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Friday, August 7, 2009
The Web We Weave
Cloud-based computing spawns cloud-based marketing
MHT's Rodney Brown: App developers see opportunity in new iPhone
MHT's Galen Moore: New 'hyperlocal' web trend
MHT's Galen Moore: Charities score with online fundraising
There is a group of digital marketing firms now calling themselves “cloud marketers.” It’s still not clear what that really means, but the idea resonates with me. Today I’m asking whether cloud computing and crowdsourcing can be combined into a cloud marketing solution or whether it’s just a “lipstick on the pig” phrase for marketing as usual.
Cloud computing is by far one of the most interesting trends on the web today, and crowdsourcing is a close second. Combining these trends could either be a huge breakthrough or another overly complicated model that’s over the heads of the small and midsize business market it’s aimed at.
Let’s back up and understand what cloud computing actually offers. By relying on computing services from large computing centers, SMBs can access the processing and bandwidth power previously restricted to large businesses. These services are offered at small fees to the SMBs, reducing their IT and support costs. Furthermore such fees are generally measured against usage. These pay-by-the-drink payment models turn fixed IT costs into variable costs linked to growth. Keep that model in mind as we consider the ripple effect on other departments like marketing.
The handy thing about cloud computing is that it is delivered as a self-service model through a web-based dashboard. Even non-techies can be up and running in a few minutes, further reducing the cost and frustration of IT management. Thanks to the web, massive amounts of centralized production power can be distributed in bite-sized pieces through these web interfaces. Consider the successful centralized production approach adopted by printing and graphics companies such as Lexington-based Vistaprint Ltd. and the Hewlett-Packard Co.-owned LogoWorks.
On the other side of this coin is the idea of crowdsourcing. This idea has been around since Amazon.com Inc.’s Mechanical Turk launched several years ago, but really only got mileage when it was applied to copywriting and web design services. Crowdsourcing is a fancy way of saying that you get multiple bids from remotely located workers through a central bidding dashboard. Two companies doing a great job of managing this potentially complicated service are CrowdSpring LLC and 99Designs. Both businesses offer a simple web-based service. You upload your design brief and budget guidelines and within hours you start receiving design drafts of logos and web sites from designers all over the world.
Once you have selected a winner, the dashboard takes care of the escrow-style payments and contractual obligations.
The advantage of this system is that you get dozens, if not hundreds, of designs from low-cost designers. The downside is that although the model works well for small design projects like logos and home page layouts, it starts to get messy with bigger design projects. The question is, can the success of these crowd-based models ever be applied to bigger projects, say a complete website, or to digital marketing campaigns? One local entrepreneur, Chris Merrill, previously co-founder of Thrive Networks Inc. and Designer Advantage Inc., thinks he has a solution.
Merrill says the challenge for most marketing firms trying to take advantage of cloud and crowd opportunities are with process management. Due to the subjective nature of marketing and design choices, the process is the key to getting consensus and delivering on expectations. “At Thrive we learned the hard way that process is king when delivering business tech services,” Merrill says. His startup — Web-o-Matic — has already delivered a handful of profitable website projects using the a combination of cloud hosting and crowd produced designs and SEO tactics.
Even with some early signs of possibility could there even be such a thing as a cloud of marketing resources? I think it’s inevitable. The massive savings and scalability of the cloud model have propelled several startups that had been restricted by the cost of dedicated servers and made possible the existence of thousands of new businesses. With more money moving from traditional to digital media the pressure is on entrepreneurs and marketing firms to come up with low-cost solutions for SMBs. The challenge will be how ready the market is to turn away from existing investments and infrastructure and embrace the ethereal nature of the clouds and crowds.
Richard Banfield is owner of web design consultancy Fresh Tilled Soil. He can be reached at richard@freshtilledsoil.com.
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