EMarketing

What is eMarketing?

EMarketing is essentially part of marketing. But what is the difference between

eMarketing and Internet or web marketing? What are the eMarketing tools? And
how do marketers plan for eMarketing? This lesson aims to answer these
questions

So the place to begin defining eMarketing is to consider where it fits within the
subject of marketing. So let's start with a definition of marketing. The American
Marketing Association (AMA) definition (2004) is as follows:

Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating,

communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.

Therefore eMarketing by its very nature is one aspect of an organizational

function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value
to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the
organization and its stakeholders. As such an aspect, eMarketing has its own
approaches and tools that contribute to the achievement of marketing goals and
objectives.

This also helps us to differentiate between eMarketing and E-commerce, since E-

Commerce is simply buying and selling online.
 What are the eMarketing tools?

The Internet has a number of tools to offer to the marketer.

 A company can distribute via the Internet e.g. Amazon.com.

 A company can use the Internet as a way of building and maintaining a
customer relationship e.g. Dell.com.
 The money collection part of a transaction could be done online e.g.
electricity and telephone bills.
 Leads can be generated by attracting potential customers to sign-up for
short periods of time, before signing up for the long-term e.g. which.co.uk.
 The Internet could be used for advertising e.g. Google Ad words.
 Finally, the web can be used as a way of collecting direct responses e.g. as
part of a voting system for a game show.

How do marketers plan for eMarketing?

There are two ways of looking at this.

 An existing organization may embark upon some eMarketing as part of

their marketing plan.
 An organization trades solely on the Internet and so their marketing plan
focuses purely on eMarketing.

The marketing plan in either case is the next step, whether focused upon
eMarketing or all marketing. The next lessons focus upon a tailor-made
eMarketing plan which conforms to the acronym AOSTC (from our generic
marketing planning lesson).

 A - Audit - An audit of internal strengths and weaknesses, an external

opportunities and threats.
 O - Objectives - SMART eMarketing objectives.
 S - Strategy - eMarketing strategies.
 T - Tactics - an eMarketing mix.
 C - Controls - measuring the performance of our eMarketing plan.
 eMarketing Mix

What is the eMarketing Mix?

The eMarketing Mix is essentially the same as the marketing mix. It is simply the
adaptation of price, place, product and promotion to the eMarketing context. Of
course one could also include physical evidence, people and process when
marketing planning for an online service. Below are a series of lessons that
consider how markets can apply the eMarketing mix to their organization's own
product, service, brand or solution.

eMarketing Price

The emarketing mix is simply an adaptation of the traditional marketing mix, and
'P' for price. However, the Internet has influenced how online businesses price in
a number of ways.

eMarketing Place

The eMarketing space consists of new Internet companies that have emerged as
the Internet has developed, as well as those pre-existing companies that now
employ eMarketing approaches as part of their overall marketing plan. For some
companies the Internet is an additional channel that enhances or replaces their
traditional channel(s) or place.

eMarketing Product

We've already considered product as part of the marketing mix. Two previous
tools for product decision-making have been introduced - Product Life Cycle
(PLC) and the Three Levels of a Product.

eMarketing Promotion

 This lesson looks at ways of increasing the popularity of your website by

looking at the internal optimization of the website itself. It considers
many important ways of building your traffic, including Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) approaches.
 This lesson looks at ways of increasing the popularity of your website by
looking at external sources of Internet Advertising.
Internal Audits for eMarketing.

Where are we now? (Internal perspective)

The starting point for any eMarketing planning is the internal audit. We are
seeking to answer the question, where are we now? form an internal perspective.
This is a consideration of internal resources and the effectiveness of our
eBusiness based upon a number of factors, as such as those that follow:

Resources.

 Labour (trained, motivated, retained) Men.

 Capital (investment/cash flow) Money.
 Equipment (servers/software/back up) Machinery.
 Time (project plans) Minutes.
 Raw materials or components (depends on your business) - Materials .

Current effectiveness.

 Page views/sites/hits/page views/income.

 Trends/potential new customers
 Customers - e.g. how many are online? Are there new channel segments
emerging?
 Competitors - who are they? What is their online proposition? How
successful are they online?
 Distributors - are new, online, intermediaries emerging while old off-line
distributors are being wiped out (disintermediation)? What are the potential
channel conflicts?
 Current product market strategies of competitors I.e. audit with Ansoff's
matrix.
 Situation Analysis for eMarketing.

Where are we now? (Internal vs. External Perspectives).

The situation analysis for eMarketing bridges the internal audit and competitor
research. It answers the question where are we now in terms of our eMarketing
(internal v external perspective)? The analysis literally considers your
eMarketing situation by considering the fit between internal and external
factors. There are similarities with traditional concepts and techniques, but you
need to focus upon digital commerce. Here we consider the 5 S's of Internet
Marketing (Smith and Chaffey 2006), the Customer Life Cycle (CLC),

The 5 Ss of Internet Marketing.

Smith and Chaffey (2006) distil the situation of a business using Internet as part
of its business under the following 5S's:

 Sell - Grow sales and attract business using digital technologies.

 Serve - Add value through the benefits of the Internet such as speed.
 Speak - Get closer to customers by making your business available to them
at home, work or on the go with mobile technologies.
 Save - Reduce costs by using information technologies to make your
business more efficient.
 Sizzle - Extend the online brand (or create a new one) - remember sell the
sizzle not the sausage i.e. the benefits, aesthetics or value of a product or
service rather than its features.

The Customer Life Cycle (CLC).

The Customer Life Cycle (CLC) is a tool that considers the creation and delivery
of lifetime value to customers i.e. CLC looks at products and services that
customers need throughout their lives. It is market oriented rather than product
oriented (e.g. PLC). Key stages of the customer relationship are considered.
 Competitor Research for eMarketing.

Where are we now? (External Perspective).

As you plan for eMarketing and during the plan's implementation, one needs to
pay careful attention to the activities of competitors. So competitor research for
eMarketing is essential when attempting to answer the question where are we
now (external perspective)? There are a number of approaches that can be
employed, with the emphasis on each approach shifting depending upon the
nature of our eBusiness and market. Here are some key tools of competitor
research for eMarketing:

Use search engines.

o General topics such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

o Type names of competitors.
o Type industry, product or term.
o Search 'down' into a directory structure e.g. Yahoo!
o Search a competitor's web site.
o Product information, press releases, job opportunities.
o Pricing information.
o Distribution information such as where to buy.
o (So publish only what you'd give away at a trade show!)

 Hunt for trade associations.

o Search for personal pages or 'Blogs.'
o Different perspective e.g. fans, ex-employees.
o E.g. www.blogger.com, www.myspace.com, www.youtube.com
  Ask your target market.
o Send questions to named personnel, newsgroups, personal pages,
mailing lists.
o Conduct a survey using.
o Buy secondary reports e.g. Data monitor, Mintel.
 Newsgroups and post queries.
o Newsgroups on bulleting boards or forums.
o Deja.com (Google).
o Read online financial information.
o Research public companies.
o III.co.uk Ample UK.
o FT.com UK.
 Read online competitive information.
o E.g. Hoovers.com - Paid for, in US.
 Study demographic reports.
o Statistics.gov.uk/census in UK.
o Census.gov in US.
 Original source material.
o Business Source Elite, Newspapers, Kelly's, Kompass.
 Monitor special interest material.
o E.g. Marketing Week (BSE), Campaign (BSE), Marketing (BSE).

 Use a professional researcher.

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