eMarketing 101- Chapter 1: What is eMarketing and how is it better than
traditional marketing by Darren Ravens
Marketing has pretty much been around forever in one form or another.
Since the day when humans first started trading whatever it was that they first
traded, marketing was there. Marketing was the stories they used to convince
other humans to trade. Humans have come a long way since then, (Well, we like
to think we have) and marketing has too.
The methods of marketing have changed and improved, and we've become a
lot more efficient at telling our stories and getting our marketing messages
out there. eMarketing is the product of the meeting between modern communication
technologies and the age-old marketing principles that humans have
always applied.
That said, the specifics are reasonably complex and are best handled piece by
piece. So we've decided to break it all down and tackle the parts one at a
time. This week we'll be looking at the "what" and "why" of eMarketing,
outlining the benefits and pointing out how it differs from traditional
marketing methods.
By the end of the series we're pretty sure you'll have everything you need to
tell better marketing stories.
What is eMarketing?
Very simply put, eMarketing or electronic marketing refers to the
application of marketing principles and techniques via electronic media and
more specifically the Internet. The terms eMarketing, Internet marketing
and online marketing, are frequently interchanged, and can often be
considered synonymous.
eMarketing is the process of marketing a brand using the Internet. It
includes both direct response marketing and indirect marketing elements and
uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their customers.
By such a definition, eMarketing encompasses all the activities a business conducts
via the worldwide web with the aim of attracting new business,
retaining current business and developing its brand identity.
Why is it important?
When implemented correctly, the return on investment (ROI) from
eMarketing can far exceed that of traditional marketing strategies.
Whether you're a "bricks and mortar" business or a concern operating purely
online, the Internet is a force that cannot be ignored. It can be a means to
reach literally millions of people every year. It's at the forefront of a
redefinition of way businesses interact with their customers.
The benefits of eMarketing over traditional marketing Reach
The nature of the internet means businesses now have a truly global reach.
While traditional media costs limit this kind of reach to huge multinationals,
eMarketing opens up new avenues for smaller businesses, on a much smaller
budget, to access potential consumers from all over the world.
Scope
Internet marketing allows the marketer to reach consumers in a wide range
of ways and enables them to offer a wide range of products and services.
eMarketing includes, among other things, information management, public
relations, customer service and sales. With the range of new technologies
becoming available all the time, this scope can only grow.
Interactivity
Whereas traditional marketing is largely about getting a brand's message out
there, eMarketing facilitates conversations between companies and consumers.
With a two-way communication channel, companies can feed off of the
responses of their consumers, making them more dynamic and adaptive.
Immediacy
Internet marketing is able to, in ways never before imagined, provide an
immediate impact.
Imagine you're reading your favourite magazine. You see a double-page advert for
some new product or service, maybe BMW's latest luxury sedan or Apple's latest
iPod offering. With this kind of traditional media, it's not that easy for you,
the consumer, to take the step from hearing about a product to actual
acquisition.
With eMarketing, it's easy to make that step as simple as possible, meaning that
within a few short clicks you could have booked a test drive or ordered the
iPod. And all of this can happen regardless of normal office hours.
Effectively, Internet marketing makes business hours 24 hours per day, 7 days
per week for every week of the year.
By closing the gap between providing information and eliciting a consumer
reaction, the consumer's buying cycle is speeded up and advertising
spend can go much further in creating immediate leads.
Demographics and targeting
Generally speaking, the demographics of the Internet are a marketer's dream.
Internet users, considered as a group, have greater buying power and
could perhaps be considered as a population group skewed towards the
middle-classes.
Buying power is not all though. The nature of the Internet is such that its
users will tend to organise themselves into far more focussed groupings. Savvy
marketers who know where to look can quite easily find access to the niche
markets they wish to target. Marketing messages are most effective when
they are presented directly to the audience most likely to be interested. The
Internet creates the perfect environment for niche marketing to targeted
groups.
Adaptivity and closed loop marketing
Closed Loop Marketing requires the constant measurement and analysis of
the results of marketing initiatives. By continuously tracking the response and
effectiveness of a campaign, the marketer can be far more dynamic in adapting
to consumers' wants and needs.
With eMarketing, responses can be analysed in real-time and campaigns can
be tweaked continuously. Combined with the immediacy of the Internet as a
medium, this means that there's minimal advertising spend wasted on less
than effective campaigns.
Maximum marketing efficiency from eMarketing creates new opportunities to
seize strategic competitive advantages.
The combination of all these factors results in an improved ROI and ultimately,
more customers, happier customers and an improved bottom line.
Next up in the eMarketing 101 series:
Having identified the "why" of eMarketing, our next article in the series will
look at the "how". We'll be glancing at some of the weaponry in the eMarketer's
arsenal, and looking at how these tools should be used to target
customers.
SEO, >PPC, ORM, WebPR - the acronyms are never
far behind. We'll take a brief look at each, defining what they are and giving
some guidance in terms of which tactic to use in a given situation to ensure
optimum ROI on advertising spend.
Later on, we'll examine each of these weapons more closely and see just how they
are used to produce results.
Other Articles in the
eMarketing 101 series:
-
What is eMarketing and how is it better than traditional marketing?
-
The Arrows in the eMarketer's quiver
-
Blogging - everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?
-
A focus on natural search (beginner's guide to SEO)
-
Case Study
-
PPC - you gets what you pays for
-
Case Study
-
Email marketing - no, not SPAM
-
Affiliate marketing - because we all need friends
-
WebPR and ORM - blah blah blah conversations
-
Case Study
-
Viral marketing - linkerbation is a normal, natural thing. Perfectly natural.
-
Online advertising - throwing a banner into the works
-
Conversion optimisation. Are you closing the deal?
-
Case Study
About the Author
About Author
The services offered by Quirk eMarketing include
everything from the conceptualisation of a comprehensive online marketing
strategy, through to the implementation of the various methods needed to make
that vision a reality.
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