Active and Passive Marketing

Is your Marketing Passive or Active? 
 
As a business owner you are probably most familiar with Passive Marketing. It's been the standard for 75 years or so and while it's not going away, it is undergoing a dramatic shift. 
 
The online world (where most of your future customers are) tends to lean toward active marketing. Most local businesses however focus almost exclusively on passive marketing.
 
So what's the difference? 
 
Passive- Businesses finds customers.
Active- Customers find businesses.
 
Passive Marketing 
Think of passive marketing as a flash of information distributed to a large group. It could be a TV commercial, radio ad, magazine ad, website banner, printed materials, etc… Terms like branding, color theory, getting your name out, presentation, etc… are all forms of Passive Marketing. Even such activities often thought of as active, like sales calls and emails are passive. Passive marketing is almost always an interruption 
In short, Passive marketing is any marketing that involves YOU finding customers. 
 
Active Marketing
True active marketing is any marketing that involves your customers finding YOU. The catch is this. Active marketing only works on active customers. The good news is that more customers become active everyday. 
Anyone using a search engine is an Active customer. Anyone calling information services, doing a local search, using their GPS system, using their mobile device (cell phone) or researching products or services are active. 
 
Active marketing simply involves being there when a client is looking for your product or service. The challenge for most businesses is that they do not know where to be or how to get there.