e-Marketing Principles and Practices
Gregory T. ClarkIt is critical that the right marketing strategies are utilized in order to help an organization attain goals in a timely manner and establish a strong web presence. Identifying in advance what the customer needs and wants prior to presenting the business over the net will influence the design of the website and marketing campaign.
As the internet grows, so does a businesses ability to reach numerous people with their products or services. According to a recent report published by Market Plan Engineering, an Atlanta-based business growth consultancy, a marketing plan is a long-term roadmap of strategic and tactical objectives that result in the positioning of the client company and its products in support of its overall objective. It identifies marketing objectives, outlines key strategies designed to meet these objectives and guides daily marketing activities.
Developing a successful internet marketing strategy is essential to an e-business achieving online success and longevity. An organization must develop and implement both short-term and long-term marketing strategies to bring a continuous flow of targeted traffic to their website.
The key success factor in e-marketing is achieving customer satisfaction through your main electronic channel: the website. The first question to address when planning for the website would be "What does this site want to accomplish?" A general outline summarizing the key concepts for developing the site is as follows:
- Identify your target audience. Keep that audience constantly in mind as you proceed with the planning.
- Run prototypes of your site design past prospective customers and request feedback.
- Beware of ending up with conflicting corporate images, one for your website and another for the rest of your organization.
- Make the site easy to read and navigate
- Maintain a relatively consistent look from one page to another.
- Select a webmaster that is proficient in content skills, as well as technical know how.
- Feature a clean design that makes it easy for consumers to discover what you're selling and how to contact you.
Customer surveys could be an important first step toward formulating a marketing plan and help to determine customer needs and wants. Simply stated, surveying involves asking questions that will help gain information needed to attract more business. With a thorough market analysis, marketing can be more effective and even predictable. Before advertising in any medium, a survey should be done to see if this medium is effective with your customers. This information is valuable when formulating an e-marketing plan and spending expensive advertising dollars.
When selecting a domain name, it is always a good idea to use your business name in the URL. Registering domain names that are closely associated with your industry is the best way to attract customers who are searching for your products and/or services. For brick and mortar businesses, it always helps to advertise the e-business by incorporating the website domain name as part of the traditional marketing strategy. The web address should be featured on all business cards, brochures, letterheads, promotions and every printed advertisement.
Consumers are increasingly using search engines, instead of traditional means (i.e. Yellow Pages) to look up merchants, products or services. The best method for obtaining a top position in the search engine indexes is to obtain links from reputable, highly viewed sites on pages related to your business industry. The more people talk about your site online, the better the rankings.
Savvy web marketers understand that consumers use the web to shop and learn about companies, which is forcing them to market beyond just the company website. It can be difficult (and oftentimes expensive) for a small business to receive a link on big sites, which is why many are creating blogs. These weblogs often feature current events or commentary on a given subject, such as news, politics, health or sports. A typical blog includes text, images, and links to other web pages. On sites like MySpace and Flickr, business entrepreneurs utilize blogs to generate traffic for their companies.
Marketing on the internet requires that a website be found using keyword searches or other forms of online advertising. In order to be successful at online marketing, it typically means being found within the top 10 search results on the major search engines (Google, MSN and Yahoo!). Search engine optimization (SEO) involves achieving a natural high ranking on a major search engine using keywords that are relevant to the website's content. Recent studies indicate that 70% of searchers skip over sponsored listings and begin with naturally ranked sites. A company can also go the paid inclusion route, where the search engine company is paid for a guarantee that the website is included in their directory. Search engine advertising (i.e. Pay per click) involves paying the search engine company for the ad to be displayed either above or beside the natural results. Recent allegations of click-fraud, where companies create false hits and traffic, may make advertisers think twice about using pay per click as part of their online marketing campaign.
The key to improving e-business marketing results, regardless of the prevailing economic conditions, is to devise a better marketing strategy. Maintaining your business in a steady growth cycle really has very little to do with the economy. According to Pagetrends.com, a web hosting and web development company, smart businesses do well in almost any economy because they adjust their marketing strategy accordingly to keep the sales coming in like clockwork. Strategy is what focuses all your marketing tactics and makes certain you hit the bull's eye.
To compete successfully in today's highly competitive e-commerce market, mass marketing is no longer a viable option for most companies. Marketers must attract niche markets that exhibit unique needs and wants. Market segmentation is the process of dividing markets into groups of potential customers with similar interests or characteristics that are likely to exhibit the same purchasing behavior. Using a marketing segmentation strategy will improve an e-business's competitive position and better serve the interests of customers.
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Comments (1):
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e-marketing By sue on 09/23/2008, 09:10 this article is a good reaf although it doesn't cover the main point or principle of e-makreting it covers only the of internet marketing maybe people can uise this as a supporting research evidence not bad though !:) |
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