Posted by randfish

Selling is hard work. It sucks time and energy from both seller and buyer. Both engage begrudgingly in the act to fulfill a need. If you've been reading SEOmoz for a while, you can probably feel my personal allergy to "sales" as a process and to "selling," even when that's what I'm supposed to do. It causes discomfort to be on the pushing or receiving side of sales and over the last two decades, we, as a generation have been drifting further and further away from it. Door-to-door salesmen are nearly gone. The effectiveness of brand advertising, direct mail, trade show marketing and cold calling sales have all diminished rapidly in favor of a new set of channels we all use to buy - nearly all of which center around the web.

Just look at what marketers themselves have to say about where they'll be spending their dollars over the next few years:

The trend is quite clear - this new bundle of marketing channels that consumers pursue themselves (social media, blogs, SEO, email marketing, etc.) is the future. Traditional marketing tactics may not die