How the Internet has Impacted Marketing?

Transcription

1 Online Marketing and Social Media ( Module 1 ) How the Internet has Impacted Marketing? The internet has developed very rapidly as a major force in the marketing equation for many consumer products. Not only has it become an important marketing tool, it has also dramatically changed the marketing equation. Understanding those changes is fundamental to harnessing the power of the internet to capture the loyalty of your customers and build your business. Following are some major ways it is changing the face of marketing and how the equation is evolving.

2 Educating the Consumer The internet began largely as an information and research vehicle. Although it has rapidly shifted from being an educational tool to an engine of commerce, it is still an important information source. Consumers can now sit down in the convenience of their own home and learn about your product. In fact, chances are good they will look to the internet to do preliminary research about a new product area regardless of how they buy the product. Brick and mortar stores are learning that many of their consumers will do research on the internet before buying at the store. As a business owner, it is important to be open and make information easily available to customers. With the information age, customers are often more hungry for information about a product and anxious to make more informed decisions. Easily available information is no longer something nice to have -- it is expected. While we used to live in a world of informationbarren 30-second commercials, consumers now demand more, and they will find the information they need. Customer Initiated Interaction In the past, the company initiated contact with the customer through research and eventually through their advertising. The internet has empowered consumers with an enhanced ability to easily initiate contact with the company to learn about their products or purchase them without leaving their home. They may approach the company any time during the day rather than strictly during "store hours". Customers are coming to expect access to the company at their own convenience. This has given birth to internet search engines and directories that facilitate the consumers' desires to find the information and products they are interested in. Today companies need to ensure they are visible on the web through these search engines and have a website that is easy to navigate and available at the customers' convenience. Information Overload While consumers expect access to information, they are also overloaded by the abundance of it. They generally resent having information pushed on them. Hence, spam laws and anti-spam software are gaining popularity. The implications for the marketer are two-fold. First, it is important to provide meaningful and useful information in all the communication with customers. Honour a commitment to customers who opt in for communication to not abuse their trust. Space the s to avoid becoming an annoyance. Make the communication useful to them. Second, keep communication on the website and in s concise and

3 easy to read. This is not a medium that tolerates long-winded posts. Package information in easy to digest packets. Serve the Customer Well It has always been important to provide an excellent product and back it with excellent service. The internet has made that even more essential. Chat rooms and other internet channels have accelerated the feedback loop on products and the service that backs them up. Consumers can instantly find out a company's record at the Better Business Bureau or any of a number of product rating services right from their own home. No longer must a consumer sit down and write a detailed letter to the company to complain. It is easy to log into a chat room or file a complaint, and it is instantly available to millions of consumers to see. Quality products and effective customer service are essential to those companies that wish to survive. Increased Consumer Participation in the Product Offering Not too many years ago, the marketing department initiated research with consumers and then determined what new products to develop, what features should be included, how to price them, and how well they liked the offering. Today, the consumer is increasingly dictating the terms of the offering. Consider major online merchants that allow customers to determine the price by auctioning products, transportation, or services. The major trend in mass customization has been facilitated by the internet allowing customers to dictate the features their product will have. Customers are growing to expect more say in what the product will be and how much it will cost. Personalized service will continue to play an ever increasing role in consumer products. What is Viral Marketing and How Does it Work? The basic principle behind Viral Marketing is that it encourages individuals to spread an advertising or marketing message to others. The benefit of getting these individuals to pass on a marketing message is pretty obvious these people become your promoting team, and get it done for free. This process is mainly based on a concept called social cascading. The online world is the ultimate for of internet viral marketing because of the simplicity and low-cost of someone forwarding your advertising messages.viral marketing benefits from various social networking websites to let individuals be familiar with a particular service or brand. Besides online, it also can be through wordof-mouth and other forms like texts, images, ebooks and other promotional stuffs. The moment a business or a company decides to go viral on the advertising strategies, gross sales and brand recognition are improved, resulting into a bigger profit. Its absolute aim is to implant a viral marketing message that can spread out easily from one individual to

4 another while not having to spend lots of time as well as effort. Many company owners find this method effective and truly beneficial in terms of advertising just about anything. Some strategies may include blogging, Ads, banners, Social Media like TV and Radio. Trust is a crucial element of viral marketing for both marketers as well as recipients. In a social media, the one who spreads your marketing messages might or might not be someone you know personally. You have to trust that the product they refer you to is something that will fulfill your criteria for utility, creativeness, uniqueness, and will also be safe. An effective viral marketing campaign can create an instant buzz, thereby you can experience a huge improvement in gross revenue of your business or company. This is how a viral marketing campaign can benefit a business. Important Sites for Marketing We will discuss each in more detail. 1. facebook.com Client feedback, advertising 2. youtube.com Viral Adverts, brand awareness 3. wordpress.com Blogging for your business, SEO friendly 4. Google Maps Free top placement on search results if location based 5. Google Analytics Free site traffic software 6. Linkedin.com B2B social media site 7. Twitter.com Short messaging social media service 8. Mailchimp.com marketing 7 Tips for Online Marketing on a Tight Budget

5 The World Wide Web is a tool with endless limits. Creating and maintaining a business presence online is more practical than ever before. In fact, online companies are popping up out of the woodworks. However, I can vouch that sustaining a successful online business is easier said than done. With the immense amount of information on the Internet and users largely having the control to view exactly what they want, getting your product in front of potential customers can be challenging to say the least. Over the years, I ve learned a lot about what works (and what fails terribly) when it comes to marketing online. Today, times are tough. Most companies have little room left in their tight budget when it comes to marketing. Here are 7 tips to follow to develop a successful online marketing strategy on your startups limited budget. Know your market. Your marketing strategy will never be successful if you do not have a clearly defined audience. Before you spend a dime on marketing, figure out your target market first. There s no need to pay top dollar to hire a fancy market research firm. If you know your product, you should be able to figure out your market yourself. For example, who will be most interested in your product? Men or women? What is their age group? What are your customer s interests? What is their likely financial situation? Once you have a thorough profile of your customer, determining how and where to reach them is much easier. This step may take a while, and that s OK. If you start marketing before you have a clear customer profile though, you will likely be wasting your dollars in places that will never reach your customer. Just because Pinterest is growing rapidly, doesn t mean your audience is the one making it grow. Set and reset goals. Determine what you are looking to gain from online marketing. Increased awareness? Increased revenue? You will probably have multiple goals, but keep track of what they are so you can measure your success. When you reach your initial goals, set new goals so your company can continue to improve. Set a budget. Now that you know who your target market is and have set goals, plan your budget accordingly. The good thing about online marketing is that you can be successful even when on a tight budget. A lot of platforms are available at no charge. However, sticking solely with free forms of online marketing might not be the best strategy for your company. Carefully determine what outlets are most necessary for your product and be willing to spend some money to get results. Brand yourself. Set yourself apart from the competition. There are thousands of companies trying to sell products on the Internet. Thus, you need to make your brand unforgettable. This begins with your website. Your domain

6 name should be your company s name if at all possible. If there are other companies online with names similar to yours, you may even want to consider changing your name to one that will not be easily confused with another product. Acquiring a domain name has a fee involved, but using a hosting service is very affordable even for the smallest budgets. The way you want your brand to be viewed by customers is really up to you. But once you figure it out be consistent and stick with it. Having a professional website and a strong social media presence is important here, but you should also take the time to interact with potential customers and build relationships with them. The main cost involved in this step is just the man hours put into the process, which will drastically be reduced when you ve established your brand. Search engine optimization. When someone enters a search query into a search engine about something relevant to your company, obviously you want to be one of the first results displayed. So how do you make this happen? Essentially, you need to make your website more appealing to search engines. Do this by using keywords that are commonly searched, backlinking your site, customizing the headline and description, etc. SEO can admittedly be a complicated and time consuming process, however the time needs to be spent here to ensure your website is getting found. Your best bet is usually going to be spending a bit more of your budget and hiring the right people to do the proper research. At Ciplex, we stress the importance of not including keywords to simply rank your site, but using the terms your audience is looking for. That is what will get you the highest conversion rates. Blogging. The more content on your site, the more opportunities there are for search engines to pick it up. Blogging can be a great (and free!) way to generate leads and links into your site. But don t just be producing content to produce content. Write quality blog posts that will engage the readers. Guest blogging on more established blogs is another way to get more traffic to your own site. Social media. Don t just sign up for these services and then forget about them. Start being active on social media. These sites should be used to promote your blog posts and communicate with customers. However, most people don t follow companies on social media unless the company gives them a reason to. So, of course, give them a reason!