E -Marketing Introduction

E-marketing

E-marketing refers to the use of the Internet and digital media capabilities to help sell your products or services. These digital technologies are a valuable addition to traditional marketing approaches regardless of the size and type of your business. E-marketing is also referred to as Internet marketing (i-marketing), online marketing or web-marketing.

As with conventional marketing, e-marketing is creating a strategy that helps businesses deliver the right messages and product/services to the right audience. It consists of all activities and processes with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers. What has changed is its wider scope and options compared to conventional marketing methods.

E-marketing is deemed to be broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing and promotions over the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. E-marketing also embraces the management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) and several other business management functions.

E-marketing joins creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising and sales. It includes the use of a website in combination with online promotional techniques such as search engine marketing (SEM), social medial marketing, interactive online ads, online directories, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, viral marketing and so on. The digital technologies used as delivery and communication mediums within the scope of e-marketing include: 

• Internet media such as websites and e-mail
• Digital media such as wireless, mobile, cable and satellite. 

WEB 2.0 

There are many technical definitions for WEB 2.0 but a simple definition can be as follows

Web 1.0 : Connects people to computer networks
Web 2.0 :  Connects people with machines and also with each other in social networks

The web pages that are generated by internet users are called User generated Media

Web 2.0 is the term given to describe a second generation of the World Wide Web that is focused on the ability for people to collaborate and share information on-line. Web 2.0 basically refers to the transition from static HTML Web pages to a more dynamic Web that is more organized and is based on serving Web applications to users.

  Changes influencing E- Marketing:

• power shift from sellers to buyers
• search engines are now reputation engines
• connections are critical
• high broadband adoption at home
• marketing investments are moving on-line
• market and media fragmentation
• appliance convergence
• increasing wireless networks

Following are some of the benefits of e-marketing :

• Wider prospect reach – the internet has become part of everyone’s life. So for whatever products you offer, there is already an existing market on the World Wide Web. With e-marketing, it allows you to find new markets and potentially compete worldwide with only a small investment.
  
• Cost-effective approach – A properly planned and effectively targeted e-marketing campaign can  reach target customers at a much lower cost compared to traditional marketing methods.
  
• Reduction in costs through automation and use of electronic media – e-marketing presents a strong business case in cost savings, particularly in the areas of transactional costs, customer service, digital media channels, print and distribution.
  
• 24/7 marketing - with a website  customers can find out about  products and make purchases even if physical  premises are closed or not available.
  
• Personalised one-on-one marketing - e-marketing allows to reach people who want to know about various products and services instantly. For example, many people take mobile phones and PDAs wherever they go. By combining this with personalised e-marketing, you can create very influential and targeted campaigns.
  
• Increased interactivity – e-marketing allows us to create interactive campaigns using music, graphics and videos. Through two-way communications, interactive games or quizzes, we can engage the audience and give them greater involvement and control over their web experience.
  
• Increased ability to track results – e-marketing makes it easier to measure how effective the campaigns are. It allows the marketer to obtain detailed information about customers' responses to  advertising, through the use of methods such as pay per click or pay per action, etc. 

E-marketing Objectives

 

E-marketing objectives define what you want to achieve through your e-marketing campaign. They set the reasons why your business wants to go online and allow you to estimate and monitor the progress of your online marketing activities. They also provide an incentive to focus on critical areas and formulate strategies to help achieve intended objectives.
Different businesses may develop different e-marketing objectives depending on their individual circumstances. A useful framework for developing effective e-marketing objectives is the five S’s framework, which includes:

1. Sell –  using the internet to sell products and services
2. Serve – using the internet to serve customers
3. Speak – using the internet to communicate with  customers (both existing and potential)
4. Save – using the internet to save/ reduce cost
5. Sizzle – using the internet to build brand identity

 When setting your e-marketing objectives, you need to make sure that they are:

• Specific – specify what is to be achieved
• Measurable – expressed in measurable terms such as key performance indicators, outcomes, numbers, percentage, dollars, etc. 
• Action-oriented – state which actions need to be taken and who will take them
• Realistic – achievable with the resources available
• Time Specific – establish specified time frames.

 Examples of some typical e-marketing objectives could be:

• To achieve 20% online sales within the first year of launching online marketing campaigns.
• To increase online sales for all products by 15% .
• To grow email coverage to 50% of the current customer base by the end of next year.
• To reduce the annual cost of direct marketing by 20% through e-mail marketing.