Welcome to Vista Viewpoint Blog

Keeping with the trends in marketing, Vista Consulting is launching its new marketing blog affectionately named Vista Viewpoint. The Vista Viewpoint marketing newsletter will become less frequent and more information will be posted here. Those of you who have subscribed to the newsletter are encouraged to bookmark this blog and stop by frequently - better yet, get an RSS reader and subscribe to the posts or take advantage of the feeds capability in Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox.

But do not despair, the Vista Viewpoint newsletter will remain in existence to ensure I continue to reach all of you in the format you desire. Because you see, that is the future of marketing. Providing your constituents with the information they want in the way they want it. It’s all about the customer experience. It’s all about Marketing 2.0.

I am fascinated with Marketing 2.0 or Web 2.0 - using podcasting, RSS, blogs, wikis, and social networking - as part of the marketing mix. The Internet has become a disruptive technology, not only to those in the media and publishing industries, but also to those of us in marketing disciplines who need to maintain our edge by incorporating this new media marketing into our client’s repertoire. Adding Marketing 2.0 activities to our plans makes our online presence even that more important. Our Web sites need quality content and SEO and we need to use pay-per-click advertising and other Internet marketing activities to drive our customers to our online doorstep.

The Web has shifted from a world of static pages to a community of interactive user experiences. Customers are in charge of the buying process and have all the information they need to decide where and how they spend their money. We are no longer able to drive the sales process as we once were, and we need to understand our customers and develop the user experiences that influence their behavior.

Web 2.0 or Marketing 2.0 is not just for consumer marketing and is here to stay. All businesses will be incorporating some of the new media techniques into their marketing mix. We will encourage our customers to communicate with us directly and interact with us in ways we have never been able to do.

However, Marketing 2.0 does not eliminate traditional marketing activities. They are still important to understand and incorporate into your efforts. So join me in developing marketing plans that incorporate Web 2.0 technologies with traditional marketing techniques. The journey will be enlightening.