The rapid development of the Internet in Russia spurs the growth of wages of all those who are somehow connected to the Network. Leaders in this programmers remain, but until recently, experts in advertising and marketing on the World Wide Web were not so in demand. In 2006, the situation has changed quite noticeably: the demand for Internet advertisers has greatly increased.
The reason for this is simple: a medium and small business has gone online. As analysts say, the number of advertising money invested in online advertising is growing by 60 – 80% per year. But first of all, this market is increasing due to the rapid growth of contextual advertising, which in 2006 surpassed banner advertising in its volume. It is with the contextual advertising and placement of price lists, as a rule, small and medium-sized companies start their work on the World Wide Web.
Doing online advertising requires more and more attention from the advertising departments of these companies. But most of the budgets are not so large as to keep a corresponding specialist with a salary of a couple of thousand dollars – approximately as many, according to the resource Headhunter.Ru, are asked by Internet advertisers.
In order not to overpay for specialists, companies can train them themselves. And many – both advertising professionals and advertisers – are actively using this. “We always send all new employees to training seminars on Internet marketing. And real-world landing forces always land on our specialized conferences,” says Nadezhda Vasenina, head of the Internet service for the World of Advertising group of companies. “This is very profitable for us: newcomers get up to speed, and older employees improve their skills. In addition, such training increases their loyalty.”
It is useful to participate in such seminars and conferences and management personnel. A good idea of Internet marketing will help to choose the right performers and better control their work.
However, despite the existing need for specialists, with internet marketing training, things are not very good. Now there are two large industry-wide conferences in the country – the Russian Internet Forum (RIF, last year marked a decade) and the Internet and Business Conference (CIB, held last year for the first time). They collect more than five hundred participants and pass within a few days, usually in the Moscow region. Topics cover the most different – from the informatization of Russia to advertising on regional sites.
Of course, these are the two main events for the people of the Internet industry. But many reports are devoted to technologies of tomorrow, and this is the strength and weakness of these conferences. After all, pragmatists need knowledge that can be applied today, and preferably in a concise manner, with examples and ready-made solutions.
This need was caught only a few years ago, when the conference “Managing Your Audience and Advertising on the Internet” appeared, dedicated to solving marketing problems, and the conference of web developers, which this year will have two – Russian Internet Technologies and PHPconf.
Mikhail Kozlov, director of Internet marketing for Ashmanov & Partners, believes that for people who are pragmatic, events that are of an applied nature are more suitable: “Any industry conference is first and foremost a tusovka, where the main thing is communication on the sidelines, brandy , coffee and cigarettes. And if you are in this get-together, you are happy to communicate and learn something new. But if you don’t have friends, then the person feels lost. For his own tricks in reports, questions and answers in the bird language – This is typical of any industry conference. Applied conferences are built according to a different principle: the maximum of useful information, practical examples, topics that concern not the speakers, but the audience. And for people who want to get knowledge, rather than communicate with friends, this is a more suitable format.”
