Article Preview
Top1. Introduction
Internet marketing, also referred to as web marketing, online marketing, or e-marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought several unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience (Varadarajan & Yadav, 2009). The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it not only refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media, but it also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (E-CRM) systems (Graham, 2008). Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sale. Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. E-marketing means using digital technologies to help sell goods or services (Miller, 2002). These technologies are valuable complements to traditional marketing methods whatever the size of the company or business model. The basics of marketing remain the same - creating a strategy to deliver the right messages to the right people (Hsia et al., 2009). What has changed is the number of options you have (Henten & Nicolajsen, 2009). Though businesses will continue to make use of traditional marketing methods, such as advertising, direct mail and PR, e-marketing adds a whole new element to the marketing mix.
Many businesses are producing great results with e-marketing, and its flexible and cost-effective nature makes it particularly suitable for small businesses (Ho et al., 2005). E-marketing gives businesses of any size access to the mass market at an affordable price and, unlike TV or printed advertising, it allows truly personalized marketing. Some of the benefits of e-marketing are:
- •
Global reach - a website can reach anyone in the world who has access to Internet. This allows one to find new markets and compete globally for only a small investment.
- •
Lower cost - a properly planned and effectively targeted e-marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods.
- •
Trackable, measurable results - marketing by email or banner advertising makes it easier to establish how effective a campaign has been. One can obtain detailed information about customers' responses to one’s advertising.
- •
24-hour marketing - with a website the customers can find out about the products even when the office is closed.
- •
Personalization - if the customer database is linked to the website, then whenever someone visits the site, it is possible to greet them with targeted offers. The more they buy, the more refinement is done on customer profile and market effectively to them.
- •
One-to-one marketing - e-marketing lets you reach people who want to know about your products and services instantly. For example, many people take mobile phones and PDAs wherever they go. Combine this with the personalised aspect of e-marketing, and you can create very powerful, targeted campaigns.
- •
More interesting campaigns - e-marketing lets you create interactive campaigns using music, graphics and videos. You could send your customers a game or a quiz, whatever you think will interest them.
- •
Better conversion rate - if you have a website, then your customers are only a few clicks away from completing a purchase. Unlike other media which require people to get up and make a phone call, post a letter or go to a shop.