Information Systems Strategy - Essay Example

Information Systems Strategy, Iss Contemporary Themes (E-marketing) Table of contents page Introduction................................................................................................ 3 Over-view of e-marketing…………………………………………………4 How E-marketing is being used by case study organizations……………..5 Evaluation of the internal and environmental drivers of e-marketing…….6 Benefits, limitations and alternative solutions…………………………….7 Conclusion and recommendations………………………………………..9 References……………………………………………………………….11 Bibliography…………………………………………………………….12 Introduction Marketing has been in existence for a very long time in different forms. Methods of marketing keep on changing and improving everyday thus becoming more efficient. E-marketing refers to use of the internet and any digital media to make sales of products and services. It is also called internet marketing, online marketing, or web marketing. The internet became commercially available in the market in 1994. Commercializing the internet generated a debate on if it was necessary to introduce a new concept in marketing. Now with a decade since the internet’s commercialization, the use of internet in marketing has become unavoidable. E-marketing helps businesses to deliver their messages to the right audience. It includes all the activities carried out inorder to find, attract, win, and retain customers. E-marketing does not only refer to marketing over the internet, but also through e-mail and wireless media. It embraces management of data for digital customers and business management functions. It joins internet aspects such as development, design, sales, and advertising. Today most businesses have made e-marketing an essential part of the companies. Companies continue to give a lot of resources for e-marketing thus, there is a huge shift to online from offline marketing. The shift from traditional marketing to e-marketing is bound to continue every year (Stephen 2011). E-marketing uses many of the principles that are used in traditional marketing. The results of e-marketing can be quantified thus allowing one to work effectively. If e-marketing is well implemented then it is likely to yield more cost effective acquisition of customers than the traditional marketing. It is hard to ignore the force of using internet in today’s world and therefore e-marketing has been used to reach millions of people every year. E-marketing has its own ways of achieving goals and objectives in marketing by managing customer relationships (Krishnamurthy 2012). If e-marketing is implemented correctly it provides accountability for any results. The online activities that take place are always traceable and they show returns on investment meaning it is possible to see the value of any e-marketing amount spent. Use of e-marketing in a business is the right choice for any business that needs to grow Over-view of e-marketing The use of e-marketing has created a lot of uniqueness in marketing. It has made distribution of information to be very cheap. Use of e-marketing is the latest pallet which serves businesses with a great account of smooth business. E-marketing involves promotion, product, price, place, and packing. E-marketing helps in nurturing and at the same time enhancing marketing, product marketing, and advertisement. E-marketing which is digital marketing has a command on technical aspects in creativity over the internet. They include advertising, designing, sales, and development. It involves positioning of the media with other client’s commitment stages cycle through the search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and advertisement on websites. The e-marketing services offered are intended to optimize the client’s website rankings. Clients are usually able to give solutions about the search engines through a web marketing agency. The use of e-marketing has three advertising methods that have been proposed for the clients and the marketing owners. They are pay per click, pay per action, and pay per play (Gay 2011). The advancements that are taking place in the telecommunications industry have highly affected e-marketing. It has led to many firms embracing the shift from traditional ways of marketing to e-marketing. Most consumers also prefer a firm that is using the most current technology thus those that are using e-marketing end up getting more consumers compared to those whostill hold onto the traditional marketing strategies. As a result of this, firms are trying to effectively connect with their consumers by making sure that through e-marketing they seek a consumer’s feelings and attitudes towards specific products and services. Some of the e-marketing latest trends are such as mobile marketing, inbound marketing, and use of improved analytics. The inbound marketing deals with the design and content and defines if the information and display is relevant enough to attract consumers. Mobile marketing is a growing trend that has already captured 75% of the world. The analytic improvement is able to discover and forecast any emerging trends in an industry thus giving companies a lot of knowledge on how to determine the best strategies that will increase sales. A lot of industries have invested in e-marketing and benefited from the same. Examples are such as brick and mortar business, and others sprung as online businesses such as internet service hosting (Molenaar 2011). How E-marketing is being used by case study organizations Originally case-study organizations made their marketing strategies offline but with the rapid change on technology they are now using e-marketing. This is especially with the increase of households that have internet connections. The case study organizations are using e-marketing to allow their members to have more active roles. Individuals are able to choose which case studies to support and which ones they will advocate for and those that they will not. The organizations have set up strategies that will help them collect the information that they require for their case studies more easily (Thomas 2011). Initially bulky newsletters were being used to initiate relationships with the target groups which were necessary for the case study. However, with the introduction of e-marketing it is easier to create these relationships over the internet and it is very cost effective. The organizations also use e-marketing to share information they get at the end of each case study. Through this strategy they are able to get more clients who would want a case study to be carried out. Therefore, e-marketing helps the case study organizations to collect data, get the target groups and also advertise themselves (Baker 2012). An example of a case study on e-marketing is that of a company known as Murco Gas Detection that was founded in 1993 by Locarn Mahar. It supplies gas detectors and maintains them at the same time. It employs 11 people and doubles every three years. In the past the company used traditional marketing methods. Even though this strategy seemed to work there was a problem with international marketing. Therefore the company came up with a website where it can market its products to all consumers internationally. This migration to e-marketing has seen the company making a 102% increase. It now uses sage products and realized that e-marketing is quick and cost effective (Eoin, 2013). Evaluation of the internal and environmental drivers of e-marketing The internal drivers of e-marketing are such as existence of very strong competition amongst companies and businesses. Every day there are new techniques being applied to bear with competition and one of the most recent is e-marketing. In addition, the world today has become a global economy thus there are standard patterns in the market for businesses. Therefore firms are using e-marketing in pursuit of following these norms. Also it has become a common practice that companies are manufacturing products and selling them in other parts of the world. In order for these products to be marketed in these parts of the world a medium is necessary and the best medium is e-marketing. Furthermore, technology is changing everyday causing changes in market demands. Therefore, e-marketing has become a good tool to sustain marketing in the changing conditions. Consumers’ expectations have increased and thus, consumers expect that quality of products and services should be very high thus acts as a driving force of e-marketing. The fact that consumers are aware that the internet keeps the consumer updated with information on products acts as a driving force of the e-marketing (Chaffey 2013). There are also environmental driving forces for e-marketing. They include some government regulations which provide a good environment for growth of e-marketing. Such regulations are such as well-defined cyber rules. Rapid changes on political system also work as a driving force of e-marketing. This is because changes in the government cause changes in policies towards businesses. In addition, the pressures originating from rapid changes in technology provide e-marketing as a solution to businesses. Information overload also plays as a driving force since e-marketing can efficiently manage any information load very cheaply. Lastly is the rapid internet growth in the last decades thus creating a market force on use of e-marketing and this is likely to continue (Haegele 2012). Benefits, limitations and alternative solutions The e-marketing has various advantages over other marketing strategies. Advertising over internet is relatively cheaper compared to other forms of advertisements and yet has a wider reach. E-marketing has a two way communication between the potential customer and the sales person. Also, e-marketing is helpful when it comes to spreading business worldwide and has no geographical barriers thus it is more accessible from one country to another since the results are given very quickly. Another advantage is that the internet has no closing hours so it is open for all the hours in a year. This makes it easy for people to shop at any time they are willing. Furthermore, the internet makes it easy to reach products and getting accurate information is much easy. It adds value through addition of points of reference and an individualized customer service. Use of e-marketing also creates credibility, trust, and confidence in customers since they are able to search for the items that they are sure will meet their requirements (Najib 2011). With the use of e-marketing it is very easy to measure growth statistics of a business. It is very easy to trace the marketing and campaign results through use of an ad server. Except for the pay per click advertising, all the monthly reports that are generated always display related web traffic from different angles. E-marketing is dynamic thus can easily and quickly change focus since the campaigns are flexible. It improves branding therefore increasing awareness on the company, products, and services due to the improved visibility. This in turn improves the competitiveness since customers will be more willing to buy from companies or businesses they can find online than those that are not available. The fact that customers can find the information they need online boosts their loyalty to a business. Any company that uses e-marketing drive revenue since it expands their market thus their potential sales are increased and also allows them to target particular types of customers (Najib 2011). Despite all the advantages that E-marketing has it also has limitations. First is lack of privacy on the users. Consumers are always hesitant to give their information since they are afraid that their personal information may not remain private and are afraid it might be shared. E-marketing hosts banner images on the servers and therefore through the use of third party cookies the company can track the browsing of users. Secondly there is a problem of malware, where some of the advertising methods can be considered illegal. They are such as external applications which are known to alter system settings. Thirdly there is a challenge on products advertised in e-marketing since some of them are simply scam. This makes it difficult for users or customers to tell which of the products are real and which ones are not. The buyers do not get a chance to feel a product physically like they would do in a store (Najib 2011). The alternative solutions to avoid these limitations are such as companies giving offers to remove consumers’ information from the database once a transaction is made. To address the problem of getting what was not purchased use of strong consumer brands is necessary. Such brands are such as amazon, eBay, and overstock. In addition it is necessary to use merchant and feedback rating systems. This way the consumers will be sure the transactions will be free of problems. Blocking third party cookies can also help in increasing privacy and in reducing tracking. Conclusion and recommendations In conclusion, e-marketing is an essential tool for all businesses. It has made the distribution of information of products and services very easy and cheap for businesses. It has made the process of storing and processing data easy as well as its accessibility by the consumers. E-marketing has been favored by the technological advancement thus making it a must have tool for firms (Robert 2012). The case-study organizations have also employed the use of e-marketing to carry out their studies. This shows how much of use e-marketing has become. There are several internal and environmental drivers of e-marketing that have so far ensured its continuity. These diving forces are responsible for development of e-marketing as well as its sustainability. As discussed above e-marketing has several advantages over other types of marketing. The advantages place it at a better position of being used or being preferred by consumers and businesses too. However, it also has its disadvantages which if not looked into can cause a set -back in the use of e-marketing. Before a company can invest into e-marketing it should be aware of the limitations on its use and try to find solutions to them. This will ensure they are safe from making losses. The use of e-marketing should at least be incorporated in every business to ensure its growth, however, companies should be aware that technology is not stagnant and therefore should be ready for a change any time. This change could be brought about by a better type of marketing other than e-marketing. Consumers should also be cautious when retrieving information that a company gave through e-marketing since there are so many frauds happening today. On the other hand there is need to come up with strategies to make sure the available information is safe for use by consumers (CharlesWorth 2011) References Baker, M, 2012. The Marketing Book. New York: Routledge. Chaffey, D, 2013. e-marketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing your Digital marketing. New York: Rotledge. CharlesWorth, A, 2011. Internet Marketing:a Practicle Approach. New York: Rotledge. Eoin, O, 2013. Marketing Case study:Murco Gas Detection. E-business newsletter, 10-12. Gay, R, 2011. Online marketing : a customer-led approach. Oxford: Oxford University. Haegele, K, 2013. E-advertising and e-marketing : online opportunities. New York: Rosen Publishers. Krishnamurthy, S, 2012. Contemporary Research in e-marketing. Hearshey: Idea Group. Molenaar, C, 2011. E-Marketing: Applications of Information Technology and the Internet Within Marketing. New York: Rotledge. Najib, C, 2011. Electronic marketing : advantages and disadvantages. Boca Raton: Dissertation. Robert, A, 2012. Electronic marketing and the consumer. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Stephen, D, 2011. E-Marketing: Theory and Application. Australia: Palgrave Macmillan. Thomas, B, 2011. E-commerce adoption and small business in the global marketplace : tools for optimization. Hershey: Business Science Reference. Bibliography Baker, M, 2012. The Marketing Book. New York: Routledge. The author of this book explains marketing in various dimensions and explains about e-marketing in detail. Chaffey, D, 2013. e-marketing Excellence: Planning and Optimizing your Digital marketing. New York: Rotledge. Chaffey explains how to make excellent use of e-marketing to achieve optimal goals. CharlesWorth, A, 2011. Internet Marketing:a Practicle Approach. New York: Rotledge. Charles worth gives examples of how e-marketing has been used in businesses today. Eoin, O, 2013. Marketing Case study:Murco Gas Detection. E-business newsletter, 10-12. In this newsletter the author examines a case study on how use of e-marketing has helped the Murco Detection Company grow. Gay, R, 2011. Online marketing : a customer-led approach. Oxford: Oxford University. The author discusses on general online marketing majoring on e-marketing as a solution to traditional marketing. Haegele, K, 2013. E-advertising and e-marketing : online opportunities. New York: Rosen Publishers. This book is explains on what e-marketing is, how it has grown and why it should be a choice for all companies. Krishnamurthy, S, 2012. Contemporary Research in e-marketing. Hearshey: Idea Group. The author of this book explains on research carried out on use of e-marketing and its use. Molenaar, C, 2011. E-Marketing: Applications of Information Technology and the Internet Within Marketing. New York: Rotledge. The author in detail discusses on the use of technology and internet in e-marketing and how technology has brought about e-marketing. Najib, C, 2011. Electronic marketing : advantages and disadvantages. Boca Raton: Dissertation. The author in general discusses the advantages and disadvantages of e-marketing to both the consumer and producer. Robert, A, 2012. Electronic marketing and the consumer. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. The author explains about e-marketing and how it affects the consumer. Stephen, D, 2011. E-Marketing: Theory and Application. Australia: Palgrave Macmillan. The author explains on what e-marketing is about, and how it is used by businesses. Thomas, B, 2011. E-commerce adoption and small business in the global marketplace : tools for optimization. Hershey: Business Science Reference. The author explains on why e-marketing is important and how businesse can adopt it and use it to optimize their income. Read More