Open the marketing magazines in any country and you’re greeted with a hundred demands: “your brand needs to be online, it needs a new micro-site, it needs email relationships, it needs to blog” – all of which can be daunting for the marketing team that’s just starting out on its first internet campaigns. But if the solutions the internet offers are the ‘sum of all other media’ combined, then why not harness that approach as a way of getting to grips with a firm’s first few online marketing plans?

Treating online media as a mirror to classic media will help with unbundling the marketing channel mix, selecting the right advertising formats and building the right schedule of sites. For example, if a firm traditionally gets its customers through local telephone directories, then getting your listing into their online equivalent services naturally follows. Looking more closely at the advertising model will lead the marketing managers into search engines and the pay-per-click keyword advertising of both the global search brands and the strong national players.

If postal mail is the relationship tool, then email is the starting point online. If a sponsorship positions the brand in the right environment for the right audience offline, then a similar sponsorship on a web property could probably do the same. Coupons and promotions that work well in newspapers for retailers, can be mirrored on the web too. If partnerships work well in sporting events, then building a relationship with that sporting content online is worth checking out. Even television commercials that display the elegance of a new car can now be streamed on many high traffic media sites. Sure, the audience numbers and profile need to be checked and qualified, but this approach makes for a great start.

The same is true in business-to-business marketing: most trade magazines will have their own online properties that enjoy a similar audience. They increasingly have strong email news services to support them and an editorial coverage that goes further than the print editions can, creating another good candidate for an online campaign. Trade shows are developing their online solutions and the models are transferring well.

Back in the early days of the web, there were few formats. The ‘banner’ may be the longest established shape and size, but it was only created in 1994 and is barely a teenager. However, that vacuum has now been filled as marketing formats multiplied, from tens to thousands, giving marketers the incredible choice they have today. The scope of formats has broadened too, with podcasts mirroring radio programmes, social networks providing channels for online PR, blogs creating spaces for self-expression, and television starting to be delivered effectively through the web.

This approach can work in selecting the media channels themselves. If you’re new to online marketing, it can help you start building your media plan: look for the partners you would use in a classic offline campaign and then review their online alternatives. Printed consumer magazines, broadcast radio, traditional television, business directories: they all have their equivalents on the web. Then add to your thinking online’s unique creations such as high traffic hubs provided by portals (maybe the equivalent in reach to a television station), the sales networks or affiliate networks that unite hundreds of mid-size sites, the niche ‘internet-only’ services, and the massive search engines.

There are many different ways to get started in selecting advertising formats and channels in online media, but thinking about the ‘mirror’ can be a helpful technique for extending marketing plans into the web. Savvy digital marketers will readily leap further; creating non-linear versions of television commercials, building brand image with integrated campaign marketing and using the power of search for diverse customer acquisition and branding strategies. But for starting out, the ‘mirror’ can be a great way to structure your approach.

In the mid 1990s Danny Meadows-Klue was one of Europe’s first online publishers. Then he helped launch the Interactive Advertising Bureau, first in the UK and then around the world. Today he teaches digital marketing as a director of the Digital Training Academy (www.DigitalTrainingAcademy.com), helping the next generation of marketers get online right, first time.