Reflection Essay

“Online marketing strategies: the future is here”, by Susanne Schwarzl, & Monika
Grabowska

The trend of the world is all about the technologies. In order to survive under strong
competitive environment, one must possess a ‘high-tech strategy’, or else will be eliminated
by the competitors soon. For example, many accountant degree undergraduates find no job,
due to the systematic accounting software system. Similarity to the world of marketing,
traditional marketing strategies are no longer efficiency comparing to modern marketing
strategies (online marketing). This reflection essay will be focus on the growing importance of
online marketing, including research of the state of the art through analysis of the data provided by
numerous surveys.

The research made by the Susanne and Monika show that, the rapid growth of internet
users is the key indicators as a successful online marketing strategy. From the Diagram 1 below, we
can see that there are increasing 2733 billion users from 1995 to 2013. Imaging that if 10% of the
world internet users buy an ice cream worth RM1 from you, you already earn RM 273,300,000,000.
The point is, there are continuous development of the internet process, people can do nearly
everything they want with their mobile phone and computer, such as booking cinema ticket online,
as well as online shopping. Therefore, the online marketing strategic is far better than traditional
marketing strategy, in term of efficiency, cost, feedback analysis, marketing research and so on.

Diagram 1 : World Internet Usage Growth

We know there are many potential customers in internet, but how is the level of efficiency
of online marketing? To get a better insight on it, the results of the surveys conducted by the CMO
Council, WebDAM, iContact, ContentPLUS and other companies are analysed by us.

Firstly, the CMO Council shows that there are 71% of the internet users have a higher
probability to buy the brand which the social media they follow, such as Instagram, Facebook, and
Twitter. Besides that, 59% of marketers are utilising the social media more than 6hours per week,
resulting of the 3 times profitable than the traditional outbound marketing, with an advantage of
62% decreasing in cost. In addition, there are chances of more than 59% that the consumers will like
a brand in the Facebook. Surprisingly, there are 400% of chances for brand following in the Twitter.
After consumer following the brand, there are 100% of the chances the consumers to buy products
they see in Facebook, and 150% for the Twitter. However, there are cons too, based on the report,
having 83% of the consumers said that they had a bad online shopping experience in social media,
such as scam, being cheated on the quality of the products and so on., consequently there is having
a lots of spaces to be improved.

Based on the in another institution, which is WebDAM, they find out several key facts on the
online marketing. First, the consumers spent around 135 billion dollars on new online marketing
collateral on 2014, this statement indicates that there is huge potential of e-commerce in online
marketing. Second, 78% of the CMOs agree on the point that online marketing will become the
future trend of marketing. Last, the internet advertising will occupy almost 1 quarter of entire
advertising market. The lesson learn from the WebDAM statistic is that, the future trend of
marketing will be online marketing, and every party has positive outlook on it.

From the survey of iContact and ContentPLUS, for every single dollar spent, the investors will
earn back 44.25 dollar in average. That average return number is a desired number for every
investor. In addition, 83 of the consumers will participate in online shopping, and 44% of them will
put an order of it, and 28% of them are going online shopping frequently. Not only that,
personalized online marketing improves click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%.
This implies that the exposure of the product is increasing among the consumers. Other than that,
the Blog have more influence than the magazines, in term of the purchasing decision.

To sum up, there are many benefits in the online marketing, which are, effectively reaching
the target customers, lower cost guarantee and analysing the marketing results statically. Feedback
is the most importance part in the management of the company, it provides a clear view of the
current situation of the marketing environment, and leads the company to do a better decision,
achieving the company mission and vision.

Now we discuss the details about the online marketing strategies. There are affiliate
marketing, direct online advertising , as well as E-mail marketing. First, the affiliate marketing
consists of 1 or few partners to promote the product. When the click-in-view/filling form/payment
has been done via the promotion of the partner, that partner will receive certain payment for it.
That partner is so-called affiliate. For example, the affiliate put the link of the products on his
blogger, business webpage, Facebook Ig Twitter profile page. When the people click inside the link
and make the purchase, the affiliate will get money from the product supplier. In details, there are 3
type of way the affiliate can get commission, which is pay per click, pay per lead (fill in the online
form), and pay per sale.

The second online market strategy is direct online marketing. The most common way are
posting the products on the social media page, and making the video.

Last, the email marketing is contacting the customer with e-mails. This kind of e-mail is
usually personalised, and it consist of the company’s brand, a message and a link which guides the
customer to the website of the company. More common are e-mails which also show one or more
pictures about the promoted product and a connection to the company’s Facebook page to support
social media marketing as well.