both the “old” and “new” marketing tactics discussed in the books. For example, a student could choose to promote their business by sending flyers via direct mail and getting an ad on social media. At the end, they would calculate the growth and reach and determine which tactics worked best for their company.

    Something I learned while reading this book that really surprised me was that if your website has too many sales-oriented messages, it actually deters potential clients. The authors stated that these sites are referred to as “megaphones” and cause people to aimlessly click around and then leave. This is surprising because you would think the more effort you put into your brand, the more benefits it would reap but this proved quite the opposite. The authors advise to create a hub and focus in on a specific niche in order to be the most effective.