Online Promotion and Marketing Communications - Essay Example

?Online Promotion and marketing Communications Introduction Before going into the discussion regarding how can Internet and related technologies assist organizations in creating customer value through personalization and mass customization, let us get a better understanding of what E-marketing actually is. E-marketing refers to the concept of selling the products online or making the customers aware of the products and services of a company using internet technologies. E-marketing is the sum of online activities which a company takes in order to find, attract, win, and retaining customers (Otlacan 2005). E-marketing is not just the development of a website for a company, rather it also includes other activities, such as, online communications between customers and the company, direct dialogs with the customers, finding methods to gain customers’ fidelity, and creating customer value. Upson (2010) states, “EMarketing allows businesses to easily find potential customers that might have a special interest in their product”. 2. Communication Tools for E-marketing Business communication includes transfer of all planned and unplanned messages between the company and its customers. Planned messages include informing or persuading the target market whereas unplanned messages include publicity in media and word of mouth among the customers. It is not possible for the companies to manage unplanned messages directly. Therefore, they use different communication tools to create a good impact on the customers. There are different communication tools available for E-marketing, which include advertising, selling, PR, direct mail, sales promotion, sponsorship, and exhibitions. These communication tools not only help the companies create awareness about their products and services among the public all over the world but also play an effective role in creating customer value. “Customer value is the amount of benefit that a customer will get from a service or product relative to its cost” (Leverkuhn n.d.). Let us discuss how these tools play their role in E-marketing. 2.1 Advertising Advertising is a form of paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message delivered from a sponsor to the customers (Lake 2009). Online advertising is one of the most effective marketing techniques for all companies, which have their presence on the internet. Companies tell the public about the specifications of their products through online advertisements, which they place on famous, search engines and websites. Pay per click advertising and interactive advertisements are very beneficial for the companies because they attract a large number of people towards the company’s products. Through pay per click method of advertising, companies pay the people who click their ads on the websites. Pay per click can be successful for the companies if they advertise on a large number of relevant phrases, build different ads for every phrase, send visitors to the most suitable web pages, and measure return on the investments. This mode of online advertising attracts a large number of people towards a company’s products and services. Customers also feel valued when the companies pay them as a reward for clicking their ads and buying the products. 2.2 Selling Selling is another activity included in E-marketing. Companies use different methods to sell their products to the customers, such as, virtual sales staff and online chat. Customers can chat with the sales representatives of a company using company’s website in order to get relevant information about the products. Online chat is one of the most important elements of an online company. Companies cannot create customer value if they hire ill-mannered sales staff because such staff members do not possess the ability to attract customers towards the companies. Companies need to take advantage of good interactivity and mass communication in order to gain customer value and achieve competitive advantage in the market. 2.3 Public Relations Marinating good public relations is another key towards gaining customer value. Companies not only want to establish new relationships with the customers but also try to maintain those relationships. Companies inform the customers about new products and services through online editorials, newsletters, social networks, and personal contacts. Online editorials and newsletters play a beneficial role in creating awareness among the people about a company’s products. In most of the newsletters, customers are the focus of the companies. Whenever a company manufactures a new product, it informs its key customers through newsletters and online editorials in order to sell the product. Companies include the product’s specifications and features in the newsletter in order to give a detailed picture of the newly manufactured product. Same like newsletters and online editorials, social networks, such as, twitter and facebook also play an important role in creating awareness among the people. Personal contacts are also very important in this regard. Companies motivate their employees to maintain good working relationships with the customers in order to increase the sales and gain customer value. Good relationships are very important because if a company loses a customer due to any reason, it results in the loss of many other customers of the company. Therefore, maintaining good public relations is one of the main targets of any manufacturing company because it definitely results in achieving competitive advantage in the market. 2.4 Direct Mail “Direct mail is a marketing technique in which the seller sends marketing messages directly to the buyer” (Withers 2008). Direct mail is also a good method to attract customers towards the products of a company. Companies send direct electronic mails to the key customers in order to provide them with the information about new products. Companies maintain a database where they store the email addresses of the key customers and whenever they manufacture a new product, they send an email to all customers. By looking at the business relationship through eyes and mindset of the customers, companies discover their needs and value expectations in order to manufacture an attractive product for the customers. Direct mail has been a strong tool to attract customers towards the products of any specific company because they make the customers feel valued when the customers receive emails from the company. 2.5 Sales Promotion Sales promotion is a part of personal selling process, which makes a customer buy the products of the company. The main purpose behind implementation of sales promotion strategies is to increase the sales of the company by offering valuable benefits to the customers. King (2010) states, “Sales promotion can be targeted at the wholesaler, retailer or even at times the end customer”. Sales promotion also helps the companies increase their reputation in the eyes of the customers. Some companies make use of incentive rewards and online loyalty schemes to attract customers. It is a fact that if a company gives respect to the customers by keeping in view the available budget of the customers and meeting their needs and demands, it will help the company increase its sales and profits. A good sales promotion technique is one, which solves the customers’ budget problems by acknowledging the budget constraints and offering discounts (Edelman n.d.). Some of the most popular sales promotion techniques which most of the companies use include discount vouchers, customer loyalty cards, gifts, money off coupons, and discounts. 3. Main Objectives of Interactive Mass Communication Interactive mass communication serves many purposes of the companies. Some of the main objectives of interactive marketing and mass communication include use of offline and online promotions, use of on-site communicators, and integration of communication channels. Online promotions drive the key customers to the website of the company. Attracting customers towards the company’s products is the main goal of every company and to achieve this goal they make use of online promotions to make the visitors open their websites. On-site communication is another aspect of creating customer value through interactive marketing. Using on-site communication, companies deliver effective, useful, and most relevant messages to the customers in order to make the customers aware of the products and services provided by the companies. On-site communication has proved to be a very effective in attracting customers towards the products of any specific company. Sales representatives and customers share useful information about the products, which results in creating value of the products in the eyes of the customers. The third objective of interactive marketing is to integrate all communication channels in the process of creating customer value. A communication channel is a medium through which a company delivers its messages to the customers. Companies make use of various types of communication channels, such as, telephones, emails, televisions, radios, and newspapers to communicate with the customers. 4. Integrated Marketing Communication Managers of the companies need to understand what integrated marketing communication actually is in order to strengthen the communication standards. An integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategy involves understanding of the target market, the brand of the products, competition of the brands, and internal and external factors of the marketing environment. The managers of a company should properly consider all of these factors while developing a strategy because negligence shown towards any of these factors can result in major flaws in the marketing strategy. While developing an IMC strategy, marketers also need to select appropriate tools required to achieve communication objectives. After selection of the appropriate tools and implementation of the strategy, marketers need to measure the effectiveness of the strategy in order to make required adjustments in the strategy. The last step is the evaluation of the results of the strategy. 5. Search Engine Marketing One of the best ways to sell the products of the company is through search engine marketing. Brown (2007, p. 9) found that pay-per-click advertising on the major search engines is an integral part of a successful online marketing strategy. The benefit of placing the advertisements on the search engines is that when a customer searches for any specific product on the search engine, he gets a complete list of products, which actually meet his requirements. Sometimes, users do not know the name of the company and they just type the name of product on the search engine’s address bar. In such cases, the search engine shows all links to the customer which contain the desired product. Search engines are one of the primary tools for anyone who is seeking information regarding any specific product. Companies need to pay the slotting fee to the search engine owners in order to remain at the top of the search engines’ lists. 6. Ethical and Legal Considerations “The web faces the same ethical issues as other media, plus a few of its own” (Spizziri n.d.). There exist some ethical and legal considerations regarding creation of customer value through internet and related technologies. Privacy of information, data protection, and trust are some of the key issues for almost every customer. When a customer fills the personal information form on any specific website, the point about which the user has extreme concern is privacy of the personal information. Privacy is very important when doing E-marketing because a company needs to consider many legal and ethical issues regarding use of such information (Otlacan 2005). Some websites require credit card numbers for the processing of online payments. In such cases, privacy of card numbers becomes a concern for the users. Another point of concern is about emails and newsletters that a user receives from a company’s website for which the user opts-in. In such cases, the companies should not send out of context emails to the users. The companies should send emails regarding those topics only for which the user shows interest while filling the form. 7. Conclusion Summing it up, customer value is the benefit, which a customer gets from a product relative to the cost of the product. Leverkuhn (n.d.) states, “Businesses of all sizes use customer value as part of a greater analysis to determine how well they are supplying their customer base”. Companies make use of different communication tools not only to create awareness about their products and services among the public but also to create customer value. There are different communication tools available for E-marketing, which include advertising, selling, PR, direct mail, and sales promotion. All of these tools have their own significance in the field of online marketing. Another way of E-marketing is by selling the products of the company through search engine marketing. Companies place their advertisements on the popular search engines in order to provide an easy way to the customers get to the products of the company. Along with several advantages of E-marketing, there also exist some concerns, which include privacy of information, data protection, and some other issues. Companies need to consider properly all ethical and legal issues in order to make E-marketing a suitable way to create customer value. References Brown, B 2007, The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine: Pay Per Click Advertising Secrets Revealed, Atlantic Publishing Company, Florida. Edelman, D n.d., Sales promotion Techniques, viewed 26 March, 2011, http://www.ehow.com/way_5119931_sales-promotion-techniques.html King, W 2010, Sales Promotion Strategies, viewed 26 March, 2011, http://ezinearticles.com/?Sales-Promotion-Strategies&id=3959138 Lake, L 2009, Marketing vs. Advertising: What’s the Difference?, viewed 26 March, 2011, http://marketing.about.com/cs/advertising/a/marketvsad.htm Leverkuhn, A n.d., What is Customer Value?, viewed 26 March, 2011, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-customer-value.htm Otlacan, O 2005, E-marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions to Consider (the e-marketing mix), viewed 26 March, 2011, http://ezinearticles.com/?e-Marketing-Strategy:-7-Dimensions-to-Consider-(the-e-Marketing-Mix)&id=21976 Otlacan, O 2005, What is EMarketing? A New Discipline is Evolving, viewed 26 March, 2011, . Spizziri, M n.d., Ethical Issues in Online Advertising, viewed 26 March, 2011, http://advertising.about.com/od/onlineadvertising/a/guestethicalads.htm Upson, M 2010, What is eMarketing?, viewed 26 March, 2011, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-emarketing.htm Withers, B 2008, The Advantages of Direct Mail as a Marketing Tool, viewed 26 March, 2011, http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/the-advantages-of-direct-mail-as-a-marketing-tool-415560.html Read More