Local Internet Marketing - Essay Example

?E-Marketing The technological era, as the world may be referred to today, is the period where almost everything is found online, on the internet. The internet facilitates a medium for communication between all kinds of people, even business entities and consumers. Therefore, many business organizations have taken advantage of the cheap found resources on the internet in order to sell their products at half the price and reach out to a much larger consumer base, all over the world, by selling their products online. This kind of marketing, where products are bought and sold on the internet, or online, is known as e-marketing.1 Moreover, what makes e-marketing better is that it does not only include buying and selling through websites but also through personal aspects like e-mails and other forms of wireless media. Business firms are very fond of e-marketing today and the growth in e-marketing has seen an all time high of late because not many financial resources are required in this form of marketing as opposed to setting up stores in different parts of the world where the customer base to be catered to is very limited. E-marketing is accessible to all kinds of people all over with an access to an internet connection and makes life much easier and convenient for people. Instead of standing in line to buy products and waste time travelling, a consumer can easily buy products online while he is travelling somewhere; for example, a woman buying books from the internet, from a website like amazon.com while sitting on a train to a meeting in the morning – thus no time is lost as she is able to use the interim travel time efficiently and by the time she reaches home in the evening, she would have received her package as well – making life so much more convenient than standing in line at the store and taking time to choose her books. This paper focuses on all aspects of e-marketing – from how it has significantly changed the world as we see it today to the various advantages and challenges that it faces and also helps to provide a number of interesting examples throughout the course of the explanation. Creativity is a very essential aspect of internet marketing because the first thing that a business entity needs to do is create a website that will appeal to the consumers at large and is also very user friendly – especially on gadgets like smart phones which are used more than laptops for browsing the internet. The design and development of a website is very crucial to its existence because advertising and marketing also needs to be taken care of through this medium – it is thus very important for an organization to make sure that all the marketing that it does online brings it results by taking care of the creative and technical aspects. This can be done by posting advertisements and banners on various websites, using social networking websites to display products and services as well as post surveys on websites to ask customers their opinion and thus gather data and use it for its benefit.2 There are many different kinds of internet marketing that companies indulge in. they may be classified on the basis of the following; display advertising where advertisements in the form of banners are displayed on random websites which when clicked transport the user to the website where the goods and services are being sold. In order to do this the business firm needs to take permission from the host website, for example banners on Face book; Search engine marketing is another method in which business organizations pay search engines to show up on the results or on the side when a customer types in certain key words; Social media marketing is close to display advertising where social media websites are used to advertise and promote products and services and create traffic thus; e-mail marketing is done when e-mails are sent to a wide database of people regarding the promotions offered by the business entity luring them to the websites; video marketing is done through websites like YouTube where videos regarding the products and services are played when the user plays a certain video or types a keyword, in order to give him a more graphical presentation in the form of an advertisement as shown on television.3 E-marketing may be done between customers and a business organization or even between two business organizations where one buys the products from another to be sold after manufacturing it further. For example, e-bay is a website where people sell their products for other consumers to purchase – however a business entity or an individual with his or her own business may get in touch with the website which is another business organization to sell its products and appeal to a wider consumer base. There are many advantages and disadvantages of this type of marketing. Focusing on the merits, it is safe to say that the biggest pro of online marketing is the range of customers one can cater to with ease; people living in remote areas of the world can access the internet and then log onto all kinds of websites in order to purchase products. Moreover, most of these websites offer shipping almost anywhere in the world. Thus, this helps the organization to save on a great deal of money while making more profits. A small fraction of advertising is used to reach to a very large consumer base as companies can post their advertisements almost anywhere on the internet and attract consumers. Moreover, today customers are very smart and thus they can easily test the viability of the website and whether or not they can trust it by comments left by other customers. This form of interaction between people makes it much easier for people to understand the credibility of the website. Moreover, easy online payment methods, including the payment method of paying with cash on delivery appeals to the customers a great deal, make it easier for them to trust their money with websites. The biggest limitation judging the above mentioned merits is the possibility of a scam online – most customer do not wish to purchase products online because they are afraid that their personal details like credit card details might get saved with the website and put to bad usage. This is why, unless there is a proper certificate given by a credible bank, users are not willing to purchase products online. Moreover, there are many websites that are scams and make give the impression to the customer of being a brand that they are not in order to attract customers which makes people doubt them even more. That is why customers only prefer to use websites like amazon.com, e-bay.com, and makemytrip.com, as well as a number of clothing websites that have big brands etc, because they know that such websites have been trusted in the past and can be trusted even now. Moreover, when customers buy goods they like to tangibly feel them before purchasing them for example with clothing customers need to try on the clothes before buying them and thus such websites are good for products like books and DVDs to name a few. Security is one of the biggest concerns of a customer, and rightly so and thus it is the job of the business organization to have a customer support for customers all the time in order to give voice to their grievances and help their problems. Better assistance will lead to better faith in the company and assist the consumers to buy the products. Customers are also requested to provide feedback upon purchase which helps the business organizations to understand the problems that the customers are undergoing. Moreover, the delivery of the products must be prompt in order to not fail their customers and make them feel that they have been duped. With time, e-marketing has become a very large avenue for business organizations world over. Nowadays marketing is subject to absolutely any product that can be bought in a store. Online banking has started supporting a larger base of business organizations today making it much easier for customers to purchase products. Firms even host auctions over the internet on websites like e-bay at extremely low prices and thus people find it better to browse products online than sift through flea markets, spending a great deal of time and energy which can be put to other uses. Business organizations have been able to understand the needs of different types of consumers. They have understood that many women world over have begun to have families at young ages or may be students and thus cannot devote enough time to shopping in stores because of the same reason. Any free time that they get, they would rather spend relaxing at home and taking a break from their children or their studies and work lives. Thus, it becomes easy for them to be lying in bed and making purchases online and keeping their happiness quotient high. Even small organizations and groups of individuals have begun to host their garage and yard sales on social networking websites by posting pictures of the products to be sold with the prices and contact details for purchasing the products.4 This becomes easier than scouting around for sales and opens up a bigger consumer base for people living in different cities too. For example, a young couple hosting a garage sale of the products of their baby that has now grown can post the photos on their Face book page and share the pictures with friends of their friends – this enables a large number of people to gain access to the products and contact the couple if they would like to purchase. Moreover, since the couple is doing this on a personal and small level, no finances are even required and if the products are not sold, then it does not really amount to a loss. Moreover, websites like Twitter make it easy for people to post online updates about their products and invite followers to share the news and attract consumers thus. More and more websites everyday are coming up to compete in the online world for example online newspapers are doing away traditional newspapers and people also have better job opportunities sitting at home. According to companies like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, almost US$16.9 billion was spent on online marketing in the United States of America in the year 20065 – and a figure so large is not even half the amount companies would have spent had they done their marketing manually or through other mediums than the internet world. All kinds of industries have entered the e-marketing world ranging from music, films and television programs to companies selling life insurance and advocates and architects marketing themselves. All that a consumer needs to do is switch on his internet connection and he is literally connected to every part of the world. Students can buy research online, hire writers to help them do their school and university related work; artists can film their music and post it online for business organizations to scout and stumble upon; people can post ideas relating to a diverse range of subjects like cooking and crafts on their blogs and share them on blogs and podcasts which can be subscribed to and even download and paid for online. An individual no longer has to visit a music store to buy music because he can purchase anything online; a businessman need not spend time buying a flight ticket for a meeting in a different city as the same can be done through the simple click of a button. People have begun to buy and sell themselves and their skills on the internet as well – by this I mean that there are many students looking for internships and jobs and by posting their curriculum vitas online, they can attract business organizations to pick and choose and offer jobs to. The internet and marketing online has brought a standstill to the manual market – business organizations need not spend money on manual labor or employees to manage stores. For that matter, an organization need not even spend money making job postings in the newspapers because the job can be taken care of easily by the internet. Thus, e-marketing is available to people in all sectors of society and is not confined to a particular business or form of organization. Better user interfaces using software programs like Adobe Flash and Java are used in order to appeal to consumers of all kinds – while designing a website for all ages, creators make sure that everyone from toddlers of young ages to old people of even 80 can use the website with ease. There is something for anyone and everyone – from a homeless man making an appeal and posting his photo online to gather some sympathy and funds from people to a home based cupcake maker posting her photos and inviting people to buy her products – e-marketing is a wonderful opportunity for people to facilitate the sale and purchase of products. All these add to significant developments taking place in the e-marketing world. Advertising is one of the main aspects of the marketing mix which is used to attract consumers towards buying a particular product or making use of some sort of service. Over the years, the entire process has become an art as different companies on the global scale are striving to compete with each other while making sure that theirs’ is the product that is being purchased by the consumer. E-marketing has made advertising so much easier and better from displaying a banner to a poster online which may be very simple and easy to create in a matter of minutes, but brings so many results from all over the world, attracting a large customer base. In conclusion, e-marketing has turned the entire world upside down in the recent past with ideas flowing from one end of the globe to another. It has become very easy for business organizations to gather and use information from customers in a manner that it benefits them. Entrepreneurship has also grown so much by using the internet to market one’s products because people no longer fear the loss caused to them by a loss in the market place due to the very minute amount of financial resources required to set up and sell one’s products online. E-marketing is available in all business sectors globally and saves the customer a great amount of time and energy, making it more convenient and enjoyable for him to purchase products without making it a routine monotonous affair. There is a wide variety of choice on the internet and consumers thus do not feel overpowered by a single brand or product. The entire marketing mix of a business model has undergone a great deal of change by creators and developers of websites all over the world; cyber laws in place also assist people to compete in a civil and legal manner while ensuring that the customer stays on top of the pyramid with maximum power to do as he wants. References Jems, M. (2012) Put the e-mphasis on Local Internet Marketing and reach first page on Google | PRLog. [online] Available at: http://www.prlog.org/10638959-put-the-mphasis-on-local-internet-marketing-and-reach-first-page-on-google.html [Accessed: 26 Nov 2012]. Marketingtoday.com (1997) business blogs -- beyond the hype. [online] Available at: http://marketingtoday.com/emarketing/0105/blogs_beyond_hype.htm [Accessed: 26 Nov 2012]. Nytimes.com (2008) To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You - New York Times. [online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/technology/10privacy.html?_r=0 [Accessed: 26 Nov 2012]. Social Media Examiner (2012) 9 Ways to Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner. [online] Available at: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-ways-to-integrate-email-and-social-media-marketing/ [Accessed: 26 Nov 2012]. Toprankblog.com (2010) Social Media Marketing: Strategy to Commerce. [online] Available at: http://www.toprankblog.com/2011/01/social-media-marketing-strategy-commerce/ [Accessed: 26 Nov 2012]. Read More