Internet Marketing Essay

What is Marketing? Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals. What is Internet Marketing? Internet Marketing is the process of building and maintaining customer relationships through online activities to facilitate the exchange of ideas, products, and services that satisfy the goals of both parties. Introduction Internet marketing, or online marketing, refers to advertising and marketing efforts that use the Web and e-mail to drive direct sales via e-commerce as  well as sales leads from Web sites or emails. Internet marketing and online advertising efforts are typically used in conjunction with traditional types of advertising like radio, television, newspapers and magazines. Internet marketing can also be broken down into more specialized areas such as Web marketing, email marketing and social media marketing: ï‚ §Web marketing includes e-commerce Web sites, affiliate marketing Web sites, promotional or informative Web sites, online advertising on search engines, and organic search engine results via search engine optimization (SEO) ï‚ §Email marketing involves both advertising and promotional marketing efforts via e-mail messages to current and prospective customers ï‚ §Social media marketing involves both advertising and marketing (includingviral marketing) efforts via social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg. Objectives of online marketing †¢To inform users of your web presence and the benefit your website offers over its competitors. †¢To persuade users to use the services of the firm. This could be done by offering a discount for a limited time. †¢To make sure the business is listed in all the most popular search engines and directories. †¢Keep customers updated of any new products or changes to business services. †¢Make sure that customer have a pleasant website experience by continuously improving the navigation of the site. †¢To aim for sales of x amount and net profit of x amount in a given period. Objectives of a business having a retail outlet/ showroom. †¢To reduce costs by moving some of their operations online. †¢To integrate online and offline strategies to maintain and improve relationships with customers. This could be by offering reserve online and pick up in store strategies like some retailers do. †¢The company’s strategy should support the overall marketing objectives of the firm this maybe to increase overall market share or profit. †¢To promote both online and offline activities. Advantages of Internet Marketing[7][8][9] Internet marketing is important because it aligns with the way consumers make purchasing decisions. Studies by analysts such as Gartner indicate that increasing numbers of consumers use social media and research on mobile Internet to carry out preliminary product and price research before making final decisions. Internet marketing enables you to build relations with customers and prospects through regular, low-cost personalized communication, reflecting the move away from mass marketing. †¢Convenience. Internet marketing enables you to be open for business around the clock without worrying about store opening hours or overtime payments for staff. Offering your products on the Internet is also convenient for customers. They can browse your online store at any time and place orders when it is convenient for them. †¢Reach. By marketing on the Internet, you can overcome barriers of distance. You can sell goods in any part of the country without setting up local outlets, widening your target market. You can also build an export business without opening a network of distributors in different countries. However, if you want to sell internationally, you should use localization services to ensure that your products are suitable for local markets and comply with local business regulations. Localization services include translation and product modification to reflect local market differences. †¢Cost. Marketing products on the Internet costs less than marketing them through a physical retail outlet. You do not have the recurring costs of property rental and maintenance. You do not have to purchase stock for display in a store. You can order stock in line with demand, keeping your inventory costs low. †¢Personalization. Internet marketing enables you to personalize offers to customers by building a profile of their purchasing history and preferences. By tracking the web pages and product information that prospects visit, you can make targeted offers that reflect their interests. The information available from tracking website visits also provides data for planning cross-selling campaigns so that you can increase the value of sales by customer. †¢Relationships. The Internet provides an important platform for building relationships with customers and increasing customer retention levels. When a customer has purchased a product from your online store, you can begin the relationship by sending a follow-up email to confirm the transaction and thank the customer. Emailing customers regularly with special, personalized offers helps to maintain the relationship. You can also invite customers to submit product reviews on your website, helping to build a sense of community. †¢Social. Internet marketing enables you to take advantage of the growing importance of social media. An article on the Harvard Business School Executive Education website highlighted the link between social networking and online revenue growth. According to the article, a group of consumers that responded most strongly to the influence of social networks generated increased sales of around 5 percent. You can take advantage of this type of influence by incorporating social networking tools in your Internet marketing campaigns. Disadvantages of Internet Marketing[7][8][9] †¢Competition. Nowadays there is cut-throat competition among various companies. Online marketing gives you an opportunity to attract international audience but at the same time you are also inviting the international market competition for your business. †¢Online Illiteracy. A majority of people who don’t have any knowledge about the online marketing companies fail to make any impact. You have to be very wise while targeting the right audience for promoting your product online. †¢Changing Technology. Science and technology are doing wonders these days. People are changing with the technology and so do the online software. You have to keep in touch with the latest technology and adopt the necessary software which are quite costly. †¢Personal attention. There is lack of personal attention given to a customer when they are shopping online on your website. Some people love to take advice which is not possible in online marketing. †¢Maintenance. It is very essential for a website get upgraded after regular intervals. But this is not practically possible because reconstructing the websites consumes a lot a time. †¢Slow internet connections can cause difficulties. If the companies build too complex or too large websites, it will take too long for users to check them or download them and they will get bored eventually. †¢The e-commerce doesn’t allow the user â€Å"to touch† the merchandise before purchasing it. Because of this, some salesmen are starting to guarantee the possibility of returning the product. In Germany, where a law that regulates e-commerce and guarantees the customers the total refund of the money exists since 2000, the electronic commerce is very popular. †¢Other factor is the payment: many users still don’t trust in the electronic methods of paying and give up buying online because of this. †¢One of the major disadvantages may be the lack of trust of the users because of the constant virtual promotions that appear to be frauds. This is an aspect that deteriorates the image and reputation of quality and honest companies. †¢Other disadvantage is the cash on delivery system, since it doesn’t guarantee the 100% purchase of the product. This is also the case of thousands of users that dedicate themselves to daily mock big companies by ordering on the internet using false identities. The Questionnaire I sent out the questionnaire to friends and colleagues who work at advertisement and marketing agencies with a good client base. These companies deal in all kinds of marketing and not only online marketing. I got a lot of responses from them. These were the questions asked: How long has your company been making or trying to make money through online marketing? †¢Less than a month †¢1 month- 6 months †¢6 months- 1 year †¢1 year- 3 years †¢3 years+ How much money is your company earning online per month? †¢Not earning money †¢Rs 1000- Rs 5000 †¢Rs 5000- Rs 20000 †¢Rs 20000- Rs 50000 †¢Rs 50000+ What’s the most troublesome problem your company has about making money online? †¢Don’t have enough technology †¢Not enough time to focus only on online marketing †¢Not enough funds †¢Too complicated †¢Others What tools/ software (that would save time and effort) would you be likely to purchase to help assist in online marketing? †¢Traffic tools that help generate visitors †¢Content tools that help create fast content †¢Designing tools that help design good quality graphics †¢Research tools that help in research and gathering of data †¢Others The Results The results in a nutshell †¢More than 3/4th of the respondents have more than 1 year experience making money online, yet most have not earned any money yet, or at most Rs1000- Rs 5000 per month. †¢The 3 biggest problems that are preventing/hindering people from making money in online marketing are that they do not have the technical skills and that they find it a complicated task to get into online marketing on a large scale. Not enough technical skills – You don’t actually need to learn and master all the technical skills. If you do, then stop calling yourself an internet marketer and start calling yourself a programmer. You only need to learn basic technical skills such as using an FTP program, installing your Word Press blog, create a basic html page, connecting your domain and hosting together. These skills, like any other skills, can be learned. The question is: are you willing to? Not enough traffic – Traffic by itself is useless if you can’t convert them into money , or if you can’t convert them into whatever you’re trying to achieve. In other words, you need conversion to make your traffic worthwhile. Search engine optimization You can do some Search engine optimization to rank your  sites highly in the search engines. To get conversion, the best way is to target the right audience who are already searching for what you are selling (so you don’t need to educate them that they need your solution/product). Then build trusting relationships with them, and the first way to start doing that is to actually tell your audience who you are as an individual, and start giving instead of receiving all the time. Not enough money – This is a classic. Not enough money to make money online means you don’t have the money to pay for business expenses like domain, hosting, email auto responder services, legitimate and honest how-to courses, etc. The company can spend less money by writing, designing, or programming the online ad/ marketing strategy. †¢More people are into niche marketing (where you enter multiple niche markets) rather than into 1 or 2 markets where you go deep and establish yourself as an authority in the marketplace. In a few cases the companies have a very limited number o f clients. This helps them focus on the needs of selected companies and is able to provide good quality work. †¢In terms of tools/software that saves time and efforts by automating tasks, people preferred to use tools that help in designing graphics and tools that help generate visitors. Survey conducted by SEO Industries- A U.S based industry[5][6][10] I picked up a survey along with statistics that was conducted by SEO industries in 2012 and have compared it to their previous survey conducted in 2010. And have posted my conclusions at the end of each sub topic. A Typical Online Marketer So, what did a typical internet marketer in the 2012 survey look like? I know â€Å"typical† is a dangerous word, but just for fun, here’s a persona of our average respondent: †¢47%Based in United States †¢77%Male †¢46%26-34 years old †¢18%Works at 2-5 person company †¢23%3-5 years in online marketing †¢35%Started as an in-house marketer †¢46%Currently works as an in-house †¢19%Makes $30,000-45,000 Conclusion The US accounts for a large part of our audience. Female respondents increased slightly from the 2010 survey, from 20.6% to 22.7% – that’s 10.2% more women in the survey this year, but still a sizable gender gap. International Marketers 65 countries have been represented in the 2012 survey. Many people asked last time to see more than the top 10 countries, so here are the top 25, by % of respondents: †¢47.3%United States †¢12.9%United Kingdom †¢4.4%Canada †¢4.0%India †¢3.3%Australia †¢2.4%Germany †¢2.0%Netherlands †¢1.8%Spain †¢1.3%France †¢1.2%Romania †¢1.1%Brazil †¢1.1%Italy †¢0.9%Israel †¢0.8%India †¢0.7%Ireland †¢0.7%South Africa †¢0.6%Bulgaria †¢0.6%Denmark †¢0.6%Hungary †¢0.6%Pakistan †¢0.6%Philippines †¢0.6%Poland †¢0.5%China †¢0.5%New Zealand †¢0.5%Sweden Conclusion US representation decreased from the 2010 survey (53% to 47%), while the UK grew from 9% to almost 13%. Israel fell out of the Top 10 from the #4 position in 2010, and Brazil slipped to 11th, while Romania narrowly pushed its way into the #10 spot. Service Mix and Demand Not surprisingly, most respondents (92%) have SEO services as part of their mix. The rest of the top 5 breaks down like this (keep in mind that most respondents offer multiple services other than online marketing): †¢92%Search Engine Optimization †¢82%Analytics †¢71%Link building †¢71%Content marketing †¢70%Social Media and/or Community Management This matches up pretty well with perceived demand changes over the past year. These are the top 5 service areas that our respondents believe are growing (as % of respondents): †¢72%Social media and/or community management †¢71%Search Engine Optimization †¢65%Local SEO †¢56%Content marketing †¢54%Analytics Conclusion Topping the list of services with the biggest decrease in demand are – Event planning (67%), Offline marketing (51%), and PR (48%). Of course, it’s important to note that they have strongly focused on online marketing, so these decreases are probably just the natural evolution of our industry. Training and conferences Most of us still get our industry education online, but in-person events round out the top 5: †¢93%Online resources – blogs, websites, etc. †¢88%Hands-on experience †¢64%Read a book †¢53%Attended a conference †¢50%Attended training seminars/workshops Over half of respondents have attended a conference in the past two years (including local meet-ups). Here are the top 10 industry events for our audience: †¢18%Search Marketing Expo †¢14%Search Engine Strategies †¢11%Local Meet-ups †¢7%Pubcon †¢7%ad:tech †¢7%MozCon †¢6%Distilled’s Searchlove/Linklove †¢5%Google I/O †¢4%SXSW †¢4%WordCamp Conclusion It’s interesting to see the rise in smaller events. Individual VS Team priorities When we’re not learning, we’re spending our time in the trenches. These are the top 5 tactics that respondents said they spent their individual time on (as % spending more than half their time): †¢24%SEO †¢11%On-page Optimization †¢10%Link Building †¢8%Social Media Marketing †¢6%Copywriting/Blogging/Writing How did that stack up against where our teams (SEO’s teams) are spending their time? †¢18%SEO †¢14%Link Building †¢12%Copywriting/Blogging/Writing †¢11%On-page Optimization †¢10%Social Media Marketing Conclusion While people reported that their teams spent more time on link-building and writing/blogging while they personally spent more time on on-page tactics, it’s interesting to note that the top priorities are pretty similar. Online marketing is still a hands-on business, even at the upper levels. Spending and Budget In 2012, respondents reported the following budgets for consulting services, with over a third (34.4%) spending $1,000/month or more on consulting and outsourcing: The average monthly spend on tools and software was quite a bit less, with only about 17% of respondents spending more than $1,000/month: Ad spend is diversifying in 2012, although traditional PPC still leads the way. Following is a graph of ad spent by category (total respondents). Top tools used Top 5 analytics tools as % of respondents †¢93%Google Analytics †¢16%WordPress Stats †¢13%Omniture †¢9%CrazyEgg †¢7%Compete Not to exaggerate, but Google Analytics just crushes everything else. The 2nd place is internal WP stats. Omniture is back in 3rd. WebTrends is #8. It’s getting tougher for the big enterprise vendors. Top 5 keyword research tools †¢88.3%Google AdWords †¢58.6%Google Insights †¢20.2%SEMRush †¢16.7%Wordtracker †¢13.9%Raven Top 5 content marketing and outreach tools †¢74%Twitter †¢53%LinkedIn †¢45%Google’s Insights for Search †¢31%StumbleUpon †¢31%Google Reader Top 5 Conversion Rate Optimization and usability tools †¢73%Google Website Optimizer †¢18%CrazyEgg †¢16%Pingdom †¢11%ClickTale †¢8%KISSmetrics Paid VS Free Tools Focusing on SEO, there’s still a solid divide between paid and free tools. Almost 24% don’t use paid tools at all (and probably run with scissors), but we’ll get to that in a minute. The top 10 paid tools (as % of respondents) are: †¢55%Moz & Open Site Explorer †¢17%Majestic SEO †¢17%Raven †¢13%SEMRush †¢10%Screaming Frog †¢9%Market Samurai †¢8%Advanced Web Ranking †¢8%Link-Assistant.Com, Rank Tracker, etc. †¢7%Wordtracker †¢7%Spyfu In the last 12 months, here are the top 10 free tools you’ve used (* denotes tools that also have paid versions): †¢83%Google Webmaster Tools †¢47%Moz & Open Site Explorer* †¢42%Bing Webmaster Tools †¢41%Firebug †¢31%Majestic SEO* †¢28%Yahoo! Site Explorer †¢26%Xenu †¢22%SEOBook Tools* †¢19%Screaming Frog* †¢18%Hubspot Grader* Conclusion Free tools from search engines rank highly on this list; although, Yahoo Site Explorer was discontinued during the 12-month period. Social Media Tools Last but not least, the rise of social media is undeniable. There have been a lot of arguments for where we’re spending most of our time. Here’s what you had to say about the top 10: †¢88%Facebook †¢83%Twitter †¢55%Google+ †¢49%YouTube †¢47%LinkedIn †¢47%Blogging †¢21%Pinterest †¢9%StumbleUpon †¢5%Tumblr †¢5%Flickr Conclusion Not surprisingly, Facebook and Twitter still dominate the landscape. While Pinterest has come on strong, it still trails all of the big players, including YouTube. Literature Review  E International Journal of Business and Social Science- Vol. 1 No. 1; October 2010.[4] E-Marketing; in one hand, it is noticed that the number of studies conducted by researchers and practitioners in the field of E-Marketing from 2003 to 2010 is relatively limited. This can be justified by the relative novelty of EMarketing. This provides an indication that E-Marketing is relatively new for academics and practitioners and also provides reasonable expectations about the increase in number of studies related to E-Marketing in the near future. The total number of studies was 365 studies, 73 % of it was empirical and 27 % of the total number of articles was not. It is also noticed that the research activity output in E-Marketing had decreased significantly between 2003 and 2008 within the literature period. Although the published articles had covered the following research areas: E-business, E-marketplace, Electronic Commerce, Electronic platforms, ICT adoption, Internet marketing, On-line trust, B2B, Performance evaluation, The Web, Electronic marketing, E-mail Making, Ereadiness, E-relationships, E-security, E-service, E-supply chain management, Internet adaptation, Mobile marketing and some other research. Electronic Commerce was the major research area covered by the researchers in the field followed by Electronic Business and Internet marketing. Most of the empirical studies had been conducted in: the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the UK which was the biggest in number of studies conduct in the literature period. By analysing the articles conducted in the UK market it was noticed that these articles had covered the following research areas: E-business, Electronic  Commerce, Electronic marketing, Internet marketing, the web, ICT adoption, Business performance and some other research areas. On the other hand, most of the articles in the literature were published in the Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development (27 articles) with a percentage of 7.4 % of the total number of studies conducted in the period of the literature. The next six top journals were: Internet research, Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Journal of Internet Marketing, Journal of Interactive Marketing and Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. Based on the literature there are clear research gaps in the field of E-Marketing especially in the areas of EMarketing performance as well as E-Marketing adoption in Small Business enterprises (SBEs). To fill such gaps and extend previous studies there is a need for conducting more research to investigate the relationship between implementing E-Marketing and SBEs performance. Online Marketing; New models of advertising?- By Kim Eriksen, Claus Hemmingsen, John Kuada Supervisor- Aalborg University.[3] Throughout our search we discovered that it appears that the companies, have been, and still are using internet as a communication tool to a limited extent, i.e. one way communication to the consumers (as opposed to new marketing models). The literature provided us with some indication of why this is the situation. One can call it simplicity for the companies or lack of knowledge towards other ways of using the internet. Most important discovery is maybe the fact that the latter has been the trend and way to do business. Many companies have not been keeping track on the trends that have arisen in the past decade. So the answer to our first question is that, international oriented Danis h companies have alternative options available, and are not that far from being able to utilise these alternatives. With few correction and a little of extra resources it would be possible for most of them to gain a better use of the internet. Having analysed several company websites it is clear that parts of the theory behind the new marketing models are being used. Whether conscious choice, random chance or even a need to â€Å"follow suit†, most companies try to keep their sites easy to navigate, with focus on language and information. However several are not utilising items such as chat forums, direct service contacts and in general the two way communication to get closer to an enhanced use of their presence online. We  have examined the Internet users’ demands and needs online, and found that they only to a small degree ask for involvement. There are explicit demands for less advertising and simple and well structured websites, but when it comes to dialogue, and participation only a smaller part of our population asked for direct involvement. Login and personalisation are however in high demand, a relatively new tool, login have appeared on more and more sites, developed from extranets (dealer logins) to consumer login to remember setup, addresses and other information the consumer need to type each time a purchase is made. This leads us to conclude that over time the demand for further involvement will grow. One of the most important features the internet provides is communication, communication between themselves and their customers. Companies has for a long time been using the internet as advertising tools to promote their product. In other words, it has been a one-way communication. Chat and forums is one of the possibilities the internet provides. The focus has to take a turn in the consumer’s direction. So instead of one-way communication it should be two-way communication. Consumers want to able to identify themselves in the sites and product. This would be achieved through chartrooms and forums. Instead of being a visitor they would rather be participants on the sites. Conceivably more like Blogs and newsgroup provides. What we also found out, was that the entrance to a site has to be simple and direct. A concern that we were faced with, was the fact that only few companies has a list of contact persons for direct contact. Also, with larger companies a receptionist is available; why not make his/her presence available on the internet via the company website. A simple process that would start the dialogue with the visitor, perhaps reveal areas where the website are failing to meet the needs of the visitor. It would moreover be an indication that the companies involved the consumers/participants in the process. All in all we believe that in order to gain fully effect of the internet and thereby increase the sale it is more important to have 20 dedicated customers that uses the sites than 100 visitors that have no direct connection to the site and therefore do not purchase anything. Danish companies have to reorganise their homepages in a way that it becomes easy and simple to navigate through and the possibilities to communicate with the consumers. Recommendation[2][10] Your online marketing strategy is based on getting more potential customers to your site and converting them into paying customers. It really is that simple. Through using a wide variety of techniques you can pinpoint those customers and make sure that they find your business when they search online for products or services that you provide. When they find your website a variety of other online marketing tools will be waiting to convert them to buying customers. In order to do this effectively, most of the focus will be on two major aspects of the marketing plan: using keywords in all online content and creating as many links as possible to your website. The more backlinks you have, the better your site will place in search engine results and the more people will find your website. The more effectively you use keywords, the more search engine friendly your content is and therefore more likely to be ranked. The more visitors you get to your website will result in more new customers for you. New customers mean an increase in sales and profit just like we said when we talked about the potential for exponential growth with online marketing for your business. Techniques to Increase Your Business’s Profits: Whether you have suffered a downturn in your business, have never built it to the level you are aiming for or if you are just starting out, your goal needs to be using online marketing strategies to increase your profits. There are four basic ways to improve profits: 1.Increase customers 2.Increase traffic to increase customers 3.Add to product offerings to make them more compelling 4.Use PPC, SEO, local business results, article marketing, etc. 5.Increase number of transactions per customer 6.Build mailing list 7.Increase customer communications through auto responders, newsletters, broadcast messages 8.Offer them upsell opportunities—pitch something seasonal 9.Send out reminders for services and specials 10.Increase the average dollar amount per transaction 11.Offer bundle packages and upgrades, strong reasons to purchase 12.Decrease costs, finding free traffic, lowering cost per click 13.Increasing conversions, decreases costs. 14.Offer a bonus, change a headline, offer a free consultation. 15.Even converting from 1% to 2% is a 100% improvement and cuts costs for buying traffic in half—pure profit! By putting an online marketing plan in place and following through with it, you can achieve all of these goals. You can easily improve your profits through the strategic use of online marketing techniques that will increase customers, increase the number of transactions per customer, increase the average dollar amount per transaction and decrease costs while finding free traffic which leads to a lower cost per click. Conclusion[1] [2] Internet Marketing is Not Easy it is filled with many complicated challenges that can put you off track, confuse you, and prevent you from succeeding. Reports and eBooks that attempt to give you a one-size-fits-all approach tend to miss a very important point; successful internet marketing requires you to be a dynamic, intelligent, and flexible. So a set of static, unchangeable plans is unlikely to make you successful. Traditional marketing methods are still highly relevant in the networked economy, though firms must now consider a host of new and innovative marketing methods available online (e.g., dynamic pricing, online community) In contrast to the one-way mass promotion that characterizes modern marketing, Internet marketing enables firms to engage the individual in personalized dialogues Individualization and Interactivity are two forces that make online marketing different Marketing, and the relationships it creates, should be considered in the context of particular processes and stages Bibliography †¢Internet Marketing Report- University of International Business and Economics- HUA Ying[1] †¢Online Marketing; New models of advertising?- By Kim Eriksen, Claus Hemmingsen, John Kuada Supervisor- Aalborg University.[3] †¢E International Journal of Business and Social Science-Vol.1 No.1; October 2010. [4] †¢2012 SEO Industry Survey [5][9] †¢Best Retail Brands 2011- Interbrand Webliography †¢Onlinebusinessmarketing.ie[2] †¢Moz.com[6] †¢Wordpress.com[7] †¢Westcoastmarketing.com[8] †¢Startup Nation[10]