Report On Internet World Guide To One-To-One Web Marketing

Elements of internet marketing

Describe about a Report on Internet World Guide To One-To-One Web Marketing?

Digital or internet marketing is referred to promotion or selling of a product and/or services to business and personal consumers by means of one or more means of electronic media. The introduction of internet has changed the face of marketing and has accelerated the scope of innovative promotion. Internet marketing shaped with the introduction of web 2.0 which is comparatively interactive, user centric, commercial and cooperative. Its introduction not only opened new avenues for marketing but also gave rise to social networking and online communication. Besides promotional and selling tools, internet marketing includes e-commerce and macro and micro environment of internet as its elements.

E-commerce can be referred to the process of conducting business activities virtually using internet. E-commerce can include purchasing and selling of tangible and intangible commodities, fund transfer over electronic media and other business transactions. It is noteworthy that e-commerce can take place in the form of business to business, customer to customer, customer to business and business to customer. The primary benefits of e-commerce are non-stop accessibility and availability of service, speediness, wide choice regarding products and services and mass scale geographical access.

The micro environment of internet essentially suggests that it has increase the competitiveness of the market and efficiency of suppliers. The number of rivals in the ecommerce industry is growing while that of middlemen is declining rapidly. Consumers are being provided several choices and their importance to suppliers have also multiplied significantly. From the perspective of macro environment it was observed that internet is essential for success of business as the proportion of internet users and online transactions is rising rapidly. By and large, it can be suggested that internet marketing is of significant importance because of its wide reach and scope, interactive platform, target oriented approach and immediacy.

Adaptive and closed loop marketing are also considered as important aspects of internet marketing. Adaptive loop marketing focuses on the way marketers are changing with respect to internetworking and their efforts in terms of strategies in this process. On the other hand, closed loop marketing emphasises on a closed process that helps in improving effectiveness of marketing and sales.

Internet marketing mix has been derived from the original concept of marketing mix, which is referred to a set of tactics and strategies that influence marketing decisions of an organisation. Marketing mix comprises 7 Ps, namely, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical evidence. Presently, these factors are being conveniently implemented in internet marketing by marketers such as eBay.

The internet marketing mix

Product: Services such as PayPal and Bill Me Later and various online applications and websites have enabled the company to sell various products and services to consumers through web interface.

Place: Consumers have a variety of choices regarding purchasing, selling and obtaining other services at eBay. The company has a page where consumers’ basic queries are answered promptly. Additionally, the company has different pages for different countries in order to establish strong international presence.

Price: Different internet based services at eBay are charged differently. The charges also differ for occasional and frequent sellers. EBay has adopted a pay per click pricing model where payment is done in proportionate to number of clicks done.

Promotion: online promotion at eBay is done by means of various web pages where various discount coupons, promotional codes and bargains can be availed by consumers. Additional promotional measures include cash back on purchasing by means of PayPal and reward certificates. Moreover, eBay radio enables traders to have latest information regarding eBay rewards, offers and events.

Process: Sellers need to list their products on eBay for an insertion fee and pay a final value fee on completion of the selling process. Consequently, the cost of sale for a seller on eBay comprises the insertion and final value fees. Additionally, the value also depends on the kind of listing such as fixed price and auction style. eBay also facilitates ‘daily deals’ where interested parties can receive regular alerts.

People: eBay has placed various eminent individuals as executives at various divisions so that business remains well managed. The company has also initiated a new buyer protection program where purchase and shipping cost of a buyer are covered. eBay has an effective feedback system through which buyers can communicate their experience and expectation.

Physical evidence: eBay is headquartered at California and has international and national sites for establishing its market presence. The site has different tabs for products and services along with other information.

A number of marketing tools have been observed to be flexible enough for internet marketing. These tools have been contrasted and their role in business development has been discussed as follows:

 Email marketing: Marketing through email is referred as one of the direct methods of internet marketing where newsletters and offers are emailed to existing and potential customers to attract their attention. Email marketing is effective in acquiring new consumers, making repeat purchase and encouraging consumer loyalty.

Comparing internet marketing tools

Search Engine Marketing: SEM is an important internet marketing where positioning of a website is done in such a manner that its consumer visibility increases on a search engine. The marketing process includes search engine optimization, keyword searching and various other search engine services. SEM is done essentially to improve traffic flow towards a particular organisation’s website and consequently, it is a competitive process.

Word of mouth: Word of mouth or internet based referral marketing is another important e-tool where existing consumers generally refer products and services to potential consumers. Online referral is primarily done by means of micro blogging forums and social media. Referral marketing is adopted by marketers because it is considered significantly reliable among various potential consumers.

Mobile advertising: the mobile market is growing rapidly and acting as a substitute of various digital devices. This trend has not been neglected by marketers and consequently, mobile advertising was introduced. Mobile advertisements are generally embedded with music video and games so that immediate attention can be attracted.

Affiliate marketing: This marketing tool is one of the important e-tools and it helps in internet marketing as it coordinates with other e-marketing tools. In this marketing technique, affiliates are rewarded for every customer they bring in and every business that is generated in the process.

This process is referred as the cornerstone of e-commerce as it helps in delivering consumers authentic products, specific order and quick and easy services. In e-commerce, selection of right product and supplier are very important so that online presence of a firm is promoted. Most sellers try to create appropriate persona for their products by means of internet marketing so that consumer confidence is developed and gained. The idea behind interactive order processing is to ensure that consumer demands are met accurately and products and services add value to their necessities. The interactive processing not only serves consumers’ requirements but also that of the sellers.

In online selling, the main requirement is to establish presence in the digital world as well as in the mind of consumers. The interactive processing aims at increasing product visibility and increasing brand awareness.  Once consumer selects a particular product, the most important step therein is to check its availability in the stock. As stock availability is confirmed, the order is placed. For instance, at eBay products at displayed for a week and consumers can bid for the time being. During the purchasing process, consumers can make their payment by means PayPal, cheque and money order. Furthermore, consumers can access the delivery information in the website.

Interactive order processing

Search engine marketing is referred to the promotion of an organisation’s website on various search engines for achieving maximum visibility on the search result page by means of significant advertising and search optimisation. In this context, search engine optimisation is an important aspect of SEM. SEO essentially affects the process of visibility of a web page on a search engine as an unpaid result. SEO is an important internet marketing strategy where optimisers determine the functionality of search engines and helps in promoting sites and their back links.

Search optimisation functions in two ways: on-page and off-page. In on-page optimisation, certain factors such as meta (title and description) tags, keyword density and its placement and HTML code have direct impact on natural search outcomes and these factors are essentially controlled by the coder. Contrastingly, off-page optimisation is about uncontrollable factors that are beyond the limits of webpage such as link popularity, social bookmarking, page rank and social media. The other important aspects of SEM are pay per click, search analytics (determination of appearance of a website on search engine statistically) and web analytics (associated with determination of impact of a website on its user).

 Flight 001 delivers online retail experience by selling various travel products to consumers. The web and search analytics of the company suggests that the global corporation has very limited online exposure; consequently, consumers have limited knowledge of the site. Additionally, the site has limited number of back links and related sites suggesting poor on-page as well as off-page optimisation. Furthermore, the loading time for the site is fairly high and the site exhibits poor navigation links. It is recommended that the company should improve its title and description tags. Moreover, the navigation links require modification so that they appear on the left side of the panel (under header) instead of appearing on the body of the website.

In opt-in email marketing, newsletters, advertisements and other offers are sent to existing and potential consumers with or without their consent. Such mails are often referred as spam. Some organisations have adopted legal measures in this regard and send marketing newsletters only when subscribers have confirmed their identification.

Newsletter with header

Flight001 Newsletter <[email protected]>

from: Flight001 Newsletter

to:        [email protected]

date:    day, date at time

subject: Sign up for great discounts

mailed-by:       email.flight001.com

signed-by:       flight001.com

Travelling made easy with Flight001. Sign up with us for discount coupons.

Dear subscribers,

We understand your love for travelling and to meet your requirements, our products are available at amazing discounts. Kindly sign in and update your information to avail the offers.

Simply update your personalised Flight001 profile with your birthday and mailing address and allow us to fill in your mailbox with various goodies on your special days.

Update your profile

See you soon,

The Flight001 Team

Not interested? Unsubscribe instantly

Online public relation activities are essentially targeted towards various audiences, media and communities that primarily exist on internet by means of online channels. These channels include search engines, news search, discussion threads, blogs, forums and social networks. The online PR tools are presently as strong as the offline ones and consequently, marketers need to be very careful while implementing the same. Guidelines regarding best online practices at flight001.com are discussed as follows:

Social Networking: the company need to have strong presence in the social media. Presence in websites such as Linked In, Twitter and Facebook will increase its exposure to greater number of potential users.Photo and video sharing: YouTube and Flicker can be considered effective for this purpose. The company can share various travel and shopping experiences by means of photos and videos while endorsing its products.Brand properties: Presently reputed organisations are adopting various brand properties such as mobile app, RSS feeds, company blog and forum for developing public relation. Such adoption can prove effective for Flight001.

Digital media communities have gained significant importance over the years as these are neither sales tactics nor campaigns. These communities are as real as an individual. The communities are essentially dependent on individuals and their viewpoints. Such communities have often been praised for being source of long term business growth strategy. However, the communities essentially need exclusive and reliable contents for growth. In this regard, it is noteworthy that online communities present a way to share individuals’ opinions and views regarding products. Studies suggest that online communities play an important role in increasing sales and retaining customers.

Flight001 has its own website blog where various travel related information have been published by the company. However, the website does not have sufficient presence on social media such as Face Book. Additionally, the website does not have instant messaging and chat room services so that consumers can interact with customer care executives.

The secondary research has been conducted to determine consumers’ online purchasing behavior of cosmetics.

Current trends: According to studies, consumers tend to not only surf internet in home but also in office and school. Additionally, the surfing does not always involve work related activities. Internet has become a multipurpose utility domain and has influence the general lifestyle of consumers significantly. It has been gathered from different studies that more than 50 percent of individuals have bought one or more products online indicating that e-commerce has become one of the prominent features of the internet.

Buying habits: the e-commerce facilities are not limited to general grocery products. It was determined from studies that in the United States about 60 percent of women purchase personal care and cosmetic products online. This trend is especially common in the US and Canada. It was also determined that online presence has helped cosmetic brands to reach consumers with greater ease. However, consumers are equally price sensitive like offline purchase.

Preferences: it was determined that consumers are largely uninterested in coupon based selling. Instead, they exhibit great demand for personalized shopping experience. They are more inclined towards stores that are promoting products keeping in view consumer needs. The secondary market research also revealed that consumers purchase cosmetics driven by emotional needs instead of actual needs.

Competition: growth in consumption has affected competition as well. Presently, the market is dominated by more than a few companies compared to the handful that initially captured the market. The industry is worth $20 billion and its major players include local as well as foreign players. The major players in this industry are Sephora, Burberry, L Brands, Sally Beauty Holdings and Estee Lauder. Most of these competitors are e-marketing their products using discount coupons, special discount, online beauty consultation support, social media and mobile app.< >  

The paper has undertaken an online questionnaire survey using Survey Monkey in order to assess the consumer preference and support the facts that has been gathered by means of secondary research.

Where do you shop from?Home ¨ Office ¨ Both ¨

What do you mainly purchase?Books ¨ Apparels ¨ Electronics ¨ every kind of goods and services ¨

Do you prefer bargaining on online websites?What is your frequency of online purchase?Daily ¨ Weekly ¨ Monthly ¨ Rarely ¨

Do you prefer receiving online promotional offers such as newsletters in email?Yes ¨ No ¨

The online survey revealed that consumers purchased mostly from home as well as office unless they have workplace restriction on visiting retail websites. Consumers also agreed that their purchasing behaviour is not limited to one kind of product only; instead, they avail all kinds of products and services online. Almost every consumer agreed that they enjoy bargaining online and they made their purchases mostly on weekly and monthly basis. Lastly, most consumers agreed that they prefer receive promotional offers by means of subscribed newsletters.

Establishing customer relationship is essential for business growth and development. Every organisation is presently making effort to improve their customer relationship because customers can be considered as life blood of an organisation. For online retailers, eCRM has played an important role as it helps organisations to manage competition and retain valued customers. Various eCRM techniques are discussed as follows:

Consumer facing applications: These interfaces or applications help consumers to have direct interaction with the company by means of one or multiple channels. Many organisations are adopting automated responding system where promotional e-mails are sent and basic queries are answered by the system and complaints are registered until human agents log in the system and resolve it. Besides consumers, such system are being developed and adopted for employees and vendors where they are automatically updated regarding consumer information, sales progress, sales call and inventory requirement and so on.

Touching applications: In these applications, consumers essentially interact with pre-programmed system for resolving queries. In this regard, corporations are adopting the strategy of personalising web pages using personal accounts. Through this, consumers can see their previous transactions, products suitable for them (based on frequent purchases) and maintain their payment account safely. In addition, large number of companies are developing the ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQ) page where commonly asked questions have been answered for consumers.

Online networking applications: At present, every organisation has back links to Facebook and Twitter. Consumers can log into the personalised web account using their existing Facebook and Twitter account. This helps firms to not only interact with the consumers in a public forum but also to show the number of friends and family members of the consumer engaged with the firm for building confidence and trust.

Background activities (Pre-Planning assessment): Competition analysis, Demand analysis, External (PEST) analysis, consumer and supplier analysis, industry analysis, Forward and backward integration with various departments and cost analysis. The online marketing plan has been developed incorporating four Ps of marketing mix:

Product strategy

Product information: size, colour and brandQuality informationUsage tipsComplementary product offeringsOnline product comparisonCustomized products (as and when possible)Return and refund policyCompetitive pricingFree shipping above specific amountDifferent price for specific occasions (festivals and special days e.g. Labour day)Simple yet informational wireframecreation title and description tags (meta tags)Search engine optimisationBasic information of account holderPayment detailsPurchase details (present and history)Product suggestionsDevelopment of back links to popular social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Linked In and Twitter.Company blogRSS feedsDiscount couponsCorporate partnership for promoting back linksPay Per Click marketing such as Google AdWordsOnline chatting applicationMobile applicationOrder, query and feedback link and pageFAQ pageOffline customer support

PPC marketing campaign is one of the vital online marketing strategies which involve using various search engines to promote a website in exchange of payment. In this marketing technique, companies pay search engines to generate clicks to its website instead of earning them in organic (unpaid; naturally) manner.  PPC campaign can be observed commonly on various search engines such as Google and Yahoo where the sponsored ads are placed at the top and every time consumers click them the search engine firm gets paid. The cost is considered trivial if the technique is effective in attracting consumers. However, it is noteworthy that an online business will be benefited from this marketing technique only if consumers like the website and make purchases. Therefore, success of PPC campaign heavily depends on the corporation in terms of its services and user friendliness of its website interface.

The main advantage of PPC advertising is that it gives complete control to the advertiser on campaign budget. The marketer can determine hereof the amount they are interested in investing weekly or daily basis. PPC campaign brings direct attention of the consumers to the website and the marketer has control to stop the promotion in case it is underperforming. On the negative side, the cost of the click depends on the competitors who bid for the keywords. A well-bidding keyword can be expensive and may require company to pay significant amount to earn top ad placement. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that all visitors will be potential purchasers.

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