Introduction
In the current networked world, the internet is considered an essential component for the successful existence of every firm irrespective of its operation. Both the product and service-producing firms have realized the importance of the internet in marketing and meeting the expectation of the customers. The advent of the internet has created a new arena in marketing products and services to the ultimate consumers. Internet is considered as a platform for every organization in recognizing and meeting the customer requirements and thereby creating value for every product and service. Marketing through the internet enables all business enterprises to reduce cost and it also facilitates reaching a large number of literal people efficiently and effectively. More than a business enterprise, it creates a lot of benefits for the customers.
Internet marketing helps people in purchasing products; identifying the products based on their choice, clarifying doubts through eCRM, etc. All these can be done by customers being in the home itself. “Internet has greatly enhanced the ability of firms to engage with customers in the product innovation process (Dahan & Hauser, 2002).” (Sawhney, Verona, and Prandelli 5).
The marketing process done through the technology of the internet is known as internet marketing. It is a broader concept and includes various aspects such as the internet, wireless media, managing digital data of the customers, eCRM. All these technologies are designed in such a way that their performances are equally meeting the works done by a marketing manager or a customer support executive. Here we are going to focus on the advent of the internet and the new related media that have created a big impact on the marketing strategy and the factors that forced the organizations to adopt the internet as a media for reaching customers across the globe.
The implication of Internet and Internet-Related Medias in Marketing Strategy
The advent of the internet and related new media has tremendously increased the scope of marketing online. “The term Internet today refers to the global network of public computers running Internet Protocol.” (Internet para 1).
It is a global system that connects the entire network of users from all countries. It is simply known as ‘the net’. In the present competitive world, the usage of the internet is increasing at a higher rate, specifically in the field of marketing. It became an essential element for every business enterprise to fix their sustainability in the competitive market. This mainly communicates the features and characteristics of products and services that are produced by a particular firm. Consumers are more interested to know about various products that are available in the market and the internet is the easiest way to identify those products that meet their requirements.
Internet marketing is also known as online marketing, e-marketing, web marketing, website promotion, and internet business. Internet marketing helps in increasing the sales volume and also helps in identifying potential and prospective customers. This leads to more opportunities in the internet retailing business by creating attractive features such as pod-casting, e-marketing, and interactive shopping that capture the attention of the potential and target customers. An online shopping site will be connected to customers and these customers can access the site by using WiFi, 3G mobile phones, internet, or whatever may be. Online pricing is one of the major challenges faced by organizations in online marketing. The issues that are concerned with e-marketing are the issues related to security and privacy. Consumers should feel that the sites they are using for online shopping are safe and they maintain privacy.
E-marketing has emerged as a new dimension in retail marketing that increased the number of customers who are interested in online shopping and online ticketing. Internet marketing meets the major challenge of keeping swiftness with increased consumer demands and developing appropriate relationship marketing that creates an increased number of loyal consumers.
The related media of the internet that are introduced in the current market are marketing through a search engine (SEM), optimization of a search engine (SEO), advertisements in the banner for certain websites, marketing through e-mail, and the strategies in Web 2.0. These related media and their implications in the marketing strategy are explained as follows:
Marketing through search engine/ Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
It is a type of internet marketing, which is used by most organizations to increase the visibility of their websites in search engine result pages (SERP) by which they can promote their websites. It can be defined as “promoting an organization through search engines to meet its objectives by delivering relevant content in the search listings when they search and encouraging them to click through to a destination site.” (Chaffey para 4).
This can be done by using paid placement, contextual advertisements, and paid inclusion. Examples of search engines are Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc. A search engine means a set of tools that are designed for the customers to access the information from a company website. Basically, there are two techniques in search engine marketing as follows:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – It focuses on the quality of the results from search engines that are included in the natural listings.
- Paid Search Marketing – It focuses on delivering results from search engines that are included in the sponsored listings. This is mainly done through paid search engine marketing and search through Content-network paid.
- Banner advertisements on websites – It is a graphic advertisement that is linked to the URL of the respective advertiser. It contains both static and animated rich ads. The Internet Advertising Bureau has given a standard format for designing a banner ad on websites. “The sizes they’re recommending these days are 300×250 (Medium Rectangle), 180×150 (Rectangle), 728×90 (Leaderboard), and 160×600 (Wide Skyscraper).” (Wilson para 6). It is the most frequent and effective way by which organizations can advertise their products and services on the web.
- E-mail marketing – It is considered the most effective and easiest way by which regular emails are sent to the target audience. It is a type of direct marketing whereby electronic mails are used for communication purposes. The main purpose is to acquire new customers and retain the existing customers by giving them adequate information related to the products and services produced by the firm. This helps in building brands, designing advertising and sales promotional activities, and also helps to expand sales and business simultaneously.
Web-based marketing Strategies
Many firms have started developing strategies for marketing their web. Web marketing can be defined as “the process of creating, developing, and enhancing a website in order to increase the number of visits by potential customers.” (Web Marketing).
It is growing and has a significant impact on the customer and market behavior of the business. In this, web 2.0 is a web service provider that has a significant impact on marketing strategies.
Conclusion
These new media have provided the marketers to understand the requirements of the customers and produce products and services accordingly. It also reduced the gap between the customer and the marketer and created a well-established marketing strategy.
Works Cited
Chaffey, Dave. Search engine marketing or SEM definition. Davechaffey.com: Your Guide to Digital Business, 2009. Web.
Internet: Definition. About.com: Wireless/Networking, 2009. Web.
Sawhney, Mohanbir., Verona, Gianmario., and Prandelli, Emanuela. “Collaborating to Create: The Internet as a Platform for Customer Engagement in Product Innovation.” Journal of Interactive Marketing 19.4 (2005): 4-17. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Web Marketing. B Net: The Go-to Place for Management, 2009. Web.
Wilson, Ralph F. Using Banner Ads to Promote Your Website: Banner Ad. Web Marketing Today: Your Trusted Internet Marketing Resource since 1995, Web.