29 Marketing

P.G. Padma Gowri

Introduction

The life style of human being is changed by the Internet. It leads to easy access to information, easy to communicate all the people across the globe and share videos, photos and information through internet.

The Internet has led to an increasingly connected environment, and the growth of Internet usage has resulted in the declining distribution of traditional media: television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Marketing in this connected environment and using that connectivity to market is E-Marketing.

Online marketing relies upon websites or emails to reach to the users and it is combined with e-commerce to facilitate the business transactions. Online marketing is widely practiced strategy of promoting sales or advertising and brand of the business.

Objectives of Marketing

To understand E-marketing.
To know various marketing techniques.

E marketing:

E –marketing otherwise called as electronic marketing:

E-Marketing (Electronic Marketing) are also known as Internet Marketing, Web Marketing, Digital Marketing, or Online Marketing. E-marketing is the process of marketing a product or service using the Internet. E -Marketing not only includes marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. It uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their customers.

Actual Sales of Products: Products are ordered, purchase and sold online through internet. Many sites like amazon.com, flipchart.com, eBay involve in actual sales of products.

Promotion/Advertising: Customers can be effectively targeted in many situations because of the context that they, themselves, have sought out.

For example: when a consumer searches for a specific term in a search engine, a “banner” or link to firm/company selling products in that area can be displayed.

Customer Service: The sites may contain information for those who no longer have their manuals handy and, for electronic products, provide updated drivers and software patches.

ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUES:

There are various approaches and method to online marketing and advertising. It is important know about each method so that one can compare the results.

Viral Marketing
Buzz Marketing
Article Marketing
E-mail Marketing
Web Blogs marketing
Rich Media Advertising
Tickers
Interstitials
Superstitials
Online Video Ads
Floating Ad
Expanding Ad
Display or Banner Ads
RSS Marketing
Forum Marketing
Search Engine Optimization Marketing
Social Media Marketing

Viral Marketing:

Viral marketing sometimes refers to internet-based stealth marketing campaigns, including the use of blogs, seemingly amateur websites designed to create word-of-mouth for a new product or service. The term “viral advertising ’ refers to the idea that people will pass on and share interesting and entertaining content, this is often sponsored by a brand , which is looking to build awareness of a product or service . These viral commercials often take the form of funny video clips, or interactive flash games, images, and even text.

Buzz Marketing:

Buzz marketing is a marketing technique consisting, as its name suggests, of marketing a noise around a new product or offer. Similar to Viral Marketing, it differs from it in the control of the content of the advertising message.

Marketing buzz or simply is a term used in word-of-mouth marketing. It is possible for firms to track the marketing buzz of their products online using buzz monitoring. For some companies it is important to understand the buzz surrounding a product before committing to the market.

Article Marketing:

Article marketing has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available. In paper-print form (as opposite to online forms), article marketing is utilized commonly by business owners as a means of obtaining free press space. A local business provides useful content to the newspaper free of charge and in return the newspaper prints the business contact information with the article.

E-mail Marketing:

The primary reason many people use the internet is to send and receive e-mail messages. With millions of people online and the numbers substantially increasing each year, it is little wonder that marketing communicators have returned to e-mail as a viable advertising medium. E-mail advertising is simply the use of the internet for sending commercial messages.

Web Blogs marketing:

Blogs are, in a manner of speaking, “everyman’s” way of communicating with others and establishing digital communities wherein individuals, mostly of like mind, can exchange their views on issues of personal relevance. It is likely that small business may benefit most from blogging. Much of the appeal of blogs is that a company can communicate directly with prospective customers who in turn can become active communicators through their own posted comments.

Rich Media Advertising:

These are any web ads that move, talk, beep, or flash. As communication lines improve and desktop computers get more powerful, transmission times shorten and become less of an issue with users.

i.Pop-Up Ads: These are the ads that appear once a site has been loaded but before one gets access. They usually contain messages from the site company but are increasingly sold to independent entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of a popular site. Amazon.com appears in many pop-up ads.

ii. Pop-under: Similar to a Pop-up except that the window is loaded or sent behind the current window so that the user does not see it until they close one or more active windows.

iii. Transactional Ads: These let oneself to order or request something without leaving the webpage he or she is on.

iv.Roadblocks: These are full-screen ads that users must pass through to get to the other screens they wish to view.

Tickers:

These are banners ads that move across the screen. A banner ad that look like a dialog box with buttons. It simulates an error message or an alert.

Interstitials:

It based on the word interstitial, which describes the space that intervenes between things – are, by comparison, ads that appear between (rather than within, as is the case with pop-ups) two content WebPages. In short, both pop-up ads and interstitials are obtrusive, but in different ways.

Superstitials:

These are short and animated ads that play over or on top of a webpage. It is an animated advertisement on a web page. It uses video, 3D content or Flash to provide a TV-like advertisement

Online Video Ads:

These are also referred to as streaming video, are audio-video ads that are similar to standard 30-second T.V. commercials but are often shortened to 10 or 15 seconds and compressed into manageable file sizes.

Floating Ad: An ad which moves across the user’s screen or floats above the content.

Expanding Ad: An ad which changes size and which may alter the contents of the webpage.

Display or Banner Ads:

The most popular advertising format in the internet’s short advertising history has been the static advertisement known as a display, or banner, ad. Click through Rates (CTRs) to banner ads are very low, averaging less than 0.3 per cent. Although the mere exposure to a banner ad can have some value in enhancing band awareness, the low CTRs largely reduce the effectiveness or banner ads much beyond being noticed.

RSS Marketing:

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and it may be difficult to conceptualize in the beginning. RSS works by RSS feeds which needs to be generated by website. People can subscribe to these RSS feeds and can view the content of the website via their desktop.

Forum Marketing:

Forum is a place where people gather and discuss their problems, strategies etc.

There are many forums on the web that you can join and participate in discussion.

Search Engine Optimization Marketing:

There is a much loved among the interactive advertising community that “If you are not on Google, your business does not exist”.

Social Media Marketing:

It is the new kid on the block as far as interactive advertising is concerned, but it is increasing exponentially in popularity. Popular networking sites including Myspace, Face book, and Twitter are social media most commonly used for socialization and connecting friends, relatives, and employees.

Social media marketing is particularly attractive to marketers simply because it encourages a high degree of interaction with consumers and is relatively inexpensive.By creating a social Medias marketing program, companies can closely monitor what consumers are saying about your brand and, more importantly, actively respond to negative word-of-mouth.

Advantages online marking:

The internet constitutes a reliable accessible and inexpensive means of bringing together buyers and sellers, large and small, right across the globe. With internet marketing, the market comes to the doorsteps of the customer. Internet marketing confers significant benefits on the seller as well as the buyer. It is a true win-win proposition.

Advantages for the seller: Access to all Markets:

With Internet marketing, a marketer located in any part of the globe can complete in the markets of the whole world. The internet enables firms/marketers to free themselves of thee internet limitations of their existing geographic location.

Opportunity for Constraints – Free Growth:

With internet marketing, a business can grow unimpeded by the various constraints that normally delimit the growth under conventional marketing. Limitations of show-room/retail shop space, warehouse space, sales staff and other resources do not choke a business in internet marketing.

Space for Enhancing Customer Value and Customer Services:

Being an interactive medium and a platform for innovation, the internet presents great opportunities to the seller to enhance customer value.

It offers many services and products from a single stop.
It helps in targeting the customer individually and customizes the offer.
Imparts speed to responses; and speed becomes a customer value.

Building ‘Relationship’ with Customers:

Like other direct marketing methods, internet marketing also helps build ‘relationship’ with customers. Being totally interactive and one-to-one marketing, internet marketing is more effective in this respect compared to other forms of direct marketing helps Reduce Costs

Business/Transaction Costs:

Internet marketing conducts business processes and transactions through real-time interactions using electronic media and paperless technologies, it significantly reduces the cost of various business operations, transaction costs in particular.

Channel Costs:

Channel costs, which are a significant part of marketing costs, are reduced considerably when a product is marketed through the internet. In internet marketing one need not maintain a vast network of showrooms or employ on army of sales staff.

Communication /Promotion Costs: Communication/promotion costs which are another part of marketing costs, can also be reduced in internet marketing as the internet gaining worldwide communication is low unit cost.

Enhance Productivity of Sales People:

Internet marketing makes marketing/sales more efficient and productive. Since basic transactions are taken care of by the computer programme, sales people are free to devote their time for more meaningful tasks, leaving the mechanical transactions to the net.

Enable to the Market Adjust to Market Conditions Quickly:

Marketing on the internet enables the marketers to adjust fast to changing market conditions. The can quickly know what the market wants and offer it. For Example, they can add products to their basket, alter prices, enlarge services and fine-tune their offerings with greater speed.

Flexibility in Marketing Communications:

As a medium of communication, the internet is a versatile tool indeed. It is the equivalent of a combination of several media-newspaper, magazine, billboard, radio, telephone, and TV internet marketing allows flexibility in marketing communications.

Advantages for the Consumer Convenience:

The customer can purchase the products and service by sitting at home. He can escape all the hassles involved in conventional shopping, which include a physical visit to the shop. More importantly, he can escape the frustration involved in going all the way to the shop just to know that the product he was looking for was not available there at all. He can order his requirements at any time – day or night – and from wherever on the globe he is located. He can have a complete online interaction with the marketer; he can have an online demonstration of the product; he can place an online order; he can also pay online and complete the whole purchase process on the internet.

Scope for Informed and Competitive Buying:

Scope for informed buying is the second major benefit from internet marketing for the consumer. The internet offers him access to a great deal of information about the products and services he is looking for.

Search for wider options:

The customers shop with limited searches in the conventional shopping. They visit four or five outlets at the best before deciding on the brand to be bought. They conclude that the benefits of extended search will be just incremental and, the search is quit time consuming and tedious job. The situation was different using internet shopping. If we go for high value purchase the extended purchase is highly beneficial.

Customer can bargain on the net:

Most importantly, because of the interactive nature of the internet, the consumer can bargain on the net with a host of sellers and get the best price and terms. He can compare a multiple brands –feature by feature –and their prices, and secure the best deal.

Consumer can get ‘More or Less’:

Consumer can get more value for their money by using internet. Internet marketer makes competitive offers to the customers. So consumer can get bet product for the vale of money

Transparency:

Internet marketing provides a very high degree of transparency. There is no suppression of information. Browsing through the internet, buyers can become aware of just about all sellers selling the particular product and their prices and terms.

Accuracy of information: Accuracy of information regarding schemes, discounts and validity guarantees are all available and this actually makes him want to buy more.

Advantages for the Marketing the internet has become the first truly cost –effective, widespread global marketing medium. With the internet’s root in worldwide networking and its technology enabled via simple internet cable any marketer should reach any online customer anywhere in the world.
Marketing is about building relationships, and then internet marketing is about building lasting relationships.
A marketer can build and host a website and reach a worldwide audience at a cost that is far less than the cost of commercial product.
The internet transforms the selling process completely for marketers. The story of Amazon.com (www.amazon.com) ,a company that refuse the standard practice of opening retail store instead chose to sell books on the internet, is legendary.

Disadvantages of E marketing:

The internet marketing is not suited for each and every product. For Example: Philips India went in internet marketing, it had to select a few products and keep other off.
Another limitation is that is costs involved in internet marketing are not as low as if often made out. The cost is not stop with one time setting up the website. The marketer keep on spending for running, maintaining and updating in internet.
The internet marketing have full of potential, the execution part beset with difficulties.
Most of the consumers are hesitant to purchase items over the internet because they do not trust their personal information will remain private.
If the company which provides the selling information to s they have punished.
Consumers have a concern with e- commerce merchants whether or not they will receive exactly what they purchase. Online merchants have attempted to address this concern by investing in and building strong consumer brands (e.g. ., amazon.com, eBay, Overstock.com), and by leveraging merchant /feedback rating systems and ecommerce bonding solution.

Conclusion:

E-Marketing is carried out with the use of intent to reach out to a maximum number of people in exchange of minimum cost. The internet technology is inexpensive, widely available, and can be completely outsourced. A company does not do major investment to get on the Net and use it as a powerful means of marketing. With the internet’s root in worldwide networking and its technology enabled via simple internet cable any marketer should reach any online customer anywhere in the world.

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