Grandma: “Kevin, hunny, tell me exactly what Raincross Marketing does?”

Me: “Well, hmmm, I think I might confuse you if I try to explain, but we are a marketing company…”

Grandma: “No, go on, explain it to me.”

Me: “Well we design, build and develop websites for businesses and then help those businesses get found online through search marketing, email, social media and paid advertising campaigns.”

Grandma: “So it’s advertising?”

Me: “Well, yes, but not exactly…“

So, how do you explain internet marketing to “The Greatest Generation”?

I took my two year old son, Matthew, over for an afternoon visit to my grandparents this weekend. While we were engaging in conversation, mostly about Matthew, my grandmother shifted the conversation to my career.

My grandparents are wonderful, intelligent people and I found myself struggling to explain to them the difference between traditional marketing and the “new age” of internet marketing. They’ve never used a computer and their latest piece of technology is a cordless telephone (they still prefer the rotary telephone in the kitchen).

I was lucky, when I was growing up we had computers in our household. I quickly took a liking to them and began using technology to my advantage. During my middle school years I remember thinking it can’t get any better than Microsoft Encarta for my book reports. At an early age I’d say that I was leaning towards a path that involved computers and technology, little did I know that my future would be in an industry that didn’t even exist. So the best way I can describe Raincross Marketing and what we do to someone from a generation of people who’ve never powered on a computer is to simply explain that I work in an industry that simply didn’t exist when they were navigating their careers. Internet marketing isn’t quite science fiction, but never the less building a business and a career in internet marketing was probably never something I considered when I dialed-up to Compuserve as an early teenager.

So how do I answer the question from my grandmother about what our internet marketing company does?

Well I work in an industry that is constantly being redefined as the internet landscape evolves.

We help businesses navigate through a wide range of often confusing online technologies such as Web Design, Development, SEO, PPC and Social Media platforms.

I help regular business people make sense of the growing value of the internet for their businesses.

And the part of my job I’m most proud of? Raincross Marketing gives a voice to businesses through their websites and online marketing strategies. We build brands and real life relationships using technology that is redefining the way we communicate with each other.

While it may be confusing to define what we do at Raincross Marketing to people from The Greatest Generation it is growing to be every bit as valuable as the Mad Men era of print advertising. This excites me and I can’t wait to see what “new age” careers my grandchildren will try to explain to me when my generation gets older.