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I think there are some big changes coming to the world of interactive and I’m not sure they are for the better.

A landing page is not as simple some copy, links and a couple of graphics and then you’re done. Understanding what the user experience is going to be when they get to that page and ensuring it’s a positive one to reinforce your brand is one of the most important things in the online world. Throw in some SEO so people can actually find the page and you start adding a whole other layer of tactics that many of us have spent years trying to perfect.

Then there’s the QA side of things. QA of a website is not just reading the copy for spelling errors. (I think QA can be a whole separate post – so I’ll stop there for now).

Recently, in an effort to be more “integrated,” I’ve watched traditional marketers flock to the digital space, thinking it is a piece of cake, and that they can follow the same steps/process as they would for an offline tactic; feeling there’s really nothing to learn other than a few “buzz words.” Frankly, that scares me.

If it were truly as easy as that, there wouldn’t be a need for niche little interactive shops or consultants.

Traditional agencies and other marketing companies are starting to realize that they need to change to keep up with the times. Knowing that many of their client’s print/mass budgets are slowly drying up and interactive budgets are in most cases doubling YOY, there’s a trend taking place that sees the most seasoned “offline” marketers suddenly leading large digital campaigns.

I don’t mean any disrespect, but I know I wouldn’t go around telling anyone how to make a newspaper ad or radio campaign – that’s not my speciality.

Throwing the mass/print teams into the interactive pot with no training or real understanding of the space is not a model for success.

We’re now starting to see a two-tier interactive landscape popping up. You’ve got brands with websites and banner ad campaigns that look like brochures and print ads and don’t take into account how people actually use the web, or view an ad online. These brands are not going to understand why their online marketing don’t seem to be working “because it’s prettier than my competitor’s fill in the blank…”

Which is exactly it. Pretty may be the print way, but isn’t web friendly. Not to say you can’t have a nice looking web site, but the web is all about user experience, how customers interact with and find your brand online and of course functionality. Sometimes pretty has to get sacrificed in order to achieve that.

The brands out there who understand that, will go searching for the right people to create their online user experience and they will rise to the top of the space – even if their product offering leaves something to be desired.

At the end of the day, if you truly want to make interactive work for your brand or your clients, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and get someone in a senior position who comes from the space – someone who was in the trenches and who not only understands all about user experience, SEO and so on, but someone who actually can show you the battle scars they earned from physically doing these things and what they learned in the process.