Combining TAG with content management makes for free ongoing advertising

At some point it becomes difficult to determine the difference between information and advertising. Certainly, advertising is information; therefore then what were really trying to discern is the difference between what information we want and that which we discard. When a business sends you information it is almost always thought of as advertising, yet when you search for it, more often than not you consider it information.

When you regularly visit a particular restaurant, is their daily special information or advertising. If you really want that pair of shoes, is notification that they just went on sale, information or advertising. For each of us, the answer seems to be – it depends. However, regardless of the name attached, we readily accept advertising pushed at us when it fits our interest.

The The case we make for TAG in this process is to facilitate the decision to opt in to any business’s feed of information and in that there are three scenarios to consider. In the first scenario, a TAG holds static information that people obtain only once. In the second, the physical TAG is changed so people will reread the TAG to get updated information. Lastly, since a TAG's reference can be saved, the physical TAG remains unchanged, while the information it references is updated and can be accessed at the person’s convenience.

In the first two cases, capturing a displayed TAG encapsulates the entire process. A person would read the TAG to receive information each time. In the last scenario, the saved reference would be checked to see what new information was available. The functional difference between the last two scenarios is that changing the physical TAG is geared toward a physical presence (such as customers walking by a business), whereas maintaining the same physical TAG provides a convenient connection to changing information. Each has its place.

Directories are good examples of the first scenario where information doesn’t change often. A business chooses to list itself in specific directory so that clients can access basic information such as telephone number, address and hours of operation. The second could be representative of a sales flyer; something a business would change with each sale as it occurred. In the last case, TAG is acting as a facilitator to link to the information, such as a regularly changing web page that customers can revisit.

Small scale footprint, large scale functionality

All of these scenarios have a common need to manage content on a small scale. Each is accommodated by a single webpage or in some cases a few pages; hence the term Microsite. It has little to do with formatting the site for mobile and everything to do with shrinking the hosting model to meet this new demand. You can think of it as scaling down the content management systems of large portals to merge with the expanding functionality of directories and listings.

The premise is simple. It is more compelling for someone to receive information about today's lunch special, or the sale price of a pair of shoes, or a picture of suit, dress, or pair of jeans, than it is to try to get people to return to an existing web site and peruse your offerings. Considering that they are choosing to do so, makes the process more compelling for the provider as well.

A key theme is that people initially opt in but then choose whether to return. Since any ongoing cost to them is fractional and they have a distinct interest (or they wouldn’t be there), they turn out to be precisely the people you want to direct information to. More importantly, whenever they do come back, you will know. The metrics will let you determine how many people saw your offering, gauge the response and act accordingly, in near real time.

Add in a pinch of viral activity

The advantages of TAG's quick and easy connection are clear but an additional benefit is the viral aspect of the internet. Since anyone that captures your TAG can forward the connection on to their friends, TAG is a convenient method to initiate the process and if someone is going to twitter about something, might as well be about your special, or sale, or new product.