Im 2

Internet Marketing
Sub Code - 652
Developed by
Prof. Nitin C. Kamat -B.E. (Elect.)
Under Guidance of
Prof. Rajesh U. Aparnath - MBA
Unit Head — PGDBA (DLP)
On behalf of
Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research
 
Advisory Board
Chairman
Prof. Dr. V.S. Prasad
Former Director (NAAC)
Former Vice-Chancellor
(Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University)
Board Members
1. Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe 2. Dr. B.P. Sabale 3. Prof. Dr. Vijay Khole 4. Prof. Anuradha Deshmukh
Group Director Chancellor, D.Y. Patil University, Former Vice-Chancellor Former Director
Welingkar Institute of Navi Mumbai (Mumbai University) (YCMOU)
Management Ex Vice-Chancellor (YCMOU)
Program Design and Advisory Team
Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Mr. Manish Pitke

Dean – Marketing Faculty – Travel and Tourism
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Management Consultant
Prof. Kanu Doshi Prof. B.N. Chatterjee

Dean – Finance Dean – Marketing
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Prof. Dr. V.H. Iyer Mr. Smitesh Bhosale

Dean – Management Development Programs Faculty – Media and Advertising
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Founder of EVALUENZ
Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Prof. Vineel Bhurke

Dean – Marketing Faculty – Rural Management
Prof. Venkat lyer Dr. Pravin Kumar Agrawal

Director – Intraspect Development Faculty – Healthcare Management
Manager Medical – Air India Ltd.
Prof. Dr. Pradeep Pendse Mrs. Margaret Vas

Dean – IT/Business Design Faculty – Hospitality
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Former Manager-Catering Services – Air India Ltd.
Prof. Sandeep Kelkar Mr. Anuj Pandey

Faculty – IT Publisher
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Management Books Publishing, Mumbai
Prof. Dr. Swapna Pradhan Course Editor

Faculty – Retail Prof. Dr. P.S. Rao
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai Dean – Quality Systems
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Prof. Bijoy B. Bhattacharyya Prof. B.N. Chatterjee

Dean – Banking Dean – Marketing
Mr. P.M. Bendre Course Coordinators

Faculty – Operations Prof. Dr. Rajesh Aparnath
Former Quality Chief – Bosch Ltd. Head – PGDM (HB)
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Mr. Ajay Prabhu Ms. Kirti Sampat

Faculty – International Business Assistant Manager – PGDM (HB)
Corporate Consultant Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Mr. A.S. Pillai Mr. Kishor Tamhankar

Faculty – Services Excellence Manager (Diploma Division)
Ex Senior V.P. (Sify) Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
COPYRIGHT © by Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research.

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright here on may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic,
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NOT FOR SALE. FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.
1st Edition, April 2019

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Senior Professor in Management with a wide range of experience in the

Information Technology.
Prof. Nitin C. Kamat, B.E. (Elect.), has done his Electrical Engineering from College
of Engineering (COEP), Pune University, in 1973. He has professional experience
over 40 years mostly in MNC like ICIM, Tata Honeywell, and Bharat Electronics etc.
He has served International Computers Indian Manufacture (ICIM) for

seventeen years and worked in multidiscipline areas like Engineering,
Planning, Quality Control and R&D.
He had worked on many software companies for six years on domestic and
overseas projects and involved in MIS and ERP implementation.
He is instrumental in developing various educational modules of Welingkar

Distance Education such as Audio e-learning CDs, Video recording of
lectures for Welingkar DLP Website Digital Library.
At present, in addition to his own consultancy, he has taken up teaching

profession and imparting trainings at various reputed Management
Institutes in Pune like Symbiosis Institute of Management (UG), N. Wadia,
and IMDR etc.
3
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
He has developed innovative student focus methods of learning and

involved in sharing his experience with students and faculties as a mentor
for start up projects in various leading management institutes and College
of Engineering COEP, Pune.
He is author of books— Management Information System, Human Resource

Information System, Digital Business Management and social Digital Social
Media Marketing books Published by Himalaya Publications.
He visited many countries including Toronto and Canada. During his visit,
he shared his experience with students and faculties of Ryson Business
School Institute,Toronto.
Prof. Nitin C Kamat is Manging Director of Finesse Learning Consultants.

He has taken up Digital Literacy Programme of Rotary International, a
project on digitising schools by using e-learning tools and techniques in
urban and rural areas.
He conducted “Teachers Training Seminars” on e-learning and using

social media for school and college education in various places such as
Belgavi, Kolhapur, Gadinglaj, Panvel and Pune as a social work.
His mission is “Digital Literacy” at all levels UG to PG and adult also,

through Social Media awareness.
Prof. Nitin C. Kamat
4
CONTENTS
Contents
Chapter Page
Chapter Name
No. No.
1 Basics of Internet Marketing 6-29
2 Environment Analysis and Strategy Development 30-61
3 Internet Marketing Plan Creation 62-98
4 Websites and Portals — Your Internet Marketing Hub 99-141
5 Internet Marketing Research 142-172
6 Online Consumer Behaviour Analysis 173-204
7 Internet Marketing Strategies 205-242
8 Online Product Offering and Pricing 243-298
9 Online Distribution Channel 299-317
10 Creative E-mail Marketing 318-345
11 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Web Analytics 346-384
12 Communication Tools 385-415
13 Using Social Media for Internet Marketing 416-469
5
BASICS OF INTERNET MARKETING
Chapter 1
Basics Of Internet Marketing
Learning Objectives
• After going through this chapter you should be able to know:
• Assess the Significance of the Internet to the Modern Marketing Concept
• Get a Chronological Perspective of Marketing on the Internet
• Understand the Difference and Benefits of Internet over Traditional

Marketing
Structure:
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Internet Marketing Basics

1.2.1 Significance of Internet Marketing
1.2.2 Internet Marketing Defined
1.3 Role of World Wide Web

1.3.1 The Internet Marketing Concept and Scope
1.3.2 Concept of E-Commerce and E-Business
1.4 Benefits over Traditional Marketing
1.5 M-Commerce
1.6 Recent trends in Internet marketing
1.7 Summary
1.8 Self Assessment Questions
1.9 Multiple Choice Questions
6
1.1 INTRODUCTION
In this book we are going to cover the important aspects of Marketing over
the Internet. Is the concept of Internet marketing really essential and
significant to businesses?
In the present scenario, this answer varies dramatically for different

products and markets. A wide range of industries are leveraging the power
of the Internet and World Wide Web to globalise their brick and mortar
businesses. Every industry be it Information Technology, Finance,
Infrastructure or even Transportation is affected by the Internet. For large
software companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and Dell the answer is
“very significant” – Dell now gains over 90% of its multi-billion dollar global
revenue online. It also conducts many of its other business processes such
as new product development and technical customer service online.
The significance of the Internet is relatively low in the manufacturing

sector, which still follow the tradition channels of sale. Even for these
sectors, the Internet is breaching boundaries as the Internet is becoming
increasingly important in influencing purchase decisions – many new car
purchasers will research their purchase online, so manufacturers need to
invest in Internet marketing to persuade customers of the features and
benefits of their brands. We shall also get a chronological perspective of
marketing on the Internet to develop a firm understanding before we
proceed to the next chapter. Benefits over traditional means have also
been discussed in this chapter.
This book covers all the different ways in which the Internet can be used to
support the marketing process. In this introductory chapter, we review how
Internet marketing relates to the traditional concept of marketing. We also
introduce basic concepts of Internet marketing, placing it in the context of
e-commerce and e-business.
Marketing is all about communicating the right message to the right people
using right medium.
Things to Remember about Internet marketing
7
First and most importantly ~ Internet Marketing is not free or cheap.
1. Internet marketing is complex
2. Internet marketing is a concept. It’s not a product or service or

technology
3. Internet marketing requires huge budget, long term goals, strategy and
a team for execution
4. Don’t just start Internet marketing activities without having a proper

plan, clear objectives, deep pockets.
5. Don’t expect quick results.
6. Don’t try to do everything together
7. Internet marketing is not for sales. It’s marketing which will generate
sales
1.2 DEFINING INTERNET MARKETING BASICS
1.2.1 Marketing Basics Covered
The important concept of Marketing is covered in this introductory section.

For us to develop a good understanding of Internet Marketing, we must
first understand the underlying concept of Marketing. The Chartered
Institute of Marketing defines Marketing as “the management process
responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer
requirements profitably.”
If we look at this definition in more detail, marketing is a management

responsibility and should not be solely left to junior members of staff.
Marketing requires co-ordination, planning, implementation of campaigns
and a competent manager(s) with the appropriate skills to ensure success.
Internet Marketing is the newest development in this field. Marketing
objectives, goals and targets have to be monitored and met, competitor
strategies have to be analysed, anticipated and exceeded.
8
Through effective use of market and marketing research an organisation

should be able to identify the needs and wants of the customer. Marketing
research should try to deliver benefits that will enhance or add to the
customers„ lifestyle, while at the same time ensuring that the satisfaction
of these needs results in a healthy turnover for the organisation. Philip
Kotler defines marketing as 'satisfying needs and wants through an
exchange process'. Within this exchange, transaction customers will only
exchange what they value (money) if they feel that their needs are being
fully satisfied; clearly the greater the benefit provided the higher
transactional value an organisation can charge. The marketing concept
should lie at the heart of the organisation, and the actions of directors,
managers and employees should be guided by its philosophy. Modern
marketing requires organisations to be committed to a market/customer
orientation.
All parts of the organisation should co-ordinate activities to ensure that

customer needs are met efficiently, effectively and profitably. Marketing
encompasses activities traditionally seen as the sole domain of
accountants, production, human resources management (HRM) and
information technology (IT). Many of these functions had little regard for
customer considerations.
For us to develop a good understanding of Internet Marketing we must first

understand the underlying concept of Marketing.
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as “the

management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying
customer requirements profitably”.
If we look at this definition in more detail, marketing is a management

responsibility and should not be solely left to junior members of staff.
Marketing requires co-ordination, planning, implementation of campaigns
and a competent managers with the appropriate skills to ensure success.
Internet Marketing is the newest development in this field. Marketing
objectives, goals and targets have to be monitored and met, competitor
strategies have to be analysed, anticipated and exceeded. Through
effective use of market and marketing research an organisation should be
able to identify the needs and wants of the customer. Marketing research
should try to deliver benefits that will enhance or add to the customers?
9
Lifestyle, while at the same time ensuring that the satisfaction of these
needs results in a healthy turnover for the organisation.
Philip Kotler defines marketing as 'satisfying needs and wants through an

exchange process'. Within this exchange, transaction customers will only
exchange what they value (money) if they feel that their needs are being
fully satisfied; clearly the greater the benefit provided the higher
transactional value an organisation can charge.
The marketing concept should lie at the heart of the organisation, and the
actions of directors, managers and employees should be guided by its
philosophy. Modern marketing requires organisations to be committed to a
market/customer orientation.
1.2.2 Internet Marketing Defined
Internet Marketing is a broad term for marketing products and/or services

online — Internet Marketing means different things to different people.
Essentially, though, Internet Marketing refers to the strategies that are
used to market a product or service online. The marketing strategies
include search engine optimisation and search engine submission,
copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, website design
strategies, online promotions, reciprocal linking, and e-mail marketing.
Online marketers are constantly devising.
Definition of Internet Marketing
Internet marketing is all about promoting a business using Internet

channels like Internet, website, blogs, social media platforms, video
marketing, mobile marketing, email marketing and the list is huge….
Very simply put, Internet Marketing or electronic marketing refers to the

application of marketing principles and techniques via. electronic media
and more specifically the Internet.
The terms E-Marketing, Internet marketing and online marketing, are

frequently interchanged, and can often be considered synonymous.
Internet Marketing is the process of Marketing a Brand using the Internet.

It includes both direct response marketing and indirect marketing elements
10
and uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their

customers.
By such a definition, Internet Marketing encompasses all the activities a

business conducts via the worldwide web with the aim of attracting new
business, retaining current business and developing its brand identity.
Fundamentals of Internet Marketing
1. Internet marketing is not new. It’s been around since Internet started.
Internet marketing is not just activities. It’s term used for marketing
activities and strategies combined.
2. Internet marketing is bunch of marketing techniques used to connect

with target audience using various Internet channels.
3. Internet marketing has many advantages over traditional marketing.
4. Internet marketing allows brands to target specific audience at lowest

possible cost.
5. Internet marketing is not limited to promote your business. It’s more

about how you can connect with your target audience, potential
customers and your existing customers.
6. Internet marketing can also be used for delivering better customer

services and customer delight.
7. In my Internet marketing tutorial you will find how brands use Internet
marketing to engage with their existing customers.
Internet marketing includes many topics. In Internet marketing world, we

call them channels.
Mainly Internet marketing is segmented in two major parts.
a. Search Engine Marketing
b. Social Media Marketing
11
Search Engine marketing is mainly used for attracting audience using SEO,
Search Ads and social media marketing is used for connecting with
audience using social networking websites.
Apart from search and social there are many other topics you must
understand to learn Internet marketing.
Internet Marketing is a broad term for marketing products and/or services

online — Internet Marketing means different things to different people.
Essentially, though, Internet Marketing refers to the strategies that are
used to market a product or service online. The marketing strategies
include search engine optimisation and search engine submission,
copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, website design
strategies, online promotions, reciprocal linking, and e-mail marketing.
Online marketers are constantly devising new Internet marketing
strategies in the hopes of driving more traffic to their websites and making
more sales.
Diagram 1.1
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A wide range of organisational functions and processes that deliver

products and services to customers and other key stakeholders are
supported by the Internet. It facilitates information management, which is
now increasingly recognised as a critical marketing support tool to strategy
formulation and implementation. The future role of the Internet should
form part of the vision of a company since its future impact will be
significant to most businesses. Without adequate information,
organisations are at a disadvantage with respect to competitors and the
external environment. Up-to-date, timely and accessible information about
the industry, markets, new technology, competitors and customers is a
critical factor in an organisation’s ability to plan and compete in an
increasingly competitive marketplace.
Internet as a Tactical Management Tool: Widening Our Horizons
We need to move our focus towards understanding broader applications of

the Internet within the total marketing process rather than just using it as
a communication and selling tool, if Internet marketing is to become
integrated and fully established as a tactical marketing management tool.
One of the elements of developing an Internet marketing strategy is
deciding which marketing functions can be assisted by the Internet. There
is a tendency amongst companies first using the Internet to restrict
applications to promotion and selling rather than as a relationship building
and service delivery tool.
Theodore Levitt, writing in the Harvard Business Review (Levitt, 1960),

outlined the factors that underlie the demise of many organisations and at
best seriously weaken their longer-term competitiveness. These factors still
provide a timely reminder of traps that should be avoided when embarking
on Internet marketing.
1. Wrongly defining which business they are in.
2. Unwillingness to innovate and ‘creatively destruct’ existing product/

service lines.
3. Short sightedness in terms of strategic thinking.
4. Giving marketing only ‘stepchild status’, behind finance, production and

technology.
13
1.3 Role of World Wide Web
Websites are the major tool that consumer goods organisations are using
mainly. The concept of affiliate programmes is not used at all. Customer
surveys too are widely used to increase the awareness level and induce
trial and repurchase.
Newsletters and Banner Ads are used but not that much currently. Data is
being tracked by all companies as to what pages the visitors click on, in
what order and how much time they are spending on each page. Click
through Ratio is the main technique used. The data, however, is only being
gathered at this stage, it is not being analysed by many companies yet.
Unilever’s however, is one company which is ahead of others in this regard
and is using other methods like Cost per Click and other CRM data and is
analysing it as well.
The only models used are brochure-ware and incentive sites. These are
only the basic models. In order to apply any of the more sophisticated
models, companies would have to actually start selling online and have
payment systems as well.
Consumer goods companies provide a wide variety of services online.

However, voiceovers and sounds are not used. A wider age bracket is being
catered to online as compared to offline. The consumer targeted online is
more educated, can read and understand English and has high knowledge
and awareness. Other psychographic characteristics are similar to those of
offline customers nationally. Internationally a lot of diverse potential
customers visit their websites.
1.3.1 Concept of World Wide Web Marketing
World Wide Web marketing strategies include aspects of online advertising

services, products, and the websites that include the e-mail marketing,
market research and the direct income strategies. As shown in diagram
1.2:
14
Diagram 1.2: Marketing Types
World Wide Web Marketing Types
1. Search Engine Marketing: SEM or Search Engine Marketing is a

special type of World Wide Web Marketing, which looks to endorse the
websites by mounting their appearance in the pages of Search Engine
Results. This type of World Wide Web Marketing could be divided into
several categories such as paid placement, search engine optimisation,
and paid inclusion.
2. E-mail Marketing: E-mail Marketing is a special form of direct World

Wide Web Marketing that uses the electronic mails as the component of
interacting commercial or fund-lifting messages to a target audience.
3. Blog Marketing: When the World Wide Web Marketing is done through
the uses of the web-blogs, then that type of online marketing is called
the Blog Marketing.
4. Viral Marketing: Viral Marketing is the marketing technique, which

uses the already existing social networks to create the brand
awareness, through spreading of personal viruses. We shall have a
detailed look into the above types in the latter part of this book.
15
5. Video Marketing: YouTube is another avenue for any advertiser

interested in giving visual understanding of the product. The
advertisements are done to suit target clients, for example you offer
just a link to YouTube which will take client directly to site where your
product is used.
By referring one simple app on agro tourism, you can list many sites on
agro tourism sitting at your place and decide which one to you prefer to
go for weekend.
6. Social Media Marketing: The term Internet Marketing also popularly

known as Digital Marketing has number of marketing tools, components
embedded as it supports different channels. When we use face book,
twitter, Goggle +, Instagram, WhatsApp to market a product it is called
social Media Marketing.
7. Content Marketing: Content is the form of marketing focused on

creating, publishing and distributing content for targeted audience. it is
often used for business in order to:
• Attract attention
• Expand customer base
• Engage on online community of users
1.3.2 Concept of E-Commerce and E-Business
Organisations are marketing themselves mainly and have descriptions and

benefits of all the products they offer. Special sites and emphasis has not
been given to individual brands in the consumer goods industry as of yet.
Significance of Internet Marketing in Promoting Consumer Goods using the

Internet a media is a perfect opportunity for Multinational and Local
Consumer Organisations to exploit this type of tool for reaching their
customers. We need to move our focus towards understanding broader
applications of the Internet within the total marketing process rather than
just using it as a communication and selling tool, if Internet marketing is to
become integrated and fully established as a tactical marketing
management tool.
16
One of the elements of developing an Internet marketing strategy is

deciding which marketing functions can be assisted by the Internet. There
is a tendency amongst companies first using the Internet to restrict
applications to promotion and selling rather than relationship building and
service delivery tool.
Theodore Levitt, writing in the Harvard Business Review (Levitt, 1960),

outlined the factors that underlie the demise of many organisations and at
best seriously weaken their longer-term competitiveness.
These factors still provide a timely reminder of traps that should be

avoided when embarking on Internet marketing.
Wrongly defining which business they are in.
Unwillingness to innovate and “creatively destruct” existing product/service

lines.
❖ Short sightedness in terms of strategic thinking.
❖ Giving marketing only “stepchild status”, behind finance, production and

technology.
The Internet has created a new economic ecosystem, the e-commerce

marketplace. Today, e-commerce has grown into a huge industry, with
consumer-driven (B2C) online transactions impacting industries from travel
services to consumer electronics, from books and media distribution to
sports and fitness. In the last decade, many startup e-commerce
companies have rapidly stolen market share from traditional retailers and
service providers. As traditional brick and mortar firms continue to lose
market share to e-commerce players, they will likely see continued
declines in their revenues, operating margins, and profits. It is important to
note that most e-commerce players are at a competitive advantage to
retailers. They have lower operating expenses and better inventory
management due to operating in a virtual commerce environment.
17
E-Commerce in India
❖ The Indian e-commerce industry has been on an upward growth

trajectory and is expected to surpass the US to become the second
largest e-commerce market in the world by 2034.
❖ The e-commerce market is expected to reach US$ 200 billion by 2026

from US$ 38.5 billion as of 2017.
❖ With growing Internet penetration, Internet users in India are expected

to increase from 445.96 million as of December 2017 to 829 million by
2021.
❖ Rising Internet penetration is expected to lead to growth in e-commerce.
❖ India’s Internet economy is expected to double from US$125 billion as of

April 2017 to US$ 250 billion by 2020, majorly backed by e-commerce.
❖ Digital transactions are expected to reach US$ 100 billion by 2020.
• Growing Demand
❖ India is the fastest growing market for the e-commerce sector.
❖ Being driven by a young demographic profile, increasing Internet

penetration and relative better economic performance, India’s E-
commerce revenue is expected to jump from US$ 39 billion in 2017 to
US$ 120 billion in 2020, growing at an annual rate of 51 per cent, the
highest in the world.
• Increasing Opportunities
❖ A lot of India’s bluechip PE firms had previously avoided investing in E-

commerce but are now looking for opportunities in the sector.
❖ India’s start-up ecosystem is growing supported by favourable FDI

policies, Government initiatives like Start-up India and Digital India, as
well as rising Internet penetration driven by market players like Reliance
Jio.
18
Policy Support
❖ In India 100 per cent FDI is permitted in B2B e-commerce,
❖ As per new guidelines on FDI in e-commerce, 100 per cent FDI under
automatic route is permitted in marketplace model of e-commerce
What is E-Business?
Electronic business is commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-business",

or an Internet business. This may be defined as, the application of
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in support of all the
activities of business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and
services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen as
one of the essential activities of any business. Electronic commerce focuses
on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships of the
business with individuals, groups and other businesses. Electronic business
methods enable companies to link their internal and external data
processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with
suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of
their customers. In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. In
its simplest form ecommerce is the buying and selling of products and
services by businesses and consumers over the Internet. People use the
term "e-commerce" to describe encrypted payments on the Internet.
Sometimes these transactions include the real-time transfer of funds from

buyer to seller and sometimes this is handled manually through a POS
terminal once a secure order is received by the merchant. Internet sales
are increasing rapidly as consumers take advantage of lower prices offer by
wholesalers retailing their products. This trend is set to strengthen as
websites address consumer security and privacy concerns.
As with e-commerce, e-business (electronic business) also has a number of

different definitions and is used in a number of different contexts.
One of the first to use the term was IBM, when it launched a campaign
built around e-business. Today, major corporations are rethinking their
businesses in terms of the Internet and its new culture and capabilities and
this is what some see as e-business.
19
E-business is the conduct of business on the Internet, not only buying and
selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with business
partners.
E-business includes customer service (e-service) and intra-business tasks.
E-business is the transformation of key business processes through the use

of Digital technologies. An e-business is a company that can adapt to
constant and continual change. The development of intranet and extranet
is part of e-business.
E-business is everything to do with back-end systems in an organisation.
E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain:

electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders
electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business
partners.
Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data

between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of
intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using
the Web, the Internet, intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.
In practice, e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably.
1.4 BENEFITS OVER TRADITIONAL MARKETING
The first main advantage of internet marketing is the fact that it is so much
cheaper, so the budget that you will need to start your marketing campaign
is relatively smaller. Can you imagine just how much it would cost to place
a TV commercial? The time wherein they show it even dictates the cost per
placement. You can go for a radio commercial but the production process
alone entails added cost. Let us just say that with every marketing
campaign, money is involved. It just so happens that Internet marketing is
so much cheaper, primarily because it is targeted specifically to the online
user at the time they are interested. If a person is searching for products
or services, they are looking to buy, and through referrals you can even
utilise the popularity of social networks and do targeted advertising there
at a minimal cost or even for free!
20
Another great thing about Internet marketing is that you can get the
feedback of your target market in a snap. They can comment and ask
questions about your post real quick. That way, you can communicate with
your customers faster and the sooner that you convince them to purchase
the product or service that you are promoting, the better. What is amazing
about Internet marketing is that it can be very interactive. When you air a
commercial, you need to conduct a survey to find out what your audience
has to say about it. Online, it is so much simpler because you can skip the
survey procedure and still get an honest feedback anyway. Never
underestimate the marketing power of word of mouth. Traditionally, it was
said to be even more effective than actually launching an advertisement.
That is because people would rather hear a recommendation from a friend
or someone who has used the product rather than an advertiser.
The birth of Internet marketing multiplies the power of word of mouth

because instead of just telling people one at a time, the Internet allows a
person to reach to as much as a hundred people at one time. One
Facebook wall post can make or break your brand and the product that you
are selling, because of the many people who will hear from it. One email
can immediately trigger a chain reaction. Hence, utilise the marketing
power of word of mouth in your Internet marketing. It will surely affect the
sales of your brand. Internet marketing really is the new phase of
marketing.
You can design your site and persuade your customers in a better way
without much time and investments on an Internet Marketing enabled
campaign. With less cycle time you can meet more needs of your
customers when compared to conventional channel. One of the best
aspects of an Internet Marketing campaign is that it meets the eye of the
target much faster and in a concentrated way. You can manage your leads
and convert them into opportunities in a faster manner too. It has proven
to provide a clear cut communication between the customer and the
service provider. Internet marketing leads to product innovation. Vendors
are informed about the preferences and likings of the end user and they
manufacture or present the services in a desired manner. Proliferation of
your service portfolio is pretty easy and simple online. Within no time you
can create a campaign and send it across to major social networks
including LinkedIn. Twitter or Stumble Upon. You can better your online
revenues and increase your bottom-line over the period of time. With
21
better customer satisfaction and increased bottom-line you are sure to

become a prominent entity in the segment of your industry.
1.5 M-Commerce
In its present state, M-commerce can be viewed as the extension of

conventional, Digital based e-commerce which adds a different mode of
network and accommodates different end users. The phrase mobile
commerce or M-Commerce means “The delivery of electronic commerce
capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless
technology”. In another sense, M-commerce is simply defined as a way of
exchanging products, ideas and services between mobile users and the
service providers.
M-commerce involves applications, wireless devices and middleware and

wireless networks. Many of the existing applications of e-commerce could
be modified to run in wireless environment, m-commerce involves many
more new applications that become possible only due to wireless
infrastructure. M-commerce is creating many new service opportunities
such as payments, banking transactions, online gaming and paid mobile
applications. M-commerce Mobile technologies have gained much attention
with consumer oriented products and applications. It is being used as a
tool for augmenting business strategies to support organisational processes
with the integration of Digital based technologies. Roots of M-commerce
could be traced to e-commerce.
Electronic commerce is the electronic exchange (delivery or transaction) of

information, goods, services, and payments over telecommunications
networks' commerce activities include establishing and maintaining online
relationships between an organisation and its suppliers, dealers,
customers, strategic partners, regulators, and other agents related to
traditional delivery channels.
22
Some of the other activities include:
1. Product searches and comparisons by consumers;
2. Product information presentation and promotion by the supplier;
3. Post-purchase customer support;
4. Communication between seller and shippers or banks; and secured

payment by consumer.
The above mentioned discussion implies that M-Commerce can be

interpreted as a subset of e-commerce by referring to those e-commerce
activities which involves wireless technologies i.e. mobile devices.
Mobile Devices are those devices that are used to connect the mobile
services. Current wireless devices include:
1. Wireless phones,
2. Wireless-enabled handheld computers,Laptop computers,
3. Vehicle-mounted technologies, and
4. Personal message pager devices.
Mobile e-commerce can also be conducted using portable non-wireless

mobile devices, such as:
1. Personal digital assistants (PDAs) and
2. Laptop computers.
23
1.6 RECENT TRENDS IN INTERNET MARKETING
In 2018 there are key high-level Internet trends that you need to aware of
so you are not wasting your time, energy and effort doing things that are
not so important. We’ve researched the web and have identified 8 key
trends that have a major impact on writing a future proof digital marketing
strategy in recent years
These are:
• Mobile First – the growth in mobile and smart phone usage, the
importance of voice search, responsive website design and good user
experience.
• Voice search, SEO, content marketing and micro-moments.
• The surge in the use of social messaging apps and chat bots.
• Machine learning, artificial intelligence and marketing automation.
• Digital transformation and using data to inform marketing strategies.
• Integrating marketing activities into the customer lifecycle at different

touch points and the importance of personalisation in marketing having a
robust customer engagement strategy.
• The future of augmented reality in marketing.
• Digital Marketing trends change fast so it is important to know what are

the most important things you need to concentrate to make your
marketing a success.
• Yes, it takes time to plan but in the long run it’s so worth it.
• Smart Insights have reported that shockingly 80% of Indian businesses

don’t have an integrated Internet Marketing Strategy. There’s so much
information available online it’s a challenge to know where to begin…
24
The recent Marketing Trends
1.7 SUMMARY
A wide range of industries are leveraging the power of the Internet and
World Wide Web to globalise their brick and mortar businesses. Every
industry be it Information Technology, Finance, Infrastructure or even
Transportation is affected by the Internet. The Internet can be used to
support the full range of organisational functions and processes that deliver
products and services to customers and other key stakeholders.
The World Wide Web Marketing concept is gaining some rapid popularity,
due to the low cost and the global nature of the Internet. Types of World
Wide Web include Search Engine Marketing, E-mail marketing, Blog
Marketing, Viral Marketing etc. World Wide Web marketing strategies
include aspects of online advertising services, products, and the websites
that include the email marketing, market research and the direct income
strategies.
Companies have created innovative advertising programmes, sometimes

referred to as viral marketing. Viral marketing seeks to create a buzz about
a product through word of mouth.
25
Never underestimate the marketing power of word of mouth. Traditionally,

it was said to be even more effective than actually launching an
advertisement.
That is because people would rather hear a recommendation from a friend

or someone who has used the product rather than an advertiser.
1.8 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
1. Where do we start with internet Marketing?
2. What is advantages and disadvantages of internet Marketing?
3. Explain with examples concept of E-Commerce and E-Business.
4. What are benefits of internet marketing over brick and mortar

Marketing?
5. Explain importance of M-Commerce in present scenario.
26
1.9 MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Identify World Wide Web Marketing Types:
a. Search Engine
b. E-Mail
c. Diversified learning
d. (a) and (b) of the above
2. Enlisted below are the set of activities and tasks which are critical in
need analysis phase. Identify correct option:
a. Evaluate marketing department and business models

b. Diversified learning
c. Develop system specifications
d. (a) and (c) of the above
3. What characteristics e-business or e-marketing strategy process models

tend to share?
a. classroom learning
b. Physical Meetings
c. Continuous internal and external environment scanning
d. All of the above
4. What are Stages for E-Marketing Strategy Development?
a. Analysis
b. Increasing competitiveness
c. Budget
5. A Dynamic website is one that has web pages stored on the server in
the format that is sent to a client web browser:
a. True
b. False
27
6. Content is the form of marketing focused on creating, publishing and

distributing content for targeted audience. it is often used for business
in order to:
a. Attract attention
b. Expand customer base
c. Engage on online community of users
d. All of the above
7. Electronic business methods enable companies to link
a. Analysis
b. Increasing competitiveness
c. Their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently
and flexibly,
8. E-business is the conduct of business on the Internet, not only buying

and selling but also servicing customers and collaborating with business
partners.
a. True
b. False
9. E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain:
a. True
b. False
Answers
1. (c) 2. (d) 3. (d) 4. (a ) 5. (2) 6. (d) 7. (d) 8. (a ) 9. (a)
28
REFERENCE MATERIAL
Click on the links below to view additional reference material for this
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
Video Lecture
29
ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 2
Environment Analysis And Strategy
Development
Learning Objectives
• After reading this chapter you will be able to:
• Understand the concept of Situational Analysis for Internet Marketing
• Create an effective strategy to build a strong Internet based business by

using the four stage model for Internet Marketing strategy development
• Learn how to transition business to the web
• Get a clear understanding of Competitor performance benchmarking
• Understand the process of Online marketplace analysis and mapping
30
Structure:
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Situational analysis for Internet Marketing
2.2.1 Basics of situation analysis for Internet Marketing
2.2.2 Introduction to Internet Marketing Strategy
2.2.3 Four stages model for Internet Marketing Strategy development
2.2.4 The Internet Micro Environment
2.2.5 The Internet Macro Environment
2.3 Transitioning business to the web
2.3.1 The 7 steps for smooth transition to the web
2.3.2 Types of e-business models
2.4 Strategic objectives of Internet Marketing
2.5 Competitor performance benchmarking
2.6 Online marketplace analysis and mapping
2.7 Summary
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2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we shall discuss important aspects related to Environment

Analysis of Internet Marketing. In today’s online market, the website needs
to be a core element in all marketing strategies. The integration with other
marketing and sales initiatives will provide the most cost-effective return
on your investment. Crucial aspects of situational analysis for Internet
Marketing are discussed in detail in this chapter. An Internet Marketing
strategy is needed to provide consistent direction for an organisation’s
Internet Marketing activities that integrates with its other marketing
activities and supports the overall objectives of the business.
The Micro and Macro environment aspects provide a key insight into
situational analysis. Pertinent factors for the Internet include demand
analysis, competitor analysis intermediary analysis, channel structure.
Michael Porter has written extensively about how the Internet has changed
the dynamic of the marketplace and has re-interpreted his often-quoted
five forces model in the Internet era.
Through the creation of an e-business model, your business can reach

millions more customers across the country — or even around the world.
Making this transition can take time and money, but it will help your
business to grow and thrive.
Benchmarking of competitors’ online strategy and services is a key part of

Internet Marketing planning activity and should also occur on an ongoing
basis. This should be done in order to respond to new marketing
approaches such as price or promotions. Online marketplace analysis and
mapping is a fundamental technique for developing an Internet Marketing
or e-business strategy for an organisation.
32
Picture 2.1: Source: tnt.co.zw
2.2 SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS FOR INTERNET MARKETING
2.2.1 Basics of situation analysis for Internet Marketing
In common with traditional marketing strategy, strategic analysis or

situation analysis for Internet Marketing involves review of the internal
resources and processes of the company and a review of its activity in the
marketplace; immediate competitive environment (micro-environment)
including customer demand and behaviour, competitor activity,
marketplace structure and relationships with suppliers and partners. Wider
environment (macro environment) aspects are also reviewed. These
include the social, legal, economic, political and technological factors in
which a company operated. In this section we will highlight the key aspects
of the internal and external environment that need to be assessed when
developing an Internet Marketing strategy.
33
Internal resources: These are of particular importance for e-marketing:
Internet Marketing effectiveness – How effective is the organisation at

converting browsers to visitors and visitors to prospects and buyers’
Analysis of web logs using diagnostics such as those available from
marketing insights is important here.
Financial resources and cost/benefit – in particular the breakdown for

costs of running the online presence between site development, promotion
and maintenance.
Many organisations still do not have good visibility of these costs and the
benefits such as those described in the objective setting section.
Service quality – human resources and software assistance for answering

customer queries and dispatching goods.
Technology infrastructure resources – availability and performance

(speed) of website and service level agreements with the ISP.
Structure – relate to the responsibilities and control mechanisms used to

co-ordinate Internet Marketing across different departments and business
units.
Strengths and Weaknesses – SWOT analysis can be readily applied to

Internet Marketing specific issues.
34
2.2.2 Introduction to Internet Marketing strategy
The importance of developing an effective Internet Marketing strategy is

indicated by Michael Porter (2001) who has said: The key question is not
whether to deploy Internet technology – companies have no choice if they
want to stay competitive – but how to deploy it.
Link
Building
Natural
Email Search
Marketing
Analytics
Online TR Website Trafﬁc
Paid Search
Social
Networks
Affiliate
Brand Marketing
Protection
Picture 2.2: Source: steven-dean.com
An Internet Marketing strategy is needed to provide consistent direction for

an organisation’s Internet Marketing activities that integrates with its other
marketing activities and supports the overall objectives of the business. For
many companies, the first forays into Internet Marketing or Internet
Marketing are not the result of a well-defined, integrated Internet strategy;
rather, they are a response to competitors activities or customers demand.
After a site has been in existence for year or so, marketing staff and senior
managers in a company will naturally question its effectiveness.
35
This is often the point at which the need for a coherent Internet Marketing
strategy becomes apparent. E-business or Internet Marketing strategy
process models tend to share the following characteristics:
• Continuous internal and external environment scanning or analysis is

required
• Clear statement of vision and objectives is required
• Strategy development can be broken down into formulation and selection
• After strategy development, enactment of the strategy occurs as strategy

implementation
• Control is required to detect problems and adjust the strategy

accordingly
• They must be responsive to changes in the marketplace
2.2.3 Four Stages Model for Internet Marketing Strategy

Development
Diagram 2.1: E-marketing Strategy
36
We shall discuss a four stage model for Internet Marketing strategy

development. The four stages are:
1. Strategic analysis: Continuous scanning of the micro and macro

environment of an organisation are required. Special emphasis needs to
be given to the changing needs of customers, actions and business
models of competitor and opportunities afforded by new technologies.
Techniques include resource analysis, demand analysis and competitor
analysis, applications portfolio analysis, SWOT analysis and competitive
environment analysis.
2. Strategic objectives: Organisations must have a clear vision on

whether Internet media will complement or replace other media and
their capacity for change. Clear objectives must be defined and in
particular goals for the online revenue contribution should be set.
3. Strategy definition: We shall discuss a four-stage model for e-

marketing strategy development. The four stages are:
• Decision 1. Target market strategies.
• Decision 2. Positioning and differentiation strategies.
• Decision 3. Resourcing — Internet marketing priorities —

significance to organisation.
• Decision 4. CRM focus and financial control.
• Decision 5. Market and product development strategies.
• Decision 6. Business and revenue models including product

development and pricing strategies.
• Decision 7. Organisational restructuring required.
• Decision 8. Channel structure modifications.
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4. Strategy Implementation: Includes devising and executing the tactics

needed to achieve strategic objectives. This includes relaunching a
website, campaigns associated with promoting the site and monitoring
the effectiveness of the site.
2.2.4 The Internet Micro Environment
Demand analysis or online customer activity is a key factor driving Internet

Marketing and e-business strategy objectives. It assesses the current level
and future projections of customer demand for e-commerce services in
different market segments. In a B2B context customer activity can be
determined by asking for each market:
• What % of customer businesses have access to the Internet?
• What % of members of the buying decision in these businesses have

access to the Internet?
• What % of customers are prepared to purchase your particular product

online?
• What % of customers with access to the Internet are not prepared to

purchase online, but choose or are influenced by web-based information
to buy products offline?
• What are the barriers to adoption and the facilitators amongst customers
and how can we encourage adoption?
Qualitative research is important to create strategy since it identifies the

differences in psychographics between current online customers and those
that are not offline. Competitor analysis or the monitoring of competitor
use of e-commerce to acquire and retain customers is especially important
in the e-marketplace due to the dynamic nature of the Internet medium.
Comparing the activity of an organisation and its competitors for their
different channels by trying to answer these questions:
38
Diagram 2.2: Competitor Analysis
1. Business contribution: How does Internet Marketing contribute to the

bottom line? What is the online revenue contribution (direct and
indirect), costs and profitability?
2. Marketing outcomes: How many marketing outcomes are achieved

online? For example, what proportion of leads, sales, service contacts
occur online? How effective is online marketing at acquiring, converting
and retaining customers?
3. Customer satisfaction: What are the customers’ opinions of the online

experience and how does this affect their loyalty?
4. Customer behaviour (Web analytics): This assesses how different

customer segments interact with website content and assesses how the
actions they take are influenced by usability, design, content,
promotions and services.
5. Site promotion: How effective are the different promotional tools such
as search engines, e-mail, direct marketing and advertising at driving
quality traffic to the website? Measures include attraction efficiency,
referrer efficiency, cost of acquisition, reach and the integration between
39
tools. Analysis of the use of intermediaries to build and service business

is also important here.
2.2.5 The Internet Macro Environment
These can be classified into Social, Legal, Economic, Political and

Technological characteristics of the macro environment. What are the legal
limitations to online promotion and trade, ethical constraints and
technological constraints. What is the current availability and usage of
technology to access the Internet and offer distinctive services and how is
this likely to vary in the future? All these aspects need to be considered in
the Macro environment. All in all, then, e-business is far more about
strategy than about technology.
The big giants of global business have taken a little longer to see the
Internet Marketing opportunity. But they are getting there now, and it is
they and their customers, not the Internet start-ups, that will increasingly
define what e-business means. Because the main actors will be established
rather than new businesses. The ways in which the Internet is changing the
world may be less spectacular than some of its enthusiasts might wish, but
a good deal more pro-found.
The macro environment is primarily concerned with major issues and

upcoming changes in the environment. The acronym for the macro analysis
is “STEEP”.
The five areas of interest are Socio-cultural and demographics;

Technology; Economic conditions; Ecology and physical environment; and
Political and legal.
Socio-cultural and Demographics: Societal values and lifestyles change

over time, and the most important of these should be discussed. The
changes in values and lifestyles may come from many sources: medical
(smoking, healthy eating, exercise); science (global warming, going
green); economic (people working longer, women in the workforce);
cultural diversity (music preferences, foods, living accommodations,
medicine); and technologies (Internet dating, biodegradable plastic) are
just a few examples. Some changes in values and lifestyles will be
important to the industry, but not to individual businesses.
40
Technology: Technology encompasses more than computers! Remember

that technology comes in many forms – medical devices, new plastics,
production techniques. The technology discussion should not include what
the business does – but what is available to members of the industry!
Economic Conditions: The state of the economy is usually in some sort of

flux. The current situation (specific to the industry) and any changes that
may be forecast are important. The current economic situation is not
conducive to new car sales, but may be better for used car sales.
Ecology and physical environment: plays a large part in many

businesses – especially those who have production facilities. But also,
everyday businesses are affected. For example, the impact of climate
change must be considered: water and fuel costs could change
dramatically if the world warms by only a couple of degrees.
Political and Legal: An analysis is made of pertinent local, state, and

federal legal information in the business and industry environment.
Different political parties have fundamentally different views on business,
environment, taxes, and many other issues that may affect a business.
Additionally, an industry may have specific laws and regulations.
2.3 TRANSITIONING BUSINESS TO THE WEB
In order to keep your business healthy, you need to ensure that it stays
relevant. One way to do this is to keep up with changing technology,
including setting up your business's presence on the Web. Through the
creation of an e-business model, your business can reach millions more
customers across the country — or even around the world. Making this
transition can take time and money, but it will help your business to grow
and thrive.
41
Diagram 2.3
2.3.1 The 7 Steps for Smooth Transition to the Web
Step 1. Choose the Right Leadership: Transitioning to an e-business

model requires more than just Information Technology (IT) expertise—it
also requires general management and leadership expertise. Make sure
that you choose a solid manager within your company to lead the team
that will help move your business into the Web.
Step 2. Prepare Employees and Customers: Once you have some

leadership in place (one to three managers), share the plans to transition
to e-business with the rest of your staff and — of course — your
customers. Hold an information meeting for staff so that everyone feels
involved and prepared for the changes that are about to take place, and
arrange for training so that your staff will be able to stay productive and
knowledgeable working in the Web branch of your business. Additionally,
send an informational mailing about the transition to your customers, and
encourage them to check out your new website when it is up and running.
42
Step 3. Meet With Graphic Designers: Choose a graphic designer or

design team to come on board and help your company arrive at a polished
finished Web product that is representative of your company's brand.
Transitioning to an e-business model means that not only will much of your
business transactions and work be done through the Web, but that the look
of your Website will be crucial to your success, as well. Once you have
decided on a general look and design for the Website, the graphic
designers can begin to implement that design with the various pages and
features you decide to include on the site.
Step 4. Bring In the IT Experts: With an e-business model, you are now
going to need a generous amount of IT support. In order to support the
transition period and bring your business to the Web, you will obviously
need IT experts to help; however, you will also want to think about
permanently hiring an IT team to support your Web business once the
transition is over and you have moved on to day-to-day business.
Step 5. Determine What Your E-Business Will Look Like: With your
leadership team and IT consultants, you need to figure out what exactly
your online business is going to entail. Will you offer the same products
and/or services you offered before? Or, will your business offerings change?
Do they have to change? With the input of your managers and IT
consultants, draw up a business plan of what you are going to be able to
offer through your e-business and how your website will have to be
structured to support these offerings.
Step 6. Go Live: Once you have your e-business plan in place, your
experts ready and your website set up and approved by your leadership
team, it is time to take your new and improved e-business live. Send an e-
mail to your customers to notify them that your website is ready for their
business. As with any new site, there will inevitably be technological
glitches, so make sure you always have IT staff on hand during business
hours to answer customer questions and to troubleshoot problems.
Step 7. Monitor Your E-Business's Performance: Perhaps the most

important stage of the transition comes at the end, when you will need to
monitor and evaluate how your e-business is doing. In order to do this, IT
should be able to provide your management team with site information and
business records to help you determine whether business is moving along
43
as it should, or if there are minor tweaks (or major changes) to be made.

It is best to figure out any problems early in the game.
2.3.2 Types of E-business Models
Picture 2.3: Source: blog.ub.ac.id
An e-Business model describes how an organisation operates and provides

products or services. It also demonstrates how the company makes money.
Many business models explain the organisation’s approach to creating and
penetrating new markets or technologies. Most e-Business models consist
of various components — concept, value proposition and sources of
revenue. In addition, models include business activities, resources and core
capabilities.
Brokerage: The brokerage e-Business model entails bringing buyers and

sellers together to make possible business transactions. Brokers can
facilitate consumer-to-consumer, consumer-to-business or business-to-
business markets. This business model earns money by charging a fee or
commission for each transaction. Various types of brokerage models exist,
such as auction broker, search agent, buy/sell fulfilment or transaction
broker. Auction brokers co-ordinate auctions for sellers for a listing fee and
commission. The eBay website epitomises the clearest example of the
model. Search agents involve a robot or search agent that uncovers prices
44
and the availability of specific goods and services or difficult-to-find items.

Buy/sell fulfilment brokers takes customers directives to buy or sell
services or products. A transaction broker offers buyers and sellers a third-
party payment venue where the parties can settle business transactions.
Infomediary: This particular e-Business model entails capturing and

sharing information. Some organisations may have website users to
register to gain access to the information on the website, even free
information. This is a common technique for getting white papers or
eBooks. Many companies have white papers written by experts or
consultants. Some other infomediary entities like specialising in supplying
banner ads to a group of member sites, collecting consumer data to
evaluate marketing campaigns. Another model provides consumers
incentives, such as coupons or points to patronise certain businesses and
collects data to sell for target advertising campaigns.
Advertising: The advertising e-Business model works in the same way as

the convention media broadcast version. The business may offer free or
paid services, such as e-mail, blogs or instant messaging. Many sites list
ads, products or services for selling. This model usually has banner or text
ads, which may constitute the primary source of revenue. Generally, this
sort of model requires a high volume of traffic. The model also works for
highly specialised traffic.
Affiliate: The affiliate e-Business model offers products or services

whenever people may surf on the Web. An Internet merchant offers
financial incentives, usually as a commission, for a website owner to place
an advertisement with links on the affiliate’s website. When a surfer clicks
on the link and buy, the affiliate receives a commission. Companies benefit
from this approach because it reduces customer acquisition costs and
allows merchants to target-specific markets.
45
B2B, B2C, C2C, and B2E
Depending on the parties involved in the transaction, e-commerce can be

classified into 4 models. These are:
• Business – to – Business (B2B)
• Business – to – Consumer (B2C)
• Consumer – to- Consumer (C2C)
• Consumer – to – Business (C2B) Let us look at each of them in detail.
Let us look at each of them in detail.
Business-to-Business (B2B) Model
The B2B model involves electronic transactions for ordering, purchasing, as

well as other administrative tasks between houses. It includes trading
goods, such as business subscriptions, professional services,
manufacturing, and wholesale dealings.
Sometimes in the B2B model, business may exist between virtual

companies, neither of which may have any physical existence. In such
cases, business is conducted only through the Internet.
Let us look at the same example of www.amazon.com. As you know,

www.amazon.com is an Online bookstore that sells books from various
publishers including Wrox, O’Reilly, Premier Press, and so on. In this case,
the publishers have the option of either developing their own site or
displaying their books on the Amazon site (www.amazon.com), or both.
The publishers mainly choose to display their books on www.amazon.com
at it gives them a larger audience. Now, to do this, the publishers need to
transact with Amazon, involving business houses on both the ends, is the
B2B model.
Consider a hypothetical example. ABC Company sells automobile parts and

XYZ Company assembles this part and then sells the automobile to
customers. XYZ Company comes across the Website of ABC and finds it
suitable. XYZ, therefore, requests for more information about ABC and
46
finally, decides to purchase automobile parts from ABC. To do this, XYZ

places an order on the Website of ABC.
After ABC receives the order details, it validates the information.
As soon as the order is confirmed, the payment procedures are settled.

Finally, ABC sends an acknowledgement of payment to XYZ and delivers
the goods as per the shipment details decided between the two
organisations. The advantages of the B2B model are:
It can efficiently maintain the movement of the supply chain and the
manufacturing and procuring processes.
It can automate corporate processes to deliver the right products and

services quickly and cost-effectively.
The B2B model is predicted to become the largest value sector of the
industry within a few years. This is said to be the fastest growing sector of
e-commerce.
2. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Model
The B2C model involves transactions between business organisations and

consumers. It applies to any business organisation that sells its products or
services to consumers over the Internet.
These sites display product information in an online catalogue and store it

in a database. The B2C model also includes services online banking, travel
services, and health information.
47
Consider a hypothetical example in which a transaction is conducted

between businesses organisation and a consumer. A business house, LMN
Department Store, displays and sells a range of products on their Website,
www.lmn.com. The details information of all their products is contained in
the huge catalogues maintained by LMN Department Stores. Now, a
consumer, Mr. Deshpande, wants to buy a gift for his wife. He, therefore,
logs on to the site of LMN Department Stores and selects a gift from the
catalogue. He also gets the detailed information about the gift such as the
price, availability, discounts, and so on from their catalogue.
Finally, when he decides to buy the gift, he places an order for the gift on
their Website. To place an order, he needs to specify his personal and credit
card information on www.lmn.com. This information is then validated by
LMN Department Store and stored in their database. On verification of the
information the order is processed. Therefore, as you can see, the B2C
model involves transactions between a consumer and one or more business
organisations. The example of the www.amazon.com site also involves the
B2C model in which the consumer searches for a book on their site and
places an order, if required.
This implies that a complete business solution might be an integration

solution of more than one business model. For example, www.amazon.com
includes the B2B model in which the publishers transact with Amazon and
the B2C model in which an individual consumer transact with the business
organisation.
The B2C model of e-commerce is more prone to the security threats

because individual consumers provide their credit card and personal
information in the site of a business organisation.
48
In addition, the consumer might doubt that his information is secured and
used effectively by the business organisation. This is the main reason why
the B2C model is not very widely accepted. Therefore, it becomes very
essential for the business organisations to provide robust security
mechanisms that can guarantee a consumer for securing his information.
3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) Model
The C2C model involves transaction between consumers. Here, a consumer

sells directly to another consumer. eBay and www.bazee.com are common
examples of online auction Web-sites that provides a consumer to
advertise and sell their products online to another consumer.
However, it is essential that both the seller and the buyer must register
with the auction site. While the seller needs to pay a fixed fee to the online
auction house to sell their products, the buyer can bid without paying any
fee. The site brings the buyer and seller together to conduct deals.
Let us now look at the previous figure with respect to eBay. When a
customer plans to sell his products to other customers on the Website of
eBay, he first needs to interact with an eBay site, which in this case acts as
a facilitator of the overall transaction. Then, the seller can host his product
on www.ebay.com, which in turn charges him for this. Any buyer can now
browse the site of eBay to search for the product he interested in.
49
If the buyer comes across such a product, he places an order for the same
on the Website of eBay. eBay now purchase the product from the seller and
then, sells it to the buyer. In this way, though the transaction is between
two customers, an organisation acts as an interface between the two
organisations.
4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B) Model
The C2B model involves a transaction that is conducted between a

consumer and a business organisation. It is similar to the B2C model,
however, the difference is that in this case the consumer is the seller and
the business organisation is the buyer. In this kind of a transaction, the
consumers decide the price of a particular product rather than the supplier.
This category includes individuals who sell products and services to

organisations. For example, www.monster.com is a Website on which a
consumer can post his bio-data for the services he can offer. Any business
organisation that is interested in deploying the services of the consumer
can contact him and then employ him, if suitable.
Let us look at another example of the C2B model.
Deshpande needs to buy an airline ticket for his journey from Mumbai to
New Jersey. Deshpande needs to travel immediately. Therefore, he
searches a Website for a ticket. The Web-site offers bidding facility to
people who want to buy tickets immediately. On the Website, Deshpande
quotes the highest price and gets the ticket.
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In addition to the models discussed so far, five new models are being
worked on that involves transactions between the government and other
entities, such as consumer, business organisations, and other
governments.
All these transactions that involve government as one entity are called e-
governance. The various models in the e-governance scenario are:
Government-to-Government (G2G) model: This model involves

transactions between 2 governments. For example, if the Indian
Government wants to by oil from the Arabian government, the transaction
involved are categorised in the G2G model.
Government-to-Consumer (G2C) model: In this model, the

government transacts with an individual consumer. For example, a
government can enforce laws pertaining to tax payments on individual
consumers over the Internet by using the G2C model.
Consumer-to-Government (C2G) model: In this model, an individual

consumer interacts with the government. For example, a consumer can pay
his income tax or house tax online. The transactions involved in this case
are C2G transactions.
Government-to-Business (G2B) model: This model involves

transactions between a government and business organisations. For
example, the government plans to build a flyover. For this, the government
requests for tenders from various contractors. Government can do this over
the Internet by using the G2B model.
5. Business-to-Government (B2G) model: In this model, the business

houses transact with the government over the Internet. For example,
similar to an individual consumer, business houses can also pay their taxes
on the Internet.
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2.4 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES OF INTERNET MARKETING
There are five broad benefits, reasons or objectives of e-marketing. This

framework is useful since it presents a comprehensive range of objectives.
Marketers will decide whether all or only some will drive e-marketing:
Diagram 2.8: Strategic Objectives of Internet Marketing
Sell – Grow sales (through wider distribution to customers you can’t

service offline or perhaps through a wider product range than in store, or
better prices)
Serve – Add value (give customers extra benefits online: or inform product
development through online dialogue and feedback)
Speak – Get closer to customers by tracking them, asking them questions,

conducting online interviews, creating a dialogue, monitoring chat rooms,
learning about them
Save – Save costs - of service, sales transactions and administration, print

and post. Can you reduce transaction costs and therefore either make
online sales more profitable? Or use cost-savings to enable you to cut
prices, which in turn could enable you to generate greater market share?
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Sizzle – Extend the brand online. Reinforce brand values in a totally new
medium. The Web scores very highly as a medium for creating brand
awareness, recognition and involvement
2.5 COMPETITOR PERFORMANCE BENCHMARKING
Benchmarking of competitors’ online strategy and services is a key part of

basis in order to respond to new marketing approaches such as price or
promotions. Competitor benchmarking has these different perspectives or
options which serve different purposes:
Review of internal capabilities: such as resourcing, structure and

processes vs. external customer facing features of the sites.
From core proposition through branding to online value proposition

(OVP). The core proposition will be based on the range of products
offered, price and promotion. The OVP describes the type of web services
offered which add to a brands„ value.
Different aspects of the customer lifecycle: Customer acquisition,

conversion to retention as well as many others. Competitor capabilities
should be benchmarked for all the Internet Marketing activities of each
competitor. These should be assessed from the viewpoint of different
customer segments or personas, possibly through usability sessions. In
addition to usability, customer views should be sought on different aspects
of the marketing mix such as pricing and promotions.
Qualitative to Quantitative: From qualitative assessments by customers

through surveys and focus groups to quantitative analysis by independent
auditors of data across customer acquisition (e.g. number of site visitors or
reach within market, cost of acquisition, number of customers, sales
volumes and revenues and market share).
In-sector and out-of-sector: Benchmarking against similar sites within

sector and reviewing out of sector to sectors which tend to be more
advanced, e.g. online publishers, social networks and brand sites. You can
see that this is based on the expert evaluation of the suitability of the site
for different audiences as well as measures under the overall construction
(which includes usability and accessibility), message (which covers key
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brand messages and suitability for international audiences) and contact

(which shows integration between different audiences).
From user experience to expert evaluation. Benchmarking research

should take two alternatives perspectives, from actual customer reviews of
usability to independent expert evaluations.
2.6 ONLINE MARKETPLACE ANALYSIS AND MAPPING
To help summarise the linkages and traffic flows in your e-marketplace, it

is helpful for marketers working on an e-marketing plan, or students
working on a case study to create an e-marketplace map like the one
shown. The marketplace map should show the types of sites and the
relative importance of different online intermediaries in a particular
marketplace.
In a more advanced form, it could also show the flow of clicks between
different customer segments and to different company site(s) and different
competitors via the intermediaries. Companies then need to work out
which sites are effective in harnessing search traffic and either partner with
them or try to grab a slice of the search traffic.
The Main Elements of the e-Marketplace
The main members of the e-marketplace model are:
Customer Segments: Identify different segments to understand their

online media consumption and the type of content and experiences they
will be looking for from a website. Personas are used to understand the
preferences, characteristics and online behaviours of different groups as
described in link at bottom of the page.
Search Intermediaries: These are the main search engines in each

country. Typically Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live Search, but others are
important in some markets such as China (Baidu) and Russia (Yandex).
You will need to know the most important phrases using tools such as the
Google Traffic Estimator.
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Intermediaries and Media Sites: Media sites and other intermediaries

such as affiliates are often successful in attracting visitors via search or
directly since they are mainstream brands. You should assess potential
partners in the categories shown in the figure such as:
Mainstream news media sites or portals (traditional, e.g., NYT.com, FT.com

or Times or Pureplay, e.g., Google news an aggregator).
• Niche/vertical media sites, e.g., E-consultancy, ClickZ.com in B2B.
Price comparison sites (also known as aggregators), e.g., Money

supermarket, Kelkoo, Shopping.com, uSwitch, etc.
Affiliates. These gain revenue from a merchant they refer traffic to using a
commission based arrangement based on the proportion of sale or a fixed
amount. They are important in e-retail markets, accounting for ten per
cent of sales.
Niche affiliates or bloggers. These are often individuals, but they may be
important, for example, in the UK, Martin Lewis
A selection of free and paid for tools to help you analyse your e-
marketplace is given here:
Online marketplace analysis tools:
Alexa: This is a free service owned by Amazon which provides traffic

ranking of individual sites relative to all sites. Sample dependent on users
of the Alexa toolbar.
Google Trends: This is a free tool giving trends in searches for high
volume phrases — can be used to compare the strength of different brands
and the seasonality of different generic phrases, e.g. iPod. Google
introduced a tool to compare traffic of different sites. Again it only works
for high volume phrases.
Hitwise: Paid tool, but free research available at the Hitwise Blog. Paid
service available in some countries to compare audience and search/site
usage. Works through monitoring IP traffic to different sites through ISPs.
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Netratings: Paid tool. This is a Panel service based on at home and at

work users who have agreed to have their web usage tracked by software.
Top rankings on site give examples of most popular sites in several
countries.
Comscore: Paid tool. A similar panel service to Netratings, but focusing on

the US and UK. A favoured tool for media planners.
ABCE Database: Free tool. The Audit Bureau of Circulation (Electronic)

gives free access to its database of portals (not destination sites) who have
agreed to have their sites audited to prove traffic volumes to advertisers.
Search key phrase analysis tools: These can be used to assess the
popularity of brands and their products reflected by the volume of search
terms typed into Google and other search engines.
Forrester: Paid research service offering reports on Internet usage and

best practice in different vertical sectors such as financial services, retail
and travel. Free research summaries available in press release section and
on its Marketing blog.
Gartner: This research service focuses on technology adoption within

companies.
IAB US, IAB UK and IAB Europe: The Internet or Interactive Advertising
Bureau has research focusing on investment in different Internet media
channels, in particular display ads and search marketing.
IMRG: The Internet Media in Retail Group has compilations on online e-

commerce expenditure in the UK which as the time of writing was
averaging around £5 billion per month or over 10% of all retail spend.
IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) is the UK’s industry association

for e-retail.
Formed in 1990, IMRG is setting and maintaining pragmatic and robust e-

retail standards to enable fast-track industry growth, and facilitates its
community of members with practical help, information, tools, guidance
and networking.
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2.7 SUMMARY
In this chapter we have discussed the important aspects related to

Environment Analysis of Internet Marketing. The Micro and Macro
environment aspects provide a key insight into situational analysis. An
Internet Marketing strategy is needed to provide consistent direction for an
organisation’s Internet Marketing activities that integrates with its other
marketing activities and supports the overall objectives of the business.
Four stage models for Internet Marketing strategy development are

Strategic analysis, Strategic objectives, Strategy definition, and
Strategy implementation. Pertinent factors for the Internet include
demand analysis, competitor analysis intermediary analysis, channel
structure.
Qualitative research is important to informing strategy since it identifies

the differences in psychographics between current online customers and
those that are not offline. Competitor analysis or the monitoring of
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competitor use of e-commerce to acquire and retain customers is

especially important in the e-marketplace due to the dynamic nature of the
Internet medium.
The Internet Macro Environment can be classified into Social, Legal,

Economic, Political and Technological characteristics of the macro
environment. In order to keep your business healthy, you need to ensure
that it stays relevant.
We have discussed the 7 steps for smooth transition to the web. An

eBusiness model describes how an organisation operates and provides
products or services. It also demonstrates how the company makes money.
Types of e-business model are Brokerage, Infomediary, Advertising and
Affiliate.
Benchmarking of competitors„ online strategy and services is a key part of

basis in order to respond to new marketing approaches such as price or
promotions. The main members of the e-marketplace model are Customer
segments, Search intermediaries, Intermediaries and media sites, and
Destination sites. We also have discussed online marketplace analysis tools
like Alexa, Google trends, ABCE Database etc. which help to analyse your
e-marketplace.
• Describe briefly the Internet Micro Environment.
• Describe briefly the Internet Macro Environment.
• Enlist the 7 steps for smooth transition to the web.
• Enlist and discuss the 5S Strategic objectives of Internet marketing?
• “The key objective for Internet Marketing is the online revenue

contribution.” Please comment on this statement.
• What are the different perspectives or options included in competitor

benchmarking?
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• What are the main members of the e-marketplace model, enlist and
briefly discuss the members?
• Write a short note on Intermediaries and media sites.
1. Internet Marketing strategy process models tend to share the following

characteristics:
a. Continuous internal and external environment scanning or analysis is

required
b. Clear statement of vision and objectives is required
c. Strategy development can be broken down into formulation and
selection
d. All of the above
2. Identify stages of model for Internet Marketing strategy development.
a. Strategic analysis
b. SWOT analysis
c. ROI
d. All of the above
3. Depending on the parties involved in the transaction, e-commerce can

be classified into models.
a. Business – to – Bank(B2B)
b. Business – to – Consumer (B2C)
c. Consumer – to- Consumer (C2C)
d. B and C of the above
4. The B2B model involves electronic transactions for ordering, purchasing,

as well as other administrative tasks between houses.
a. True
b. False
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5. Benchmarking of competitors„ online strategy and services is a key part

of Internet Marketing planning activity.
a. True
b. False
Answers
1. (d) 2. (a) 3. (d) 4. (a ) 5. (a)
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
Video Lecture - Part 1
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INTERNET MARKETING PLAN CREATION
Chapter 3
Internet Marketing Plan Creation
Learning Objectives
• After going through this chapter you should be able to know:
• Get a broader understanding of creating marketing plans by conducting

market and competition analysis
• Appreciate detailed aspects of an 'Internet Marketing Plan'
• Understand and analyse the five stages of an effective Internet

marketing plan
• Understand and create high impact marketing plans
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Structure:
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Market and Competition Analysis
3.2.1 Three Step Competition Analysis
3.2.2 Competitor Profiling
3.2.3 Scanning Competitor's Ads
3.3 Building the Internet Marketing Plan
3.3.1 Key Constituents of an Internet Marketing Plan
3.3.2 Broad Topics of Internet Marketing Plan
3.3.3 Effective Online Promotion Techniques that Fit the Marketing

Plan
3.4 Five Stages of an Effective Internet Marketing Plan
3.5 High Impact Marketing Plans
3.6 Steps for Online Internet Marketing Plan
3.7 Summary
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3.1 INTRODUCTION
A broad outlook of the Internet Marketing plan is presented in this chapter.

Before we discuss the marketing plan it is critical to understand the aspect
of competitor analysis in marketing. This is an assessment of the strengths
and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This analysis
provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context through which
to identify opportunities and threats. Competitor profiling links all of the
relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework. This is done in
the support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation,
monitoring and adjustment.
Behind every successful Internet business is a well-researched Internet

Marketing plan. An Internet Marketing plan guides a company step-by-step
how to market its product or service to a specific target market and it helps
a company remain focused on its marketing objectives. The central concept
of this chapter revolves around understanding , creating and improving
effectiveness of the Internet Marketing Plan. Even if you are not able to
market your own invention, writing a marketing plan will help you to sell or
license your invention to manufacturers, retailers, and other interested
parties. You will be able to intelligently discuss the market for your
invention with potential buyers. This chapter discusses the nuts and bolts
of Marketing Plans. Five stages of an effective marketing plan are
discussed in detailed.
Marketing Plans would just remain plans unless we involve the element of
impact, thus we shall also study how to provide high impact to our Internet
Marketing Plans.
3.2 MARKET AND COMPETITION ANALYSIS
Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an

assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential
competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive
strategic context through which to identify opportunities and threats in
Traditional as well as online marketing. Competitor profiling groups all of
the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the
support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation,
monitoring and adjustment.
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Competitive analysis is critical to online success through SEO
An effective search engine optimization campaign starts with an evaluation

of your main competitors. Identifying their page rank and back links is not
enough. You need an in-depth analysis to determine how to outrank them
in the search engine results.
The SEO experts of company should have the knowledge and the skills to
identify what terms the competitors are ranking for in the major search
engines. The SEO analysts should also look into the competitor's website
deeply to find out what they are doing to achieve these top rankings.
This analysis is important for Internet Marketing as the World Wide Web
has spun more competition in every industry than has the traditional
method of doing business. Hence it is crucial to perform competitor
analysis before marketing on the Internet.
Picture 3.1
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3.2.1 Three Step Competition Analysis
Blindly going online with a "successful" business plan pioneered by an

earlier online competitor is a serious error in Internet Marketing. In many
cases, competitors are now so strong that the new business has no chance
of success. Internet business space is extremely crowded mostly by
smaller players. You've got to understand the competition if want to devise
a successful Internet Marketing plan. Your goal is to identify your
company's chief competitors, analyze their individual marketing strategies,
and see where to position your company.
Step 1: Identify the Leaders
The first step is to identify the major players. Start with the Yahoo
Directory category or categories closest to your business. The Yahoo
Directory will list the major players in your business. Print out the
directory, and then check out every link, making notes on your printed
copy. Look for the larger companies, innovative approaches, new products,
etc.
You can also learn about relative traffic by using Alexa (http://
www.alexa.com). A free add-on to your web browser, it ranks the traffic to
each site you visit to in terms of Top 100, Top 1000, Top 10,000, etc.,
giving you a rough idea of your competitors' positions in the traffic pecking
order.
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Step 2: Scrutinise the Leaders
The second step is to study the top 5 or 10 competitors carefully. You can
learn a lot from their websites. Make notes on what you discover: Look for:
• Products or services offered. Note especially any that differ from your
own offering.
• What is the distribution system for products: inventory, distributor, drop-

shipping?
• Customer service. Look for guarantees, policies and procedures.
• Look, feel, and functionality of website.
• Capability and personalisation of the e-commerce system.
• Advertising campaigns and offers.
• Strengths and weaknesses from the customer's point of view, not yours.
• Strategies and objectives.
• Look for a statement of vision or purpose, or what amounts to a Unique

Selling Proposition on the site.
• Areas where the competitor holds a market advantage.
• Vulnerabilities or gaps in what is offered.
Step 3: Highlight Strengths, Vulnerabilities and Gaps
Third, summarise your findings into a sentence or two highlighting key

strengths and weaknesses you find for each top competitor. Your strategies
may vary depending upon your own strengths. If you have a large cash
reserve, for example, you might want to blow away the competition by
vastly outspending them in effective advertising. But if you're small, you'll
need to use your ingenuity to leverage your strengths to take advantage of
your competitors' weaknesses.
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3.2.2 Competitor Profiling
The strategic rationale of online competitor profiling is powerfully simple.

Superior knowledge of rivals offers a legitimate source of competitive
advantage. The raw material of competitive advantage consists of offering
superior customer value in the firm’s chosen market. Customer value is
defined relative to rival offerings making competitor knowledge an intrinsic
component of corporate strategy. Profiling facilitates this strategic objective
in three important ways. First, profiling can reveal strategic weaknesses in
rivals that the firm may exploit. Second, the proactive stance of
competitor profiling will allow the firm to anticipate the strategic response
of their rivals to the firm’s planned strategies, the strategies of other
competing firms, and changes in the environment. Third, this proactive
knowledge will give the firms strategic agility. Offensive strategy can be
implemented more quickly in order to exploit opportunities and capitalise
on strengths. Similarly, defensive strategy can be employed more deftly in
order to counter the threat of rival firms from exploiting the firm’s own
weaknesses.
Clearly, those firms practicing systematic and advanced online competitor

profiling have a significant advantage. As such, a comprehensive profiling
capability is rapidly becoming a core competence required for successful
competition. A common technique is to create detailed profiles on each of
your major competitors. The profiling is simplified due to the competitor’s
online presence as a lot of information about them is published on the
Internet. These profiles give an indepth description of the competitor's
background, finances, products, markets, facilities, personnel, and
strategies. This involves:
Background:
• Location of offices, plants, and online presences (websites, portals, etc.)
• History — key personalities, dates, events, and trends
• Ownership, corporate governance, and organisational structure
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Financials:
• P-E ratios, dividend policy, and profitability
• Various financial ratios, liquidity, and cash flow
• Profit growth profile; method of growth (organic or acquisitive)
Products:
• Products offered, depth and breadth of the product line, and product
portfolio balance
• New products developed, new product success rate, and R&D strengths
• Brands, strength of brand portfolio, brand loyalty and brand awareness
• Patents and licenses
• Quality control conformance
• Reverse engineering
Marketing:
• Segments served, market shares, customer base, growth rate, and

customer loyalty
• Promotional mix, promotional budgets, advertising themes, ad agency

used, sales force success rate, online promotional strategy
• Distribution channels used (direct and indirect), exclusivity agreements,

alliances, and geographical coverage
• Pricing, discounts, and allowances
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Facilities:
• Plant capacity, capacity utilisation rate, age of plant, plant efficiency,

capital investment
• Location, shipping logistics, and product mix by plant
Personnel:
• Number of employees, key employees, and skill sets
• Strength of management, and management style
• Compensation, benefits, and employee morale and retention rates
Corporate and Marketing Strategies:
• Objectives, mission statement, growth plans, acquisitions, and

divestitures
• Marketing strategies
3.2.3 Scanning Competitor’s Ads
Scanning competitor's ads can reveal much about what that competitor
believes about marketing and their target market. Changes in a
competitor's advertising message can reveal new product offerings, new
production processes, a new branding strategy, a new positioning strategy,
a new segmentation strategy, line extensions and contractions, problems
with previous positions, insights from recent marketing or product
research, a new strategic direction, a new source of sustainable
competitive advantage, or value migrations within the industry. It might
also indicate a new pricing strategy such as penetration, price
discrimination, price skimming, product bundling, joint product pricing,
discounts, or loss leaders. It may also indicate a new promotion strategy
such as push, pull, balanced, short term sales generation, long term image
creation, informational, comparative, affective, reminder, new creative
objectives, new unique selling proposition, new creative concepts, appeals,
tone, and themes, or a new advertising agency. It might also indicate a
new distribution strategy, new distribution partners, more extensive
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distribution, more intensive distribution, a change in geographical focus, or

exclusive distribution.
A competitor's media strategy reveals budget allocation, segmentation and

targeting strategy, and selectivity and focus. From a tactical perspective, it
can also be used to help a manager implement his own media plan. By
knowing the competitor's media buy, media selection, frequency, reach,
continuity, schedules, and flights, the manager can arrange his own
media plan so that they do not coincide. Other sources of corporate
intelligence include trade shows, patent filings, mutual customers, annual
reports, and trade associations.
3.3 BUILDING THE INTERNET MARKETING PLAN
The key element of a successful Internet Marketing plan is to "know your

customers", their likes, dislikes, and expectations. You must also know
your competition (or similar inventions) and their strengths and
weaknesses. By identifying these factors, you can develop a marketing
strategy that will allow you to arouse and fulfil customers’ needs, better
understand competitors and identify changes in the marketplace. The
purpose of the marketing plan is to define your market, identify your
customers and competitors, outline a strategy for attracting and keeping
customers, and to identify and anticipate change.
3.3.1 Key Constituents of an Internet Marketing Plan
An amazing number of companies build their site and then think about an
Internet Marketing plan. That's generally suicidal. Even if you dispense with
marketing through the search engines in many ways still the most effective
method — you must still understand what Internet shoppers are looking
for, and build your site to capture that interest. Sooner or later you'll have
to adjust to customer requirements, and delaying changes will only
increase the overall workload. Before building the site, you should:
1. Establish and double check your unique selling proposition.
2. Devise a clear, step-wise and costed marketing plan.
3. Find the best keywords for each page.
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4. Design the site around your keywords and marketing plan.
Before the Internet Marketing Plan is finalised, and any website built,
ensure you have:
• Found out what potential customers really want by surveys, market

research, and visits to competitor sites.
• Assessed the competition, there strengths and their marketing

approaches.
• Focused on what you can do and your competitors can’t: your unique
selling proposition?
• Devised clear contingency plans to counter competitor moves against

you.
• Included lead-generating advertising in the plan.
• Looked at potential new markets.
• Constructed a timetable for traffic levels, conversion rates and sales.
• Cost each marketing phase accurately.
• Set up contingency plans for unexpectedly high or low sales.
Fitting the Site to the Internet Marketing Plan
The mechanics are covered in site development, but the general principles
of ecommerce site building are:
• Design should reflect your unique selling proposition, and your market
position Vis a vis the competition.
• Appearance must be professional, inspiring trust and confidence.
• Download should be fast, certainly not more than 10 seconds with a

56.6 modem, even in congested internet conditions.
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• Navigation should be clear and trouble-free — not merely possible to

follow, but impossible to misunderstand. Check with third parties before
going live.
• Testimonials should be placed strategically (and be genuine).
• Guarantees and return policies should be clearly stated (and adhered to)
Types of Internet Marketing
In terms of value for money, these are the best marketing techniques:
using search engines and directories, search engine ads and pay-by-click
search engines, conventional off-line advertising, through affiliates, with
emails, reciprocal links and viral marketing.
Modifying the Marketing Plan
Marketing is not a campaign, and still less a technique, but an education.

Rooted in an understanding of how people instinctively think and feel,
marketing has to find a way of accommodating whatever is being sold to a
particular conception. The product or service may not be the best going,
but it has to satisfy perceived requirements, creating a relationship that is
both sympathetic and reassuring.
The only sure way of marketing a product is, therefore, to plan intelligently,
follow the plan meticulously, assess results, and keep modifying the plan.
Marketing is a continual learning process, and it's essential that your
website statistics keep you fully informed on what visitors are doing.
Ensure that your hosting company provides these traffic statistics on a
daily and monthly basis:
• number of visitors, pages downloaded, time spent on the site (average

and maximum)
• page popularity
• most used trails through the site
• pages used to enter and leave the site
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• referring sites and search engines
• visitors' countries of origin
Even minor changes to copy and page layout may alter visitor performance
and sales, which is a reason for monitoring results carefully.
3.3.2 Broad Topics of an Internet Marketing Plan
Your Internet Marketing Plan will define all of the components of your
marketing strategy. You will address the details of your market analysis,
sales, advertising, and public relations campaigns. The most successful
Internet Marketing plans integrate both Internet Marketing strategies as
well as traditional (offline) marketing strategies.
The topics you need to discuss in your Internet Marketing Plan

include:
1. Market Research: Collect, organise, and write down data about the
market that is currently buying the product(s) or service(s) you will sell.
Some areas to consider:
• Market dynamics, patterns including seasonality
• Customers—demographics, market segment, target markets, needs,

buying decisions
• Product—what’s out there now and what’s the competition offering?

Conduct market research by going to google.com and conduct
searches on the types of products or services you want to sell
• Current sales in the industry
• Suppliers-vendors that you will need to rely on
• Target Market(s) — to be successful, focus on one or two small niche

markets instead of a large general market. Niche markets have far
less competition and they tend to be more profitable. If there is one
thing you can do to help your odds of being successful in business, it
is to focus on one or two small niche markets.
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2. Product: Describe your product (or service). How does your product
relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they
currently use, and what do they need above and beyond current use?
3. Competition: Describe your competition. Develop your "unique selling

proposition." What makes you stand apart from your competition? Why
are you special? W hy should a customer choose to do business with
you instead of one of your competitors? The better job you can do to
differentiate yourself from your competitors, the more success you will
have.
4. Mission Statement: Write a few sentences that state:
• “Key market” — who you’re selling to — be very specific!
• “Contribution” — what you’re selling
• “Distinction” — your unique selling proposition — why are you different

from your competition?
5. Internet Marketing Strategies: Write down the Internet Marketing

and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider
using. Strategies to consider include:
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): What this means is using

optimisation techniques so that the search engines (Google, Yahoo,
MSN) will rank your website within the top 10 search results. By doing
this you can get literally thousands of people to your website every day
for free.
• Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing: When you use this service

you are bidding on keywords so that your website text ad is displayed
when a person conducts a search on a particular keyword or key
phrase. Google, Yahoo and MSN all have pay per click Internet
Marketing services.
• Affiliate Marketing: This is where other websites market your

products for you and you pay them a commission on each sale. This is
an outstanding way to create a successful Internet business.
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• Link Exchanges: This is where you and other websites exchanges

links to drive traffic to each other’s website. Exchanging links with
other websites is also a great way to get better rankings in the search
engines. The reason for this is that search engines want to give top
rankings to the websites that are most popular in their category/
industry. The best way for the search engines to determine which
websites are the most popular is to see who has the most links pointing
at their website. That is why getting a lot of links pointing at your
website is so important.
• Write Articles and distribute them online: This is a great way to

get tons of one-way links pointed at your website (which search
engines love!). Remember, the more links that point at your website,
the higher search engines will rank your website. And, if getting tons of
links pointing at your website wasn't enough, writing articles will also
send targeted traffic to your website and it will make you an expert in
your field. The way it works is very simple. You write a one page article
and use online article distribution services to distribute your article to
hundreds other websites, blogs, and ezines (electronic magazines).
People them read your articles to learn about your products or
services. The best two services to use for distributing your article are
Ezines Articles and Isnare.
• Write press releases and distribute them online: Just like writing
and submitting articles, this is a very simple and extremely effective
way to get tons of links pointed at your website. It is also great way to
drive targeted traffic to your website.
• Advertise in magazines: (also known as an internet newsletter or an

internet magazine). This is another simple yet highly effective way to
market your products or services online.
• Network using social networking services: like Myspace,

Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.
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6. Offline/Traditional Advertising Strategies
• Networking—Go where your market is, Chamber of Commerce, BNI,

etc.
• Direct marketing using sales letters, brochures, postcards, flyers, etc.
• Advertising-Print media, directories, billboards, yellow pages, radio, TV
• Training programmes—Seminars that you give to increase awareness
• Write articles for magazines, your local newspaper, and other

publications read by your industry.
• Direct/personal selling
• Publicity/press releases
• Trade shows
• Referral programmes
• Co-marketing with businesses that share your target market
• Barter
7. Pricing, Positioning and Branding: From the information collected,

establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where
your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve
brand awareness.
8. Budget: Budget your Rupees. What strategies can you afford? How
much can you afford to spend per month?
9. Marketing Goals: Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means

goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goal might be
to gain at least 10 new clients each month or to generate 100 leads
per month.
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10.Monitor Your Results: Test and analyse. Identify the strategies that
are working.
• Survey customers
• Track sales, leads, visitors to your website, per cent of sales to

impressions
• Determine which marketing strategies are producing the most

customers and which are producing the least customers
• Measure return on investment per each marketing activity
3.3.3 Effective Online Promotion Techniques that Fit the Marketing

Plan
When we have an online business, we know which promotion is critical to

achieving success online. There have been many opposite ways which we
need to operate for selling online. Following are ways in which we can
operate for promotion online:
One: Article selling is a really effective process for selling online. You need
to write an essay which can effectively establish you as an expert. Connect
this essay to essay directory in order for it to be available to hundreds of
places on the web.
Two: Forum selling is an additional approach to begin promotion online.

You can find forums which are applicable to your business. This will do a
promotion online in these forums since any time we have a post, answer
subjects or only get concerned in a discussions, your signature will be put
underneath your post. Search engines additionally adore forums since
there are regularly latest reports posted on them.
Three: Social networking is a really quick flourishing process for selling

online. It is give away to operate as well as we can have friends and set up
commercial operation relationships. You need to build relationships, which
equates to future success for your business.
These have been only a couple of ways which we can operate for
promotion online.
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3.4 FIVE STAGES OF AN EFFECTIVE INTERNET MARKETING

PLAN
A planned, organised Internet Marketing campaign with rotation through a

variety of targeted sites, directories and venues is not hard to coordinate,
does not need to cost a great deal of money and can generate traffic
and sales faster than search engine submissions alone. It takes a bit of
research and a solid knowledge of your target customer, but you can plan
and implement a simple marketing campaign in the space of a dedicated
day.
A Five Step Marketing Plan follows, created by practical experience with

Internet Marketing for small business. By doing each of the actions, you'll
end up with an effective Internet Marketing campaign, creating a
marketing plan that can be implemented immediately and begin reaping
you sales successes.
Diagram 3.2: Five Step Marketing Planning
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Internet Marketing Plan Step 1 – Defining Your Customer
Defining your customer is as important as defining your products or

naming your business. If you have not yet done a marketing plan within
your business plan, then you need to do this exercise.
Action: Answer these questions as honestly as you can. In other words,

don't project your expectations or hopes on them. What is your perfect,
solid customer really like?
• Is my perfect customer male or female?
• Does my perfect customer work out of the home or in the home?
• What is the job profile of my perfect customer — an executive, manager,

worker, entrepreneur, stay-at-home parent, etc.?
• What is the net household income of my perfect customer?
• What level of education does my perfect customer have?
• Does my perfect customer have room in her spending budget for my

product/service on a one time, occasional or constant basis? How do my
perfect customers use my product/ service — do they buy it for
themselves or as a gift?
• Does my perfect customer spend a lot, some or minimal time on the

Internet?
• Where does my perfect customer look for my product/service? Both

online and in physical locations?
Once you have this written out, you should have a good picture of where to
start looking to place your message and how to write your message copy.
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Internet Marketing Plan Step 2 – Choosing Your Targets
Now, where are you going to post your ads? A coordinated effort across
several sites and venues commonly frequented by your customers is the
most effective marketing campaign. If you are seen in several places your
visibility and retained message is much stronger. Holiday specific sites that
are well promoted are excellent areas to consider.
When considering a site or newsletter for your ad, look at factors such as
traffic, search engine placement, external linking, quality of current ads
and types of messages being presented in current ads. Are there many
competitors of yours already or is the advertising of a complementary
nature to your business? Are the ads completely unrelated to your business
and to the intended traffic of the site? These are all clues to measure a
best fit of your message to the traffic of the site.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is another consideration for your Internet

Marketing campaign but can be daunting for someone new to this form. If
you're new to PPC, stick to places that allow you to set limits on daily
expenditures. Google is a good example. This will also help you to
experiment and determine the most effective keywords by paying close
attention to the statistics of the PPC campaign.
Conversion rates are an important measuring tool. What you need to do is

determine what exactly you want to measure for your marketing campaign.
Is it sales orders? Newsletter subscribers? Downloads of your free e-book?
A conversion rate is the number of click-throughs it takes to achieve
your target measurement. Your page may have 1000 hits, 14 clicks and 1
sale in a day. Your conversion rate is 1:14 or 7.1%. In other words, 7.1%
of the clicks are generating a sale during this period.
Picture 3.2: Source: ctiadvertising.com
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Close monitoring of your conversion rates will quickly tell you what is
working and what is not. Don't hesitate to change, tweak or modify your
ads if needed. This is a process in constant motion until you find the best
fit. Remember too, an ad may work superbly in one place but not in
another.
Action: Create a spreadsheet or document that you will enter in all the
sites and venues that are a consideration in your Internet Marketing
campaign. Internet Marketing Plan Step 3 - Budget W hile some people
think this should be the first step, realistically you can better create the
budget for your marketing plan when you have a good idea of the costs
involved. That can only be done once you've figured out your targets. You
probably already have a figure in mind of how much you can really spend,
so go back to your marketing campaign sheet and total up the costs of all
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the ad spots you'd like to do. Chances are that total will exceed your
overall spending limit.
Action: Now go through that list and prioritise the ads in terms of where
you think you'll get the most exposure and results that fit within your
budget. Move the others into a holding list. Remember, as the ads start to
pull in results you can always go back and expand your marketing
campaign from that holding list.
If you are engaged in pay-per-click advertising, check in daily for the first
week or so and monitor your results to ensure you are paying for results.
Step 3 – Budget
The mystery isn’t whether or not a business needs a marketing budget.

Most savvy business owners and marketers already know that budgets help
establish parameters for spending, project revenue, monitor return on
investment and set benchmarks fo r future marketing endeavours.
Instead, the mystery often lies within figuring out how to create a
marketing budget in a landscape that is rapidly shifting.
It used to be that the bulk of a marketing budget was entwined with a

marketing plan that focused on traditional efforts, like direct mail and
collateral print materials.
What’s more, it was fairly standard practice for the marketing budget to be
the first to see cuts when a business’s revenue slowed. Today, however,
more dollars are being spent online than ever before through e-mail
marketing and social media and decision-makers are thinking twice before
putting marketing dollars on the chopping block.
Clearly, marketing isn’t what it used to be and neither is the budget; but
what still holds true amid the evolution is that budgeting takes research,
planning and measurement to be successful. What is your business doing
with your budget to ensure success in this new landscape? Read on to
learn the basics of successful budgeting, to see where you’re business falls
in line with other benchmarks and how to implement a budget that works.
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Action: A budget is a plan for coordinating resources and expenses over a

period of time by assigning costs to goals and objectives for specific
activities.
Therefore, the best marketing budgets are entwined with a marketing plan
and timeline and relate specifically to desired outcomes. Not only are
budgets that are based on plans easier to implement and measure, they
are much easier to make the case for. While many budgets are created and
approved by campaign, budgets are also created with a fixed cap and then
broken down by tactic. Either way, here’s the scoop on where you should
stand …
The magic number
Generally speaking, marketing standards for most industries indicate that

the overall budget number should work out to be two to ten per cent of the
overall projected revenue for the coming year of a business-to-consumer
company. Some businesses base this percentage on past gross sales, per
unit sales, seasonal allocation or projected cash flow.
Here are the 5 steps that a small business should follow to develop a
marketing budget:
• Research your customers
• Match spending to revenue
• Make wise spending decisions
• Correct the course as needed
• Utilise best practices
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Internet Marketing Plan Step 4 – Creating Your Ad Content
Internet Marketing works best when you focus only on one or two things.
You may have a variety of products but pick one or two items that are good
sellers and have a solid appeal to your target market for your marketing
campaign.
Next ask yourself, "What am I selling"? It's rarely the product or service.
You are selling a benefit, something that registers at the emotional level. If
you are selling fishing rods, for example, you're selling the excitement of
successfully landing that monster in the lake. If you are selling cosmetics,
you're selling beauty.
The most successful ads use words that relate to the customer. Use, You
and Yours and never put the focus on Me, Mine, Our, My or We. Create
several emotional words associated with the product – fun, comforting,
relaxing, stimulating and addictive — and use at least one of them in the
ad.
Coupons are also an effective marketing tool. They can be easily tracked
either manually or by an automated shopping cart system. Use different
codes for different advertising locations and you'll quickly see which ones
get the best attention.
Action: Create a text ad for each item in your Internet Marketing

campaign, making sure to hit at least one to three prime keywords in the
text. Text ads typically run 60 characters wide by 3, 5, 8, 7 or 10 lines
long.
Internet Marketing Plan Step 5 – Tracking and Monitoring Your Ads
Tracking and reacting to your campaign's successes are critical in

maintaining an effective marketing campaign. From your website statistics
to PPC statistics, there are many ways to determine what is working and
what isn't. By paying attention you'll learn volumes about your ads and
how to sharpen them for best results.
Tracking tricks include using specific coupon or sales codes for each ad
placement, setting up separate entry pages on your site for each ad, and
utilising a service that helps track activity. There are advertising
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management services that help you to track ad performance, such as

Google's DFP Small Business, a free service that is relatively easy to
implement and gives powerful ad tracking management and support.
Action: On a daily basis for the first two weeks, review the results of your
various ads. Write them up in your tracking sheet and look for any trends
or patterns. Which ones are performing, where and why? If some aren't
working, replace them with others that are or try another from your hold
list. Once you settle into a pattern of review and ad management you'll
know better how often you need to monitor your marketing campaigns.
Successful Internet Marketing campaigns are within the reach of any

business, no matter what your budget. By following these basic marketing
plan steps and committing to the follow- through, you can create a cost
effective marketing campaign with a substantial return on investment.
3.5 HIGH IMPACT MARKETING PLANS
Successful online businesses start with strategically targeted marketing

plans. If you have a specific market you want to serve, it’s easier to focus
on that market with any marketing plan you may create. Strategic planning
from start-up radically increases your success ratios; however, it’s
never too late to get focused.
By incorporating a few simple success strategies into your marketing

campaign, you can quickly develop a targeted marketing plan that will
bring specifically targeted traffic to your site with the intent to purchase
what you offer.
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The following are High Impact Marketing Strategies will take your online
business exactly where you want to it to go.
1. Keyword association: Include market specific keywords in your

website, in your description, and in your Meta tags. This enables your
prospective clients to find you on the internet search engines.
2. Search Engine Optimisation: By optimising your website for search

engine crawlers, you'll have more direct new traffic. You can optimise
primarily with content and keyword use. Links to your site from other
sites are another good option for optimisation.
3. Refreshing Dynamic Content: If your website content becomes stale,

never changing, lacking in important updates and content changes, you
lack impact. Keep your site fresh and up- to-date.
4. Interactive Communications: Blog, forum, and newsletters are all

optimisation tools that allow your clients to come to you, interact with
you, and have input in your business. Ask questions to increase email
contact.
5. Viral Marketing Documents: Give away free documents that bring

traffic back to your site. Give away stuff that other sites can give away
too. Increase your traffic through friends and network with affiliations.
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Picture 3.3 Source: 2018 Internet marketing Plan Survey Ascend2 and
Research Partners
3.6 STEPS FOR ONLINE INTERNET MARKETING PLAN
Step 1: Know thy Target Audience intimately
Who are they? Where do they hang out? What do newspapers or trade
journals they read? One way to define your target audience is to create
buyer personas. A persona is a description of a specific person who might
want to buy your services or products. The persona usually includes a
fictitious buyer‘s demographic information, day in the life of, needs,
motivations, preferences, biographical information, and a photo/image to
make it real. Take Catarina for example…
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Step 2: Spy on your Competitors (nicely)
Put together a spreadsheet of your top competitors and research them to

see how they are using Internet marketing channels to reach customers.
Do a quick competitive analysis by checking out how your competitors
(three is a good number) are performing on the SERPs and social media,
as well as taking a good look at their websites.
Be a private detective, do a bit of mystery shopping, impersonate your

customer to and your (and your competitor‘s) products or services online.
Uncover what they are doing within the Internet channel to make a
connection online. Write down each connection you make in the spread
sheet.
The first tool in my competitor research toolbox is always Screaming Frog

Spider from Dan Sharp the enigmatic founder and director of Screaming
Frog, a UK search marketing agency. Screaming Frog is as essential, well
worth the small annual fee for limitless SEO audits.
Picture 3.4
Step 3: Priorities Your Internet Tactics & Channels
Look at each Internet channel and think about how valuable or important
the channel is to your organisation. e.g. Do email campaigns drive web
traffic or is it referrals (links) from directories or news sites. Hint: check
your referral traffic in Google Analytics.
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1. email marketing
2. referral traffic
3. directory listings
4. press social media like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest

for e-commerce or a combination.
Value can be defined as existing referrals, % of new visitors, no. of new

leads etc. use your Google analytics data to see trends. Then, look at the
effort required to implement your plan across each Internet marketing
channel.
The value-effort score will show you which channels represent ‘quick wins’.
Think about the following options to narrow down the list:
1. Company Goals – What are the top priorities for the business to
achieve? Brand Awareness, Education, Raw Traffic or Sales?
2. Budget – How much do you have to spend on your marketing efforts?
3. Available resources – What personnel or outsourced people do you have

available to create or remarket content?
4. Available content – What content do you have already, carry out a

content audit to and out top performing content.
5. Your website – Check if it‘s content rich, responsive and designed for
conversion optimisation
6. Does your site follow the Google webmaster guidelines?
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Step 4: Quick Result (wins)
A variety of Internet channels and tactics will be ‘right’ for your business
depending on your business objectives and customers. For example, if you
want to raise brand awareness and improve customer services social media
marketing tactics will be the bill. If you want to generate sales and web
traffic a combination of Search Engine Marketing, Google+ and email
marketing may be your best fit. In reality, most businesses have a variety
of business objectives and audiences so take a ‘pick ‘n‘ mix’ approach, test
effectiveness and monitor results.
1. Display Advertising
2. Email Marketing
3. Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
4. Online Public Relations
5. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
6. Affiliate Marketing
7. Social Media Marketing
8. Viral Content Campaigns
9. Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
10.Blogging
11.Twitter advertising
12.Facebook advertising
13.Influencer/Blogger outreach
14.Video marketing
15.Local search marketing
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16.Mobile marketing
17.Groupon/offer sites
18.Corporate website
19.Free content (eBooks, white papers, tools)
20.Online communities/forums
21.Webinars
22.Podcasts
23.Crowd funding campaigns
Step 5: Measuring Output (Results )
Create SMART performance indicators that are quantifiable and

measurable. Examples include:
Increase online sales by 20% from x to y Increase natural search track by

20% Increase social media engagement on Facebook by 25% quarterly
Internet Marketing and Measurement Model.
Internet marketing goes hand in glove with Internet analytics. Ask yourself
why are we undertaking this Internet initiative?
Step 6: Is it working?
You can test whether your marketing campaigns are working by tracking
your traffic, goals and conversions in Google.
Analytics and other metrics like Facebook Insights. You can also use Click
tale or Crazy egg to see where potential customers are exiting your sites.
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Step 7: Monthly review
Take time out to review where your marketing tactics are driving results
regularly and adapt your campaigns to take advantage of new
opportunities.
You can use a variety of tools for this see this cool list of SEO and social
media tools and pick a free or paid one to get going!
Your essential tools are Google Search Console previously known (like
Prince) as Webmaster Tools and Google.
Analytics. There are so many SEO tools out there to use but don‘t get
bogged down by them.
Choose one or two.
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3.7 SUMMARY
In this chapter we have discussed the Internet Marketing plan in detail.

The critical aspect of competitor analysis in marketing is discussed in great
detail in this chapter. This is an assessment of the strengths and
weaknesses of current and potential competitors. We have discussed the
three step Competition analysis which includes:
Step 1: Identify the Leaders
Step 2: Scrutinise the Leaders
Step 3: Highlight Strengths, Vulnerabilities, and Gaps
Competitor profiling facilitates this strategic objective in three important

ways. First, profiling can reveal strategic weaknesses in rivals that the firm
may exploit. Here we have learnt to use the common technique of creating
detailed profiles on each major competitor. These profiles give an in-depth
description of the competitor's background, finances, products, markets,
facilities, personnel, and strategies.
Scanning competitor's ads can reveal much about what that competitor
believes about marketing and their target market. A competitor's media
strategy reveals budget allocation, segmentation and targeting strategy,
and selectivity and focus. From a tactical perspective, it can also be used to
help a manager implement his own media plan.
We have discussed in detail various aspects related to building the Internet

Marketing plan. A few vital concepts were the points to be considered while
building a site, fitting the site to the Internet Marketing plan and modifying
the marketing plan.
Market research, Product, Competition, Internet Marketing Strategies,

Offline/Traditional Advertising Strategies, Pricing, Positioning and Branding
are some of the topics we need to consider in our marketing plan, these
are discussed in detail in this chapter. Here we have discussed many ways
in which we can operate for promotion online and also discussed the Five
Stages of an effective Internet Marketing plan. By following each of the
steps, you'll end up with an effective Internet Marketing campaign.
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Successful online businesses start with strategically targeted high impact

marketing plans; hence we have discussed 5 key high impact Internet
Marketing plans which include: Keyword association, Search Engine
Optimisation, Refreshing Dynamic Content, Interactive Communications
and Viral Marketing Documents.
1. Why is Competitive analysis critical to online success?
2. Describe briefly the steps in scrutinising the leaders.
3. Why is competitor knowledge an intrinsic component of corporate

strategy?
4. What information is revealed in a competitor’s media strategy?
5. What is the purpose of the Internet marketing plan?
6. What are the major aspects of the Market Research part of the Internet
marketing plan?
7. Discuss in brief the Offline/Traditional Advertising Strategies.
8. Write a short note on what is a Mission statement.
9. Enlist the steps in a Five Step Marketing Plan.
10.When considering a site or newsletter for your ad, what are the key
factors to look at?
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1. In terms of value for money, these are the best marketing techniques:
for Internet marketing
a. Search Engines
b. Emails
c. Brick and mortal
d. 1 and 2 of the above
2. High Impact Marketing Strategies will take your online business exactly
where you want to it to go. Identify from followings those strategies
a. Keyword association
b. Search Engine Optimisation:
c. Refreshing Dynamic Content
d. All of the above
3. Identify steps in marketing plan on Internet

a. Selecting products
b. Defining your Customer
c. Choosing your employees
d. All of the above
4. Behind every successful Internet business is a well-researched Internet

Marketing plan
a. True
b. False
5. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is another consideration for your

Internet Marketing campaign but can be daunting for someone new to
this form.
a. True
b. False
Answers
1. (d) 2. (d) 3. (d) 4. (a ) 5. (a)
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
Video Lecture
98
WEBSITES AND PORTALS – YOUR INTERNET MARKETING HUB
Chapter 4
Websites And Portals – Your Internet
Marketing Hub
Learning Objectives
After going through this chapter you should be able to know:
• Assess and differentiate between Websites and Portals
• Understand various aspects related to attracting and retaining visitors to

websites
• Learn how to leverage the power of search engines and portals
• Learn how to convert visitors into customers
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Structure:
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Difference between Website and Portal:
4.2.1 Websites
4.2.2 Web Portals
4.3 Online prospect enhancement techniques:
4.3.1 Lead generation systems
4.3.2 Business networking
4.3.3 Creating remarkable content on the net
4.4 Leveraging your business through web portals
4.5 Online Customer conversion
4.5.1 Converting visitors into leads
4.5.2 Converting prospects into leads
4.6 People behind Websites
4.7 Summary
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4.1 INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we shall understand essential aspects of Websites and Web

Portals. These are very crucial to conducting business online. The internet
is an excellent channel for promoting your business to potential clients
anywhere and anytime. All they need is your website address, whether
from a business card, an advertisement, letterhead, e-mail or search
engines.
It offers a cost effective and convenient means of keeping in touch with

your existing client base and keeping them informed of developments
within your business. You can achieve this without visiting the printers, or
mailing hundreds of letters. A website will maximise your marketing
investment, by leveraging this versatile and dynamic marketing channel
which is the Internet.
Today’s business environment demands a new approach—one where

customers can ask questions or voice concerns and employees can answer
in real time, improving service delivery and product innovation. We have
covered Websites and Web Portals in complete detail in this chapter.
Online prospect enhancement techniques which include: Lead

generation systems, Business networking and creating remarkable content
on the net are covered in detail as well. Knowledge of the elements of a
great lead generation system is crucial to any online marketer; hence we
have discussed the same here. The Top 5 Lead Generation Systems are
discussed to provide you with an understanding of how to generate leads
required for your online business.
Business networking is critical if you want to create a presence online.

LinkedIn, a prominent business networking site is discussed in detail to
give you a practical overview of this important aspect. The content of any
website is crucial to attracting and retaining visitors to your website.
Marketing your business on search engines is the key to success on the

Internet hence we must understand all the essential aspects of this
approach. How your website pages are ranked determines their position in
the search engine results pages that returned from a customer's search.
Search engine optimisation involves specialised writing and site design
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techniques that not only increase the volume of traffic to your website, but
also increase the quality of the traffic looking at your website.
Leveraging your business through web portals: Portal solutions have

changed the way business is done today. A web portal is highly beneficial
access point to web for individual as well as business users. The
information contained in web content portal is categorised into topics such
as new, business, finance, travel, sports and more.
Online Customer conversion consists of converting visitors and prospects

into leads. Once you have a visitor’s email, it is necessary for you to begin
and develop a relationship with them over time. Regular email
communications will establish credibility and develop the relationships and
trust you need to help them make a buying decision.
4.2 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WEBSITE AND PORTAL
Picture 4.1: Website and Web Portal (Source: besttoolbars.net)
A good understanding of the difference between Websites and Portals is

necessary before we proceed. A web portal offers multiple services like
mail, news, calendars, search or multiple brands (in the case of content
portals) under one umbrella. A website is a smaller subset offering only a
limited or just one service or brand.
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Thus, a portal is a larger entity than just a website. Of course the

boundaries on where a website ends and where a portal begins are
subjective. A web portal is usually a website that contains or provides
access to multiple sub-websites. An analogy might be a shopping mall
where the mall provides access to multiple stores with specific purposes. A
web portal is like the mall and the sub-websites would be like the stores.
The very term "Portal" indicates an entry point for further access to
information and content. This also implies that a Website will tend to be
static and a Portal will require a Content Management System (CMS) in
order to manage the myriad of information contained within the system.
Another differentiator is that a Portal will almost always authenticate/
authorise the user in order to provide customised content and role based
access to content. Perhaps an oversimplified analogy is that Portals tend to
be applications whereas Websites are more like brochures.
4.2.1 Websites
A website is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or

other Internet assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server,
accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area
network through an Internet address also called URL.
A web page is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with

formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A
web page may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable
markup anchors. Web pages are accessed and transported with the
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ
encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for the
user of the web page content. The user's application, often a web browser,
renders the page content according to its HTML markup in-structions onto
a display terminal. All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute
the World Wide Web. The pages of a website can usually be accessed from
a simple Uniform Resource Locator (URL) called the homepage. The URLs
of the pages organise them into a hierarchy, although hyper-linking
between them conveys the reader's perceived site structure and guides the
reader's navigation of the site.
Some websites require a subscription to access some or all of their

content. Examples of subscription websites include many business sites,
parts of news websites, academic journal websites, gaming websites,
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message boards, web-based e-mail, social networking websites, websites

providing real-time stock market data, and websites providing various
other services (e.g. websites offering storing and/or sharing of images,
files and so forth).
The World Wide Web (WWW) was created in 1989 by CERN physicist Tim
Berners-Lee. On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web
would be free to use for anyone. Before the introduction of HTML and HTTP,
other protocols such as file transfer protocol and the gopher protocol were
used to retrieve individual files from a server. These protocols offer a
simple directory structure which the user navigates and chooses files to
download. Documents were most often presented as plain text files without
formatting, or were encoded in word processor formats.
Organised by function, a website may be work of an individual, a business

or other organisation, and is typically dedicated to some particular topic or
purpose. Any website can contain a hyperlink to any other website, so the
distinction between individual sites, as perceived by the user, may
sometimes be blurred. Websites are written in, or dynamically converted
to, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and are accessed using a software
interface classified as a user agent. Web pages can be viewed or otherwise
accessed from a range of computer-based and Internet-enabled devices of
various sizes, including desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and cell phones.
Picture 4.2 illustrating Website of FLC communicating between head and

branch offices in two different parts of globe
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Types of Websites
Organised by function, a website as shown in Diagram 4.1
1. Static Website: A static website is one that has web pages stored on
the server in the format that is sent to a client web browser. It is
primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language, HTML. Simple forms or
marketing examples of websites, such as classic website, a five-page
website or a brochure website are often static websites, because they
present pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include
information about a company and its products and services via text,
photos, animations, audio/video and interactive menus and navigation.
This type of website usually displays the same information to all visitors.
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In summary, visitors are not able to control what information they receive
via a static website, and must instead settle for whatever content the
website owner has decided to offer at that time. They are edited using four
broad categories of software:
a. Text editors, such as Notepad or TextEdit, where content and HTML

markup are manipulated directly within the editor programme.
b. WYSIWYG offline editors, such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe

Dreamweaver (previously Macromedia Dreamweaver), with which the
site is edited using a GUI interface and the final HTML markup is
generated automatically by the editor software.
c. WYSIWYG online editors which create media rich online presentation like
web pages, widgets, intro, blogs, and other documents.
2. Dynamic website: A dynamic website is one that changes or

customises itself frequently and automatically, based on cer tain criteria.
Dynamic websites can have two types of dynamic activity: Code and
Content. Dynamic code is invisible or behind the scenes and dynamic
content is visible or fully displayed.
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Diagram 4.3 Dynamic Website
Dynamic Code: The first type is a web page with dynamic code. The code
is constructed dynamically on the fly using active programming language
instead of plain, static HTML.
A website with dynamic code refers to its construction or how it is built,

and more specifically refers to the code used to create a single web page.
A dynamic web page is generated on the fly by piecing together certain
blocks of code, procedures or routines. A dynamically-generated web page
would recall various bits of information from a database and put them
together in a pre-defined format to present the reader with a coherent
page. It interacts with users in a variety of ways including by reading
cookies recognising users' previous history, session variables, server side
variables etc., or by using direct interaction (form elements, mouseover‘s,
etc.). A site can display the current state of a dialogue between users,
monitor a changing situation, or provide information in some way
personalised to the requirements of the individual user.
Dynamic Content: The second type is a website with dynamic content

displayed in plain view. Variable content is displayed dynamically on the fly
based on certain criteria, usually by retrieving content stored in a
database. A website with dynamic content refers to how its messages,
text, images and other information are displayed on the web page and
more specifically how its content changes at any given moment. The web
page content varies based on certain criteria, either pre-defined rules or
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variable user input. For example, a website with a database of news

articles can use a pre-defined rule which tells it to display all news articles
for today's date. This type of dynamic website will automatically show the
most current news articles on any given date. Another example of dynamic
content is when a retail website with a database of media products allows a
user to input a search request for the keyword Beatles. In response, the
content of the web page will spontaneously change the way it looked
before, and will then display a list of Beatles products like CDs, DVDs and
books.
Purpose of Dynamic Websites: The main purpose of a dynamic website

is automation. A dynamic website can operate more effectively, be built
more efficiently and is easier to maintain, update and expand. It is much
simpler to build a template and a database than to build hundreds or
thousands of individual, static HTML web pages.
3. Product or Service Based Sites: Some websites derive revenue by

offering products or services for sale. In the case of e-commerce
websites, the products or services may be purchased at the website
itself, by entering credit card or other payment information into a
payment form on the site.
Websites occasionally derive income from a combination of these two

practices. For example, a website such as an online auctions website
may charge the users of its auction service to list an auction, but also
display third-party advertisements on the site, from which it derives
further income.
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Various types of Websites are listed below:
1. Affiliate: A site, typically few in pages, whose purpose is to sell a third

party's product. The seller receives a commission for facilitating the
sale.
2. Archive: Used to preserve valuable electronic content threatened with

extinction.
3. Blogs: Sites generally used to post online diaries which may include
discussion forums (e.g., blogger, Xanga). Many bloggers use blogs like
an editorial section of a newspaper to express their ideas on anything
ranging from politics to religion to video games to parenting, along with
anything in between. Some bloggers are professional bloggers and they
are paid to blog about a certain subject, and they are usually found on
news sites.
4. Brand Building: A site with the purpose of creating an experience of a

brand online. These sites usually do not sell anything, but focus on
building the brand. Brand building sites are most common for low-value,
high-volume Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
Picture 4.3 Source: www.snapdeal.com
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5. Celebrity Website: A website whose information revolves around a

celebrity. This sites can be official (endorsed by the celebrity) or fan
made (run by his/her fan, fans, without implicit endorsement).
6. Community Sites: A site where persons with similar interests

communicate with each other, usually by chat or message boards.
7. Content Sites: Sites whose business is the creation and distribution of

original content.
8. Corporate Sites: Used to provide background information about a

business, organisation, or service.
9. Dating Sites: These are site where users can find other single people
looking for long range relationships, dating, or just friends.
10.Ecommerce Sites: A site offering goods and services for online sale
and enabling online transactions for such sales.
11.Government Sites: A website made by the local, state, department or

national government of a country. Usually these sites also operate
websites that are intended to inform tourists or support tourism.
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12.Information Sites: Most websites could fit in this type of website to

some extent many of them are not necessarily for commercial purposes.
13.Media sharing Sites: A site that enables users to upload and view
media such as pictures, music, and videos.
14.Mirror Sites: A website that is the replication of another website.

These types of websites are used as a response to spikes in user
visitors. Mirror sites are most commonly used to provide multiple
sources of the same information, and are of particular value as a way of
providing reliable access to large downloads.
15.News Sites: Similar to an information site, but dedicated to dispensing

news, politics, and commentary.
16.Personal Sites: Websites about an individual or a small group (such as

a family) that contains information or any content that the individual
wishes to include. Many personal homepages are rare, thanks to the
modern era of social networking sites such as MySpace, but some are
still used for at home businesses. This website is different from a
Celebrity website, which can be very expensive and run by a publicist or
agency.
17.Phishing Sites: A website created to fraudulently acquire sensitive

information, such as passwords and credit card details, by
masquerading as a trustworthy person or business (such as Social
Security Administration, PayPal) in an electronic communication.
18.Torrent Sites: Websites that index torrent files. This type of website is
different from a Bit torrent client which is usually standalone software.
19.Political Sites: A site on which people may voice political views, show
political humor, campaigning for elections, or show information about a
certain political party or ideology.
20.Sites: A site that shows sexually explicit content for enjoyment and
relaxation. They can be similar to a personal website when it's a website
of a porn actor/actress or a media sharing website where user can
upload from their own sexually explicit material to movies made by
adult studios.
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21.Review Sites: A site on which people can post reviews for products or
services.
22.Search engine Sites: A website that indexes material on the internet

or an intranet (and lately on traditional media such as books and
newspapers) and provides links to information as a response to a query.
23.Social bookmarking Sites: A site where users share other content

from the Internet and rate and comment on the content.
24.Social networking Sites: A site where users could communicate with

one another and share media, such as pictures, videos, music, blogs,
etc. with other users. These may include games and web applications.
25.Web Portal Sites: A site that provides a starting point or a gateway to

other resources on the Internet or an intranet. Some websites may be
included in one or more of these categories. For example, a business
website may promote the business's products, but may also host
informative documents, such as white papers. There are also numerous
sub-categories to the ones listed above.
4.2.2 Web Portals
A web portal or links page is a website that functions as a point of access

to information on the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from
diverse sources in a unified way. Apart from the standard search engine
feature, web portals offer other services such as e-mail, news, stock prices,
information, databases and entertainment. Portals provide a way for
enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and
procedures for multiple applications and databases,
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Types of Portals:
1. Horizontal and Vertical Portals: Two broad categorisations of portals

are horizontal portals, which cover many areas, and vertical portals,
which are focused on one functional area. Another definition for a
horizontal portal is that it is used as a platform to several companies in
the same economic sector or to the same type of manufacturers or
distributors. A vertical portal consequently is a specialised entry point to
a specific market or industry niche, subject area, or interest, also called
vortal.
2. Personal Portals: A personal portal is a site on the World Wide Web

that typically provides personalised capabilities to its visitors, providing
a pathway to other content. It is designed to use distributed
applications, different numbers and types of middle-ware and hardware
to provide services from a number of different sources. In addition,
business portals are designed to share collaboration in workplaces.
Personal portals can be related to any specific topic such as providing
friend information on a social network or providing links to outside
content that may help others beyond your reach of services. Portals are
not limited to simply providing links. Information or content that you are
putting on the Internet creates a portal, or a path to new knowledge
and/or capabilities.
3. News Portals: The traditional media rooms all around the world are
fast adapting to the new age technologies. This marks the beginning of
news Portals by media houses across the globe. This new media
channels give them the opportunity to reach the viewers in a shorter
span of time than their print media counterparts.
4. Government web Portals: At the end of the dot-com boom in the

1990s, many governments had already committed to creating portal
sites for their citizens. These included primary Portals to the
Governments as well as Portals developed for specific audiences.
Examples of Government web Portals include:
a. Australia.gov.au for Australia.
b. USA.gov for the United States (in English) & GobiernoUSA.gov (in
Spanish).
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c. India.gov.in for India.
5. Corporate Web Portals: Corporate intranets became common during

the 1990s. As intranets grew in size and complexity, web-masters were
faced with increasing content and user management challenges. A
consolidated view of company information was judged insufficient; users
wanted personalisation and customisation. Webmasters, if skilled
enough, were able to offer some capabilities, but for the most part
ended up driving users away from using the intranet.
6. Stock Portals: Also known as stock-share Portals, stock market Portals

or stock exchange Portals are Web-based applications that facilitates the
process of informing the shareholders with substantial online data such
as the latest price, ask/bids, the latest News, reports and
announcements. Some stock Portals use online gateways through a
central depository system (CDS) for the visitors to buy or sell their
shares or manage their portfolio.
7. Search Portals: Search Portals aggregate results from several search

engines into one page.
Tender's Portals: Tender's Portals stands for a gateway to search/modify/

submit/archive data on tenders and professional processing of continuous
online tenders. With a tender portal the complete tendering process—
submitting of proposals, assessment, administration—are done on the web.
Electronic or online tendering is just carrying out the same traditional
tendering process in an electronic form, using the Internet. Using online
tendering, bidders can do any of the following:
• Receive notification of the tenders.
• Receive tender documents online.
• Fill out the forms online.
• Submit proposals and documents. Submit bids online.
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Domain-specific portals: A number of portals have come about that are

specific to the particular domain, offering access to related companies and
services, a prime example of this trend would be the growth in property
portals that give access to services such as estate agents, removal firm,
and solicitors that offer conveyancing. Along the same lines, industry-
specific news and information portals have appeared, such as the clinical
trials specific portal: IFPMA Clinical Trials Portal.
4.3 ONLINE PROSPECT ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES
In this section we are going to discuss about various techniques used to

enhance the online prospect. As shown in the diagram 4.2 below, there are
three main techniques used for online prospect enhancement which are:
Lead generation System, Business Networking and Creating remarkable
content on the net.
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4.3.1 Lead generation systems
In any given industry, there are a myriad of potential lead sources that can
be used to supply your business with highly-qualified sales leads. Some are
very simple and inexpensive to set-up, others are more involved. Some will
give you a trickle of leads, others will produce a flood. What would the—
ultimate—lead generation system look like? A great lead generation system
should have the following elements…
• Require little manual effort to effectively run it with the ability to be put
almost entirely on —autopilot.
• Generates names, addresses, and even email addresses of people who

respond and are interested in knowing more about your specific product
or service.
• People who respond give you permission to contact them and give your
best sales presentation about your specific product or service.
• Creates a positive relationship of trust and generates a perception that

you are—the authority in your industry about your product or service.
• Generates predictable results. The system works like a radio volume

control that increases your business when turned up and maintains your
business when turned down.
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The Basics of Lead Generation:
Picture 4.5 Source: ideamamaadnetwork.com
Target Best Buyers: If you look at a financial statement that shows

income generated from all your clients, you’ll find that the “80/20 Rule” is
working within your business. That is, just 20 per cent of your clients are
giving you 80 per cent of the business and profitability. These are your
“Best Buyers” or “Dream Clients.” What does this mean to you? It means
you should target and concentrate on these “Best Buyers” first, because
this will be the easiest way to grow your business and profitability. So take
a few minutes now to create a profile of who your most “Dream Client” is.
Being proactive with your leads is your key to success: Most

companies spend an enormous amount of time, effort, and capital to get a
few people from a big audience to “raise their hand” (respond) and become
a new lead. Yet, most won’t invest the time or the attention to follow-up in
a diligent, timely, and continuous manner. Every day that a lead goes
unattended you are eroding the viability of that opportunity by a huge
amount. They would not have responded and become a lead if they were
not interested in the benefit your product or service offers. The key to
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success with handling leads is to have an aggressive and proactive system

in place, even if it’s a simple as picking up the phone and calling your lead.
The Top 5 Lead Generation Systems
1. Direct Mail to your Best Buyers: The fastest way to build your
business is to target the best customers with a “laser-focused” approach
with direct mail to your “best buyers.” This strategy alone has helped
many businesses literally double their revenues in just 12 to 18 months
(or less). This disarmingly simple strategy is one of the most effective
and least expensive ways to market and grow your business… fast!
Every market has what we call: “Best buyers.” Those are the clients who
will buy the most of what it is you offer. In essence, they are your
“dream clients”. So identify and select a target group who will now hear
from you at least once per month. Most of the people on your list will
throw the letter away the first four or five times that they receive it, but
remember that you are committed to building a great reputation in the
market, and gaining clients. It’s a numbers game.
The first thing you're going to do is to send them a letter introducing

yourself in giving an offer they cannot refuse. Then, send something out
to these people each and every month, even if it's only a letter or a flyer
offering a free consultation or free service of some kind. Over the next
12 months, these people are going to hear from you each and every
month. Remember, these easy and inexpensive strategies alone can
double your revenues in just 12 to 18 months (or less).
2. Buy leads from lead brokers and leads companies: Another great
way to generate hot “ready to buy” leads is to purchase them from lead
brokers and lead companies. The company’s sole focus is to generate
leads and then sell them to other companies who want a great source of
consistent new business.
Consider the example, of a life insurance professional. His main source

of business and income comes from buying leads from the leads
companies. Since this is a “numbers game” with ebbs and flows, he
always buys leads from 3 different sources to keep his leads and sales
numbers consistent.
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In average, each lead costs about $25 and he closes about 20% of the
leads that he buys. This strategy alone has makes him a top producer
that makes a very nice living for himself and his family. So, if you don’t
currently buy leads, adding this strategy alone can increase your
business by 50-75% or more! It just doesn’t get any easier than this, so
buy leads and grow your business.
3. Buy leads from the Internet Search Engines: One of the most
effective online strategies for generating leads is by attracting targeted
traffic to your Website with the "Pay-Per-Click" Search Engines
(PPCSEs). PPCSEs can and should become an indispensable part of your
lead generating arsenal. PPCSEs allow you to tap into the searches
occurring in your industry and put your site directly in front of
customers who are actively searching for what you're selling. You set
your budget, set the price you are willing to pay for each sales lead, and
pay only when your customers click through to your site. You are
guaranteed to receive "hot prospects" because you only pay for
performance – pre-qualified clicks and visitors.
The 2 best PPCSEs are:
• Google AdWords http://www.google.com/ads/
• Overture http://www.overture.com/
Here is an example of what can be accomplished with PPCSEs. The

owner of a small, highly-profitable software firm has built his business
success almost entirely with only 2 marketing tools:
Having a Website where he offers a free 30-day trial version of his

software
Purchasing traffic from PPCSEs like Google AdWords and Overture.com
He spends up to $3.50 per click for precisely-targeted keywords and

makes a high return on his investment. In fact, for every dollar he
spends on keywords, he makes $5.00 to $7.00 back. This calculates out
to being approximately a 500-700% return on investment. Not bad!
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4. Advertise: Studies show that 50% of all purchasing is motivated by

advertising. Advertising is also one of the best tactics for generating
leads that a company can deploy. Plus, it’s also the great way to build
name recognition in the market which can get you publicity, ‘word of
mouth’ advertising, and other great benefits.
Here are a few tips for running an advertising campaign that brings you
a high return on investment…
• Place ads in the most targeted publications that your target market
reads
• Consider inexpensive ads in e-mail newsletters and Websites that your

target market reads.
• Use direct response ads — always ask the reader of your ad to respond
for more information by phone, mail or via your Website.
• Be proactive. Have a follow-up system in place to get maximum results

from your advertising dollar.
• Use a compelling headline that introduces the biggest benefits your

product or service offers your client.
• Make them an offer that they’d be crazy to refuse so they’ll respond

and become a new long-term client.
5. Referrals: Referral marketing is one of the most effective techniques

for creating steady streams of prospects and clients. According to a
recent Jupiter Media Metrix survey, 70% of Internet users are compelled
to visit new websites through referrals. Referral-generated customers
are most cost efficient, profitable, and loyal source of new business
leads you can generate. And, they tend to buy quicker, negotiate less,
buy larger quantities, and refer more business to you. The best way to
get more referrals is with proactive referral systems that you add to
your marketing and business procedures. You can easily set up these
referral systems that are fool-proof strategies for increasing your
profits. Here are a few tips…
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Give your customers an incentive or additional products or services in

return for referring others to you.
Use a “Give a Gift” referral system where you invite your clients to give a
free sample of your product or service to others as a gift. Referral gift
certificates are great tools for this.
Use a “Loss Leader” referral system. Here’s how it works… Advertise a free
sample to get new clients to try out your product or service. This alone will
get you more sales. Plus, you can build a perpetual referral generator by
giving each person who tries your freebie 3 or more referral gift certificates
to give away to their friends and family. Then, watch your new referral
system take off and bring you a steady flow of new customers!
Along with your mailed or e-mailed invoices to clients, include surveys that
ask for feedback about how to improve company’s product or service. Be
sure to ask for referrals in the survey as well. This works!
Identify and create relationships with non-competitive companies and

people who already serve your target market. Then partner with them and
have them automatically refer you to their database of clients.
4.3.2 Business networking
Online networks are the new power lunch tables and the new golf courses
for business life in the U.S. In the past ten years, online dating has become
mainstream; 40 million Americans use online dating sites. Now,
businesspeople are starting to use the same family of technology to find
business clients, new partners, and jobs, through virtual contacts they
make online.
Bill Gates, John Kerry, and other celebrities are among the over 2 million
people currently registered on LinkedIn, a popular business networking site
84 per cent of American Internet users have used the Internet to contact
or get information from an online group--more than have used the Internet
to read news, searches for health information, or to buy something.
Forty-four per cent of U.S. Internet users — 53 million Americans — have

taken the first step to creating a virtual presence by — contributing their
thoughts and their files to the online world through building or posting to
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Websites, creating blogs, and sharing files. The 11 million Americans with
blogs are just one example of a far broader trend.
Certain clients, colleagues, and practitioners have become regular readers,

and the blog strengthens his bond with them and increases his perceived
competence.
Virtual relationships can help you find a job, market your product or
service, close deals, recruit talent, and identify and contact strategic
partners. The virtual networks you join and the way in which you
participate in them will vary according to your current objectives. Whatever
those objectives may be, there are ten steps that we recommend everyone
take to dramatically improve your personal network online.
1. Document your goals: For each goal, write down how online networks
can help you achieve it.
2. Analyse your network using the Seven Keys to a Powerful Network:
• How can you improve your Character and make it more visible?
• How can you increase your Competence?
• What is the best way to raise the Relevance of the people you know?
• How can you build stronger ties?
• How can you increase your Information about the people you know
• How can you multiply the number of people you know? Or, should you
focus on building stronger relationships with the people you know now
• How can you double the diversity of your network?
3. Make the mundane sublime: Master the basic office productivity

tools. If you invest the energy to learn how to speed read, how to touch
type, and how to use standard office productivity software comfortably,
you will become far more productive.
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4. Become an information sponge: Install professional contact

management software. Record emails, phone numbers, the notes you
take in meetings, and everything else you can about the people you
know. Add everyone you meet to your database.
5. Master your e-mail: Install a sophisticated e-mail reader and spam

filtering and antivirus software. Set up mail filter rules to route mail into
appropriate folders. Turn off automatic send/receive. Organise your e-
mail folders, and keep your inbox empty.
6. Share your knowledge wealth: Maintain a master file of documents,

resources, Web links, etc., which have been helpful to you. Document
processes.
7. Write your Recyclable Document: Save time by centralising all of

your recyclable emails and other text.
8. Take control of your virtual presence: Make sure that when people
look for you online…which they will…your image is both accurate and
flattering.
9. Join the virtual communities where your target market lives, and
keep your profile updated: Once you have joined one group, ask the
members where else they connect with like-minded people. Be sure to
look for smaller groups within larger sites.
10.Take a leadership role: Write a blog to cover your domain, and

perhaps create a virtual community around your unique interests.
Prominent Site for Business Networking
Linkedin: LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. Founded

in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for
professional networking. As of 22nd March 2011, LinkedIn reported more
than 100 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries and
territories worldwide. The site is available in English, French, German,
Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. This site is highly popular among Indian
corporate employees.
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One purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of

contact details of people with whom they have some level of relationship,
called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to
become a connection. However, if the recipient of an invitation selects "I
don't know", this counts against the person inviting them, and after five
such "IDKs" a member cannot invite another to connect without first
supplying their recipient mail address.
This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:
A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the

connections of each of their connections (termed second-degree
connections) and also the connections of second-degree connections
(termed third-degree connections). This can be used to gain an
introduction to someone a person wishes to know through a mutual
contact.
• It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities

recommended by someone in one's contact network
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates
• Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which
of their existing contacts can introduce them
• Users can post their own photos and view photos of others to aid in
identification
• Users can now follow different companies and can get notification about
the new joining and offers available
• Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs which they would like to apply for.
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4.3.3 Creating remarkable content on the net
A membership website is only as good as the premium content. Profitability

comes from renewals and members only renew if they love the content.
The content marketing revolution is upon us. Lead generation is driven by
content marketing.
What makes great content?
Here is a checklist that should help you to think through the style, tone and
voice of your content, as well as the substance. Don't forget that on the
Internet, content is not just about the written word. Think about audio,
video and images, but keep the style consistent across all mediums. Highly
relevant to the audience, in both content and the tone in which it is
presented.
Exclusive and unique – Try to ensure that your audience cannot get the
information you provide anywhere else
Frequently updated – Ideally, a site should be updated every day. Of

course, this will depend on the nature of the content, but you must ensure
your members have a reason to keep coming back to the site
Current – Make sure your content is right up to date. If you give people
yesterday's news, they will seek current news elsewhere
Punchy – People read 40% slower on the web so get straight to the point.
Keep it easy to read
Factual and accurate – Free information on the web is infamously

inaccurate. Members pay to get factually correct data
Easy to read – Use simple words, short sentences, short paragraphs, sub-
headers and lots of white space
Make it personal – Write in your personal style and tone. Members are
buying into you and your expertise. You are the site's brand Variety is the
spice of life! - Keep the content fresh, dynamic and exciting. Try new ideas
and watch the web stats to see what members like.
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Use images – A page that is a pleasure to look at is more likely to be a

pleasure to read
Involve your members – Give your members a chance to interact with

you. Allow them to rate an article or leave their comments. You get
feedback, they feel involved
Make it easy to print – Many people still like to print articles to read, so
make printing easy.
Key Guidelines for developing remarkable content
Target Audience: Whom are we trying to get to read this? Many people
call this — buyer personas today. This you want to understand both
demographic variables (title, role, company size and industry) and
psychographic variables (what keeps them awake at night?).
Funnel Segment: Where will the buyer we are trying to reach be in their
buying cycle? (researching, comparing vendors, etc.)
Topic and Outline: What will the structure of the content be? Will it be a
list, a tear-sheet, or some other format? Ultimately, you will know what
your buyers want and you will want to give it to them.
Key Messages: You must identify the goals of your content and the
messages that support those goals.
Tweetable Moment: A tweetable moment is a sound bite that is so

memorable that your readers or listeners feel compelled to re-quote you in
140 characters or less. Where and what are the — tweetable moments you
will have in your content? You want to give your audience the opportunity
to tweet you.
Media Format: What format will we present the content in? PDF, webinar,
blog post? A good recommendation is that for every idea you create, you
will create five pieces of content, i.e. five different media formats.
Distribution Tactics: How are we going to get this content into our
buyer’s hands? Examples of distribution channels: syndication, paid search,
blogs, email and so forth.
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Registration Strategy: Will registration be required? If so, how many

fields and so forth?
Remarkable Traits: How will this piece of content rise above the noise?
Remember, the content marketing revolution is on, and that means you
aren’t the only one creating content. Quite simply, your content will go
unread unless it is remarkable and can stand out from the rest. Remember,
content is a key component of your brand today. Make sure you leave no
stone unturned.
4.4 LEVERAGING YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH WEB

PORTALS
Your Web presence may be the only way customers and partners engage
with you—and one of the primary ways employees get work done. You
need to make those interactions count. Web development service is the
booming one among the many new and highly profitable business sectors
in the World Wide Web. Undoubtedly the technology has brought a huge
change in the business field through Internet. Portal solutions have
changed the way business is done today.
A web portal is highly beneficial access point to web for individual as well
as business users. The information contained in web content portal is
categorised into topics such as new, business, finance, travel, sports and
more. Also originally used by general public for purposes such as email,
public forums, search engines, online shopping and more, web portals
today provide a multitude of other functions.
A well designed and technologically highlighted website is the main tool for
any kind of business development. It is the responsibility of a web
development company to make the website smooth so that visitors can go
one page to other effortlessly while navigating. Termed as a business or
enterprise portal, this development in online portal services, as well as
improved communication and response times. Business web portals are
becoming increasingly vital to organisations of all sizes. Amalgamating this
type of online portal application into the existing system has the power to
significantly improve the productivity of an organisation.
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A business portal enables the integration of a number of functions in a

website, including task management and work flow application, search and
navigation functions, content and data management systems, supply chain
management systems, internal and external communication system,
automated sales support system, e-commerce storefronts, notification
system, online forums, discussion boards and more.
Portal software can provide users with prompt information that is

individualised to the users’ role. The users’ interface can be customised to
feature commonly used shortcuts, personalised data, and customised
designs. It can also suggest additional information to the user, and allow
the user to search for related information. A web portal site for a business
environment can facilitate and streamline many processes for your
organisation. Some solutions with strategic consulting for web portal
development include:
• Enterprise web strategy consulting
• Requirement consulting and streamlining
• Advanced web portal design
• Web portal administration, development and implementation consulting
• Web portal user interface consulting
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Picture 4.6
4.5 ONLINE CUSTOMER CONVERSION
The customer conversion rate is probably the most important number you
should know about your website. You can calculate this number by taking
the number of people who actually buy something from your site in a
week, and then divide by the total number of unique visitors to your site.
So, if 6 people bought something on your site and 300 people visited, your
conversion rate for that period would be 6/300, or 2%.
4.5.1 Converting Visitors into leads
Online lead generation is about getting 2 things from a person...
Permission to make contact and talk about your product or service.
The contact data necessary to do so.
Until a person has both permission to talk, and the means to do so, s/he
doesn't have a lead. Fast-talking marketing 'gurus' often claim to have all
kinds of secret methods for getting people to give up their contact details,
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and they're usually willing to share them with you – for a fee. It's possible
some of their methods might even work. But it's important to understand
that this isn't lead generation. Sharp practices are about obtaining data.
They're not about obtaining permission. Calling a person who hasn't given
permission to talk about your product or service is essentially a cold call.
The lead has still to be generated.
It's also worth noting a business that first obtains permission to call about
their product or service doesn't have to trick anybody person into giving
their contact data. The fast-talking 'gurus' have it all backwards – as usual.
So the real question is not how do you generate leads? Its how do you get
permission to call? And the key to answering that question lies in the
reasons you give a person to become a lead in the first place. Because
those reasons generate a genuine desire to talk about your product or
service.
It's essential that you see the following 20 ways in that light. They're about
giving people a reason to talk to you, and then following up.
Offer to solve a problem
Offer an in-depth hand-written custom report
Offer a free download or information
Offer a newsletter or ezine subscription
Offer a free consultation
Offer money-saving tips/tricks
Provide discount and/or promotional codes 20. Make an offer designed to

appeal to a specific group of people
Offer to improve something (e.g. I can double your sales)
Use better targeted traffic generators (e.g. article marketing)
Use a video sales pitch
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Improve your sales copy
Work on building trust/removing doubt
Personally invite people to the site (e.g. via business networking)
Ask others to personally invite people to the site (e.g. referral marketing)
Include video testimonials
Include scans of written testimonials
Give genuine value and invite reciprocation
Make your site interactive and use that interaction to increase relevance
Match a teaser ad with a landing page designed specifically to receive

those visitors
Make an offer designed to appeal to a specific group of people
4.5.2 Converting prospects into leads
Once you have a visitor’s Email it is incumbent upon you to begin and
develop a relationship with them over time. Regular Email communications
will establish credibility and develop the relationships and trust you need to
help them make a buying decision.
Auto responder (triggered) Email campaigns
Each time a new prospect gives you permission to Email them you should
have a timed series of events to take place after that initial contact. This is
your sales process. The late Cory Rudl, famed Internet marketer of
InternetMarketingCenter.com suggested the best schedule is:
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Immediate response
3-day follow-up
7-day follow-up
2-week follow-up
1 month follow-up
2 months follow-up
3 months follow-up
Prospects rarely make a purchase on the first contact with any company.
Conventional marketing wisdom says it takes five to nine contacts or brand
impressions before a prospect takes action. Systematising your follow-up
sales process is key to increasing your sales. This is not easy – but you
only have to do it once and put it on auto-pilot. It requires careful thinking,
planning, writing and technology to implement this process.
Triggered Actions: The next level of automated follow-up is to

automatically trigger different responses, different e-mail tracks, or
different content based on the prospects’ future actions or on what you
already know about them. A basic example would be to have one e-mail
track going out before a prospect becomes a customer, and another track
to be triggered after they have become a customer. Good e-mail marketing
service providers can provide this functionality.
Educational Content: Use your triggered e-mail campaigns or regular

campaigns to break down the features or benefits of your product or
service over a series of messages. For complex offerings, it is often much
more feasible to educate your prospects in little bits over time. Consider a
multi-part educational ‘course’ via e-mail as a special offer on your
website.
Special, limited time offers: Scarcity and time limited offers are proven
direct marketing response drivers. Consider using these techniques in your
triggered or regular campaigns.
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Lead qualification: If you have salespeople, you’ll want to deliver them

qualified leads, and get them speaking to your most qualified prospects
first. Ask them about lead qualification via Email, engagement devices,
web forms and special offers.
Regular E-mail Campaigns: After your triggered e-mail campaigns run

out, you’ll want a way to stay on top of the mind with your entire prospect
universe.
Send regular e-mail newsletters (at least monthly) to keep your brand on
top of the mind and drive traffic back to your website and your
salespeople.
Send new product or service announcements. Let your prospects know

what is new with your organisation.
Learn about outsourcing your e-mail marketing campaigns with our

turnkey e-mail marketing services, or consider an e-mail marketing quick
start programme if you’d just like to test the waters.
Web and E-mail Analytics: Track all of your e-mail and web activity and
measure it against pre-defined company benchmarks. The key to continued
growth is constant improvement. Notice what works well and do more of it.
4.6 PEOPLE BEHIND WEBSITES
Owners
They are the main entity who is in need to put their business on Internet
and have global presence. Their requirement depends upon business and
products they have. Depending upon their requirement static, dynamic,
transaction website or portal is decided.
Venture Capitalist
These are the people or organisations that do funding for the entire project
and having stake in profit sharing. A typical VC follows a maxim stating
that most ventures will fail, a few might do okay, and—hopefully—one will
take off and become a large enterprise that will repay investors many
times the initial investment. Record companies and movie studios follow
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the same principles, expecting that most of the projects they green-light
will have meager sales but that the one hit will more than repay the cost of
a bunch of flops.
Creative Directors
Creative director is a position often found within the graphic design, film,
music, fashion, advertising, media or entertainment industries, but may be
useful in other creative organisations such as web development and
software development firms as well.
A creative director is a vital role in all of the arts and entertainment

industries. In another sense, they can be seen as another element in any
product development process. The creative director may also assume the
roles of an art director, copywriter, or lead designer.
The responsibilities of a creative director include leading the

communication design, interactive design, and concept forward in any work
assigned. For example, this responsibility is often seen in industries related
to advertisement. The creative director is known to guide a team of
employees with skills and experience related to graphic design, fine arts,
motion graphics, and other creative industry fields. Some example works
can include visual layout, brainstorming, and copy writing.
Before one assumes the role of a creative director, one must have a preset
of experience beforehand. Like anyone else, these types of artists start up
from the very beginning in fields that can relate to motion graphics,
advertisement in television, and/or book (or magazine) publishing.
Directors have overall control over all the activities and responsible for
smooth operations.
There are two primary jobs involved in creating a website: the web
designer and web developer, who often work closely together on a website.
The web designers are responsible for the visual aspect, which includes the
layout, colouring and typography of a web page. Web designers will also
have a working knowledge of using a variety of languages such as HTML,
CSS, JavaScript, PHP and Flash to create a site, although the extent of
their knowledge will differ from one web designer to another.
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Account and Project Manager
You are the front lines for client contact. Some clients are a dream to work
with. Others can be a nightmare. Your job is to keep them all happy, even
in the face of delivering bad news. You have to know how to steer projects
while always keeping the client's needs in mind. You'll need to be strategic
about when you can handle issues cropping up, and when it's time to
escalate before it's too late.
Project Manager (naturally): You will certainly spend plenty of time tracking
budgets and schedules, managing scope, creating project plans, scrubbing
ticket queues, calling out risk, and managing a development team to
successful project completion. You'll need to master the delicate balance of
too much process and not enough process. We're all about flexibility, so
we're not an agile shop or a waterfall shop either. We fall somewhere in-
between, and we customise our process to fit the needs of any given
project.
Programmers and Graphic Designers
Occasionally you'll find a client who has crystal clear vision for their project
and a perfect list of requirements and implementation suggestions.
However, in the vast majority of cases, you’re going to be hand-holding the
client through the discovery and design process to arrive at a business/
technical specification that developers can execute upon. Developers will
generally have your back on the technical side, but from a marketing
standpoint, the more strategic and knowledgeable you are around web
architecture, user experience, design, content, SEO/search, social media,
and analytics, the better. The client knows what they want, but asking the
right questions to get all the answers is crucial to the planning process.
And improper planning will always set you up for failure on the project
management side of things.
Depending on the scope of the project, web design may involve

collaboration between software engineers and graphic designers. The
graphic design of a website may be as simple as a page layout sketch or
handling just the graphics in an HTML editor, while the advance coding is
done separately by programmers. In other cases, graphic designers may
be challenged to become both graphic designer and programmer in the
process of web design in positions often known as web masters.
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Copy Writers and Marketers
Further jobs which may become involved in the creation of a website

include:
Graphic designers to create visuals for the site such as logos, layouts and
buttons.
Internet Marketing specialists to help maintain web presence through

strategic solutions on targeting viewers to the site, by using marketing and
promotional techniques on the internet.
SEO writers to research and recommend the correct words to be

incorporated into a particular website and make the website more
accessible and found on numerous search engines.
Internet copywriter to create the written content of the page to appeal to

the targeted viewers of the site.
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4.7 SUMMARY
In this chapter, we have discussed about the Websites and web portals in
details.
Today’s business environment demands a new approach—one where

customers can ask questions or voice concerns and employees can answer
in real time, improving service delivery and product innovation. A web
portal offers multiple services like mail, news, calendars, search or multiple
brands (in the case of content portals) under one umbrella. A website is a
smaller subset offering only a limited or just one service or brand.
A web page is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with

formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A
web page may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable
markup anchors. Any website can contain a hyperlink to any other website,
so the distinction between individual sites, as perceived by the user, may
sometimes be blurred. We have also discussed about Static website,
Dynamic website and various types of websites like: Affiliate, blogs,
community sites, corporate sites, ecommerce sites, personal sites, torrent
sites etc.
A web portal or links page is a website that functions as a point of access

to information on the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from
diverse sources in a unified way. The web portal gained special attention
because it was, for many users, the starting point of their web browser.
Various types of web portals are: Horizontal and vertical portal, Personal
portals, Government web portals, News portals, Hosted web portals,
Tender's portals. Search portals. We have discussed Online prospect
enhancement techniques like Lead generation systems, Business
networking, Creating remarkable content on the net. Search engine
optimisation is not about tricking the search engines.
It's about making your website and its content friendly to the search
engines. Search engines use a variety of off- and on-page analysis
techniques, including keyword frequency, hyperlinks, meta tags, heading
and site structure analysis, and more to determine page rankings.
A well designed and technologically highlighted website is the main tool for
any kind of business development. It is the responsibility of a web
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development company to make the website smooth so that visitors can go

one page to other effortlessly while navigating. Portal software can provide
users with expeditious information that is individualised to the users’ role.
The users’ interface can be customised to feature commonly used

shortcuts, personalised data, and customised designs. It can also suggest
additional information to the user, and allow the user to search for related
information.
The customer conversion rate is probably the most important number you
should know about your website. You can calculate this number by taking
the number of people who actually buy something from your site in a
week, and then divide by the total number of unique visitors to your site.
1. Questions (Browse Internet Search Engine and for various sites)
2. Write a short note on what is a web page?
3. Enlist and describe the four broad categories of software used for
editing static website.
4. Describe five types of websites.
5. What are the two broad categorisations of portals?
6. Describe in brief the concept of content aggregation.
7. What precautions we have to take for protecting our website /blog?
8. Where we can find stock photos for our website/blog?
9. How do you build links to our website/blog?
10.Enlist the steps used in analysing network using the seven keys to a
powerful network.
11.What contact information must appear as a minimum on our web site/

blog?
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A MCQ Questions Identify correct answer from following options
1. HTML. Stands for___________
a. Hypertext Markup Language

b. Hypertext Markup Lines
c. Hypertext Moment Language
d. None of the above
2. A static website is one that has web pages stored on the in the format
that is sent to a client web browser.
a. Client
b. Server
c. Internet
3. Dynamic Websites can have types of dynamic activity:

a. Code
b. Content
c. Text
d. 1 and 2 of the above
4. Affiliate: A site, typically few in pages, whose purpose is to sell a third

party's product. The seller receives a commission for facilitating the sale
a. True
b. False
5. The World Wide Web (WWW) was created in 1979 by CERN physicist
Tim Berners-Lee. On 30 April 1980
a. True
b. False
6. Yagoo.com is not a portal
a. True
b. False
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Answers
1. (a) 2. (d) 3. (a) 4. (a) 5. (b) 6. (b)
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
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INTERNET MARKETING RESEARCH
Chapter 5
Internet Marketing Research
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter you will be able to:
• Recognise the key role played by research to improve online marketing

efforts
• Understand market research by Target Market
• Learn different approaches to online market research
• Understand the various tools associated with online marketing research
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Structure:
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Role of Internet Marketing Research

5.2.1 Online Marketing Research Characteristics
5.2.2 Advantages of Online Marketing Research
5.2.3 Importance of Online Marketing Research
5.3 Consumer Market Research

5.3.1 Qualitative Marketing Research
5.3.2 How to Conduct a Qualitative Survey?
5.3.3 Quantitative Marketing Research
5.3.4 How to Conduct a Quantitative Survey?
5.3.5 Difference between Quantitative and Qualitative Marketing
Research
5.4 Internet Market Research Strategies
5.4.1 How to Plan an Internet Marketing Strategy?
5.5 Internet Market Research Techniques
5.6 Online Research Panels and Communities
5.6.1 Online Surveys

5.6.2 Developing Surveys: Asking Questions
5.6.3 Types of Survey Questions
5.6.4 How to Obtain Responses?
5.6.5 Steps to Conduct Research Surveys
5.7 Summary
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5.1 INTRODUCTION
The World Wide Web was developed as a tool for academics to allow
information to be shared freely. This foundation of the Web as an
information tool has had profound effects on the markets we transact in.
Consider that consumers are able to research companies and products
easily, gathering information to compare prices and service with a few
clicks of the mouse.
Consumers are also able to share likes and dislikes easily, whether that
information is shared with companies or with friends. Likewise, the Web
has an impact on market research. Its foundations in academia make it
ideal for secondary research, with reports and data filed, indexed and
available via a few savvy searches. Technology can also be used to easily,
and accurately, conduct surveys. The connected nature of the Web also
makes it possible to record data about consumers’ online habits. For
example, when researching the penetration of broadband in a particular
market, a few web searches will reveal plenty of sources that can be
compared and verified. If a company wants to gauge the demographics of
visitors to their website, an online survey may be offered to website
visitors. Online reputation management tools allow companies to track
consumer sentiment expressed online.
Marketing Research is "the function that links the consumer, customer, and
public to the marketer through information — information used to identify
and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and
evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve
understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the
information required to address these issues, designs the method for
collecting information, manages and implements the data collection
process, analyses the results, and communicates the findings and their
implications." Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording,
and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing products and
services. The goal of marketing research is to identify and assess how
changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behaviour. The
term is commonly interchanged with market research; however, expert
practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that market research is
concerned specifically with markets, while marketing research is concerned
specifically about marketing processes.
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Marketing research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs,

either by target market:
• Consumer marketing research, and
• Business-to-business (B2B) marketing research
Or, alternatively, by methodological approach:
• Qualitative marketing research, and
• Quantitative marketing research
Consumer Marketing Research is a form of applied sociology that

concentrates on understanding the preferences, attitudes, and behaviours
of consumers in a market-based economy, and it aims to understand the
effects and comparative success of marketing campaigns.
Thus, marketing research may also be described as the systematic and

objective identification, collection, analysis, and dissemination of
information for the purpose of assisting management in decision-making
related.
5.2 ROLE OF INTERNET MARKETING RESEARCH
The task of marketing research is to provide management with relevant,

accurate, reliable, valid, and current information. Competitive marketing
environment and the ever-increasing costs attributed to poor decision
making require that marketing research provide sound information. Sound
decisions are not based on gut feeling, intuition, or even pure judgment.
Marketing managers make numerous strategic and tactical decisions in the

process of identifying and satisfying customer needs. They make decisions
about potential opportunities, target market selection, market
segmentation, planning and implementing marketing programmes,
marketing performance, and control. These decisions are complicated by
interactions between the controllable marketing variables of product,
pricing, promotion, and distribution. Further complications are added by
uncontrollable environmental factors such as general economic conditions,
technology, public policies and laws, political environment, competition,
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and social and cultural changes. Another factor in this mix is the
complexity of consumers. Marketing research helps the marketing manager
link the marketing variables with the environment and the consumers. It
helps remove some of the uncertainty by providing relevant information
about the marketing variables, environment, and consumers. In the
absence of relevant information, consumers' response to marketing
programmes cannot be predicted reliably or accurately. Ongoing marketing
research programmes provide information on controllable and non-
controllable factors and consumers; this information enhances the
effectiveness of decisions made by marketing managers.
Traditionally, marketing researchers were responsible for providing the

relevant information and marketing decisions were made by the managers.
However, the roles are changing and marketing researchers are becoming
more involved in decision making, whereas marketing managers are
becoming more involved with research. The role of marketing research in
managerial decision making is explained further using the framework of the
"DECIDE" model:
The DECIDE model conceptualises managerial decision making as a series

of six steps. The decision process begins by precisely defining the problem
or opportunity, along with the objectives and constraints. Next, the
possible decision factors that make up the alternative courses of action
(controllable factors) and uncertainties (uncontrollable factors) are
enumerated. Then, relevant information on the alternatives and possible
outcomes is collected. The next step is to select the best alternative based
on chosen criteria or measures of success. Then a detailed plan to
implement the alternative selected is developed and put into effect. Last,
the outcome of the decision and the decision process itself are evaluated.
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5.2.1 Online Marketing research characteristics
First, marketing research is systematic. Thus systematic planning is

required at all the stages of the marketing research process. The
procedures followed at each stage are methodologically sound, well
documented, and, as much as possible, planned in advance. Marketing
research uses the scientific method in that data are collected and analysed
to test prior notions or hypotheses. Marketing research is objective. It
attempts to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of
affairs. It should be conducted impartially. While research is always
influenced by the researcher's research philosophy, it should be free from
the personal or political biases of the researcher or the management.
Research which is motivated by personal or political gain involves a breach
of professional standards. Such research is deliberately biased so as to
result in predetermined findings. The motto of every researcher should be,
"Find it and tell it like it is." The objective nature of marketing research
underscores the importance of ethical considerations.
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5.2.2 Advantages of Online marketing research
Online Marketing research has witnessed a growth trend in the recent past.
Market researchers, Marketing managers and B-school students have
increasingly begun depending on Internet research for collecting primary
data through surveys, experiments and online focus groups. Web research
has proven to have several advantages over offline surveys and focus
groups. The most obvious advantages include speed and low cost of
execution.
Online research is relatively low in cost in the sense that participants from
all over the globe can pitch into the discussions, without engaging in any
kind of travel and/or living expenses. More specifically, the online surveys
eliminates or substantially reduces the usage (wastage) of paper work,
postage charges, phone charges, labour charges and printing expenses.
Although online research requires some prior advanced scheduling and

preparations, in the long run it proves to be worth the effort. Teens, well-
educated professionals, working mothers can be effectively reached
through online research. The response rate is also seen to be better off as
they can respond to the research in their own space and at their own
convenience. Once submitted, the results are available to the researcher
almost immediately without having to encounter manual labour for
quantifying the responses.
5.2.3 Importance of Online Marketing research
Online market research is an important tool which many of the market

research companies utilise to draft the data and stats into furnished market
research reports. Many of the companies don’t feel the importance of using
online market survey, which we consider the most important tool to grab
the market share. Online market research doesn’t means browsing the
sites to collect the data which might not be authentic. This toll is used by
market research companies with access to meaningful, authentic resources
to analyse and populate the data to be completed in the form of market
research reports. There are tons of market research companies worldwide,
but a capable market research company is that which understands well
what you need and what is important for you and your business. The size
of a market research company doesn’t matters but the capability, work
experience and team they have to take up your projects. There are
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incidences when you contact a market research company but the reports
delivered to you don’t meet the requirements you expect from market
research reports. This is where many of the market research companies
lack. The role of a market research company is to understand the client
needs, for what purpose the market research reports are required, what is
reason behind the online market survey the company is looking to have.
Market research reports and report from online market survey must solve
the purpose, rather than illustrating useless stats which are of no use to
you. As a client you can ask the market research company questions
pertaining to their expertise. Not only what services they provide but also
what sort of team capabilities they have, clients they have served and the
most important they are involved in market research services. A market
research company always employs market research analysts which have an
educational background of business management. The work experience
matters but what matters the most is their knowledge in particular market
segment.
Online market research is very vital for any sort of market research
reports. Equally a capable team of market research analyst must be there
to handle those projects and assignments.
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5.3 CONSUMER MARKET RESEARCH
Picture 5.1 Source: consultimi.com
In consumer targeted marketing, the customer becomes the central focus

of the organsation’s strategy and activities, rather than the product itself
(which is the prime concern in traditional marketing). The organisation’s
paradigm shift in marketing requires a company to build a commitment to
quality and to listen critically to the customer to determine the market
needs and how the company can meet those needs more effectively.
One of the major characteristics of the approach is to focus on each

customer’s interests and interactions with the organisation to deliver
targeted, personal messages. This would require the company to be
constantly gathering information about their customers.
In an effort to better serve them and, most importantly, to retain them as

loyal customers. As suggested by Peppers and Rogers (1998), the
organisation would need to use various techniques and strategies (possibly
with the help of information technology and the Web), such as focus
groups, in-depth interviews, customer surveys, attitude testing and so on
to obtain information about consumers for more effective marketing of a
product or service. With these customers’ data and feedback, the
organisation will apply the knowledge to develop more customer-centric
products and services and/or to improve existing ones. In addition, the
information will be shared within the organisation to encourage employees
at all levels to focus on creating maximised customer value and loyalty.
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5.3.1 Qualitative marketing research
Qualitative research can be classified as exploratory. Qualitative research

aids in identifying potential hypotheses, whereas quantitative research puts
hard numbers behind these hypotheses. Qualitative research seeks to find
out what potential consumer perceptions and feelings exist around a given
subject. This research can often be used to advise the design of
quantitative research, which relies on numerical data to demonstrate
statistically significant outcomes.
The Internet is a useful tool for both primary and secondary research, and
can be used to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. In fact the
communities on the Web can be viewed as one large focus group, regularly
and willingly sharing their opinions on products, markets and companies.
Today, organisations transacting online have a wealth of research
information freely available to them, and sophisticated tools for gathering
further data. Market research should produce information that leads to
actions
5.3.2 How to conduct a Qualitative Survey
A variety of techniques from online chats to video logs can reveal how
people feel about your product or service and how you can improve it to
make more money.
Visualise: Just as you head off to work you get a text message asking if
you've had a cup of coffee. You reply "no." About 20 minutes later you
receive another text asking "did you have your coffee yet?" You reply "yes"
this time. Now you receive a series of texts about when and where did you
buy the coffee—a corner store Starbucks or company cafeteria. What brand
or flavour did you choose—regular or Hazelnut? Why did you choose it?
How do you feel now that you've had that first cup? Will you have had a
second or third cup come lunchtime? Later in the week when you're at the
local grocer, you take out your cell phone to take a picture of the one
pound of ground French Roast coffee you just purchased so you can post it
online.
Brave new world of qualitative research where companies can catch or

capture their customers' behaviours in the moment using modern
technology. It could be a single person doing online journaling or a video
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log about a product or issue, a moderator directing conversations in an

online chat room, or webcam gathering of people in Hollywood Squares
game show-like fashion.
It's a different spin on the traditional focus group. Social media is playing a
bigger role. "We are even monitoring whole online communities; we have a
targeted representative find out what selected individuals are saying in
their social networks," says Peg Moulton-Abbott, a certified professional
research consultant and principal of Newfound Insights, a Virginia Beach-
based market research firm. Such tech-oriented research is generally
skewed towards a younger twenty-something demographic. But more
importantly it speaks to how market researchers are sprouting new
methods of qualitative study as an outgrowth of old techniques.
Comparatively speaking, fifty years ago qualitative research was done in a
big city like New York or Washington, DC with focus groups conducted
inside women's homes, notes Moulton-Abbott. A one-way mirror was
installed and adverting guys would be on the receiving end, she explains.
The homemaker would host the meeting with a group of women who would
talk about soap or some other consumer product.
According to the Qualitative Research Consultants Association, qualitative

research can help business owners identify customer needs, clarify
marketing messages, generate ideas for improvements of a product,
extend a line or brand, and/or gain perspective on how a product fits into a
customer's lifestyle.
Qualitative research can help entrepreneurs to understand their customers'

or clients' feelings, values, and perceptions of a particular product or
service. Business owners won't have to wrack their brains over how to
conduct the nitty-gritty aspects of market research if a professional is
hired. But here are some general guidelines and what to expect on how
qualitative research is handled.
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How to Conduct Qualitative Market Research: Determine What You

Want to Study
• Do you want to investigate a current or potential product, service or

brand positioning?
• Do you want to identify strengths and weaknesses in products?
• Understand purchasing decisions?
• Study reactions to advertising or marketing campaigns?
• Assess the usability of a website or other interactive services?
• Understand perceptions about the company, brand and product?
• Explore reactions to packaging and design?
Qualitative (qual.) research is usually contrasted against Quantitative

(quant.) research. Quant asks closed-ended questions that can be
answered finitely by either "yes" or "no," true or false or multiple choices
with an option for "other." It is used to collect numerical data, employing
such techniques as surveys. Whereas, qual. asks open-ended questions
that are phrased in such a way that invite people to tell their stories in
their own words. Methods used to collect data include field observations,
personal interviews and group discussions. The job of a qual. researcher is
to design and deliver data that drives results.
5.3.3 How to Conduct Quantitative Market Research: Understand

What Methodology will be used.
Typically qual. researchers don't use experimental methods such as field

trials or test markets, Stake maintains. "Not many use really highly-
developed psychometric (e.g., personality or psychological tests) or
econometric (e.g., economic statistics) indicators." Qual. researchers
generally rely on methodologies rooted in ethnography (e.g. field or
participant observation) and phenomenology (e.g., understanding life
experiences using written or recorded narratives). Market researchers
partner with professional recruiters to identify and screen qualifying
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customers or consumers who in turn receive an honorarium for their

participation in the study.
You should rely on a market research firm to choose the best fit for you
based on: what is it that you need to learn and who is your target audience
demographically, where they are geographically, and what are their lifestyle
behaviours or time constraints, says Kristin Schwitzer, president of Beacon
Research, a qual. firm that specialises in innovative online methods, based
in Annapolis, Maryland. Conducting qualitative research is about asking the
right people the right questions in the right format, says Hannah Baker
Hitzhusen, vice president of qualitative research at CMI, a market research
firm in Atlanta. What qual. researchers do is very much on the front end, it
is discovery or exploratory work. "For a qual. study, we generally do a
discussion guide to make sure we cover certain topics or issues," says
Hitzhusen. Qual. is generally used for small sample groups, because, "you
want to spend a lot of time with the participants, maybe 90 to 120
minutes. Quant. usually uses a larger sample size of people and a smaller
amount of time, 15 to 30 minutes (for someone to fill out a
questionnaire)," she explains.
Quantitative research gathers data that can be statistically analysed to

determine results. Data must be formally gathered, and should be collected
to test a hypothesis as opposed to determine a hypothesis. Qualitative data
can be more difficult to quantify. Typically, because base sizes are smaller
and not necessarily representative of the market under investigation (as it
can be more expensive and time consuming to gather and analyse the
data), qualitative data cannot be taken as quantified. It is however
valuable in aiding a researcher in interpreting the market perspective. It is
possible to combine approaches, producing data that can be used both
qualitatively and quantitatively.
When both qualitative and quantitative research are used, usually

qualitative research takes place first to get an idea of the issues to be
aware of, and then quantitative research tests the theories put forward in
qualitative research.
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5.3.4 How to conduct Quantitative Survey
How well do you know your customers? Here are some tips to accurately
surveying your clients and putting that data to good use.
Will your customer choose you over your competitor? Should you target a
different demographic market? Are people satisfied with your employees?
Online Market research is the only effective way to obtain the answers to
questions like these.
In conducting quantitative research, businesses (usually along with the

help of qualified market researchers) create surveys and send them out to
a group of respondents. Analysts interpret the results, treat them as data,
and present an answer to the company's initial questions. Once the
questions have been answered, marketers will take the synthesised
information obtained and create strategies that will ultimately lead to a
more successful, profitable brand or product. In this sense, market
research is not merely an expense to your business; it can be a useful
investment.
Conducting Quantitative Market Research: Deciding What’s Right for

Your Business
In its most basic interpretation, quantitative research makes use of

questionnaires and surveys to reach a sample in order to understand a
specific question a company has. Unlike qualitative research, quantitative
researchers do not use focus groups or interviews; rather, they collect a set
of quantifiable data to assess customers' desires, perceived needs, and
opinions.
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5.3.5 Difference between Quantitative and Qualitative marketing

research
Table 5.1: Difference between Quantitative and Qualitative

Marketing Research
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Assumptions Assumptions
• Reality is socially constructed • Social facts have an objective reality
• Subject matter is most important • Method is most important
Variables are complex, Variables can be identified and
• •
interwoven, difficult to measure relationships can be measured
• Insider’s point of view • Outsider’s point of view
Purpose Purpose
• Context of issues • Generalisation
• Interpretation • Prediction
• Understand perspectives • Explain causes
Approach Approach
Ends with hypotheses for further
• • Begins with hypotheses
research
• Inductive • Deductive
• Searches for patterns • Analyses components
• Seeks complexity • Seeks consensus, the norm
• Makes minor use of numerical • Reduces data to numerical indices
indices
Researcher Role Researcher Role
• Personal involvement, partial • Detachment, impartial
• Empathetic • Objective
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5.4 INTERNET MARKET RESEARCH STRATEGIES
Many online businesses start with the expectation of earning huge profit
without even realising that you should build an Internet Marketing strategy
in order to achieve a place in the global markets.
5.4.1 How to plan an Internet Marketing strategy
In order to develop an Internet Marketing strategy, at first you need to

determine who your target customers are. Then, you need to decide
whether you’ll offer your own or sell someone else’s product and service. It
is also quite important to decide the competitive advantage of the product
that you’re planning to offer.
You can follow these steps in order to develop a unique online marketing
strategy.
Research online: You need to do an online research to find out what

strategies are employed by your competitors. It will help you to analyse
their strengths and weaknesses as you’ll have to target what they’re not
able to offer. You need to search how you can advertise your product to
your target customers. Therefore, you need to find out what the main
concerns of your target customers are and where they usually visit in order
to find the products.
Develop a strategy: Online research will help you to decide what to offer
so as to attract your target visitors to your website and then turning them
to customers. Make sure you calculate how much you can afford. You need
to use an Internet Marketing strategy according to your affordability.
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5.5 INTERNET MARKET RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
The following techniques can be used to gather market information with

the help of a few mouse clicks and keystrokes:
1. Keyword Search: You know how to do a simple Web search using

search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Take that a step farther by
searching for "keywords" that people would use to find your type of
products or services on the Internet. See how much interest there is in
these keywords — and how many competitors you have in this market.
Keyword searches can also help remind you of product niches that you
might not have considered. There are other reasons to conduct keyword
searches. ‘First, you’re going to be reminded of product niches that you
might not of thought of, says Jennifer Laycock, editor-in-chief of Search
Engine Guide, an online guide to search engines, portals and directories.
‘Second, these services will also give you a guesstimate of how many
existing sites already use that phrase’ Laycock continues. ‘How many
existing sites already offer that product.’ WordTracker and Trellian’s
Keyword Discovery are popular keyword search engines.
2. Competitor Links: A traditional search engine can also help you check
out your competitors, their prices, and their offerings. Try typing
‘link:www. [competitor's name.com’ into Google to find out how many
other sites link to your competitor's website. ‘It is a great way to see a
competitor's link development and PR campaigns,’ says Shari Thurow,
Web expert and author of the upcoming book Search Engine Visibility.
‘Is the competitor promoting a product or service similar to your
own’ ‘Maybe you can get publicity because you have a new or better
product.’
3. Read Blogs: Blogs are updated much more regularly than traditional
websites and, therefore, they can be another gauge of public opinion.
Search blogs by using blog-specific search engines, such as Technorati
or Nielsen BuzzMetrics' Blog pulse. Blogs tend to move at a faster pace
and be more informal in tone, so you’re more likely to pick up
conversation about a new product type or need on a blog than on a
standard website.
4. Conduct Online Surveys: Another way to gauge public opinion is

through online surveys. While not as scientific as in-person or phone
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surveys that use a random sampling of the population, online surveys

are a low-cost way to do market research about whether an idea or a
product will be appealing to consumers. Now many companies offer to
conduct online research for you or give your company the tools to carry
out your own surveying. Some online survey companies include EZ
questionnaire, KeySurvey, and WebSurveyor.
Picture 5.2: Source: kindlebar.com
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5.6 ONLINE RESEARCH PANELS AND COMMUNITIES
There are a variety of types of market research tools — both offline and
online — those are used by many large businesses and can be available to
small and mid-sized businesses. When these techniques involve people,
researchers use questionnaires administered in written form or person-to-
person, either by personal or telephone interview, or increasingly online.
Questionnaires may be closed-end or open-ended. The first type provides
users choices to a question ("excellent," "good," "fair") whereas open-
ended surveys solicit spontaneous reactions and capture these as given.
Focus groups are a kind of opinion-solicitation but without a questionnaire;
people interact with products, messages, or images and discuss them.
Observers evaluate what they hear. Major categories are as follows:
1. Audience Research: Audience research is aimed at discovering who is

listening, watching, or reading radio, TV, and print media respectively.
Such studies in part profile the audience and in part determine the
popularity of the medium or portions of it.
2. Product Research: Product tests, of course, directly relate to use of

the product. Good examples are tasting tests used to pick the most
popular flavours -- and consumer tests of vehicle or device prototypes
to uncover problematical features or designs.
3. Brand Analysis: Brand research has similar profiling features ("Who

uses this brand?") and also aims at identifying the reasons for brand
loyalty or fickleness.
4. Psychological Profiling: Psychological profiling aims at construction

profiles of customers by temperament, lifestyle, income, and other
factors and tying such types to consumption patterns and media
patronage.
5. Scanner Research: Scanner research uses checkout counter scans of

transactions to develop patterns for all manner of end users, including
stocking, of course. From a marketing point of view, scans can also help
users track the success of coupons and to establish linkages between
products.
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6. Database Research: Also known as database "mining," this form of

research attempts to exploit all kinds of data on hand on customers —
which frequently have other revealing aspects. Purchase records, for
example, can reveal the buying habits of different income groups — the
income classification of accounts taking place by census tract matching.
Data on average income by census tract can be obtained from the
Bureau of the Census.
7. Post-sale or Consumer Satisfaction Research: Post-consumer

surveys are familiar to many consumers from telephone calls that follow
having a car serviced or calling help-lines for computer- or Internet-
related problems. In part such surveys are intended to determine if the
customer was satisfied. In part this additional attention is intended also
to build good will and word-of-mouth advertising for the service
provider.
5.6.1 Online surveys
When developing online surveys you can combine qualitative data with
quantitative data – it just depends on how the questions are asked.
Conducting surveys online allows for data to be captured immediately, and
data analysis can be performed easily and quickly. By using email or the
Web for conducting surveys, geographical limitations for collecting data can
be overcome cost effectively.
Developing technology also allows for sophisticated and user-friendly

surveys to be compiled. For example, as opposed to indicating impressions
on a sliding scale, respondents can indicate emotional response.
5.6.2 Developing surveys: Asking questions
The success of a survey in gathering useful data is largely determined by

the design of the survey, and particularly by the questions that are asked.
A survey can comprise of any number and types of questions, and these
should be structured in such a way that more complicated questions only
appear once users are comfortable with the survey.
Be careful when creating questions that you do not introduce bias by

asking leading questions. Example of leading question bias:
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Example question: We have recently introduced new features on the

website to become a first class web destination. What are your thoughts on
the new site?
Replace with: What are your thoughts on the changes to the website?
5.6.3 Types of Survey Questions
Questions in the survey should be brief, easy to understand and, most of

all, easy to answer.
1. Open-ended Types: Open-ended Questions allow respondents to

answer in their own words. This usually results in qualitative data.
Example: What features would you like to see on the website for the e-
Marketing textbook?
2. Closed-ended Types: (Multiple choice – one answer or multiple

answers). These questions give respondents specific responses to
choose from. This results in quantitative data. Example: Do you use the
e-Marketing textbook website? Choose one that applies.
• Yes
• No
What features of the e-Marketing textbook website do you use? Check all
that apply.
• Blog
• Case studies
• Free downloads
• Additional resources
3. Ranked or Ordinal Questions: These questions ask respondents to

rank items in order of preference or relevance. Respondents are given a
numeric scale to indicate order. This results in quantitative data.
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Example: Rate the features of the e-Marketing textbook website, where

1 is the most useful and 4 is the least useful.
• Blog
• Case studies
• Free downloads
• Additional resources
4. Matrix and Rating Types: These types of questions can be used to

quantify qualitative data. Respondents are asked to rank behaviour or
attitude. Example: The e-Marketing textbook website is a useful tool for
further studies.
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Strongly
Disagree Neutral Agree Strong Agree
Disagree
1 2 3 4 5
Or
Strongly
Strong Agree
Disagree
1 2 3 4 5
The eMarketing textbook website is a useful tool for further studies.
Rating scales can be balanced or unbalanced. When creating the questions

and answers, choosing balanced or unbalanced scales will affect whether
you are collecting data where someone can express a neutral opinion or
not.
Balanced
Very
Poor Poor Average Good Very Good
1 2 3 4 5
Unbalanced
Poor Average Good Very Good Excellent
1 2 3 4 5
As the researcher, you know what’s in it for you in sending out a survey:
you will receive valuable data that will aid in making business decisions.
But what is in it for the respondents?
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5.6.4 How to obtain responses?
As the researcher, you know what’s in it for you in sending out a survey:
you will receive valuable data that will aid in making business decisions.
But what is in it for the respondents? According to Survey Monkey (a
prominent survey website), the ways in which the surveys are
administered play a role in response rates for surveys and these can be
relative:
• Mail: 50% adequate, 60-70% good to very good
• Phone: 80% good
• E-mail: 40% average, 50-60% good to very good
• Online: 30% average
• Classroom pager: 50+% good
• Face to Face: 80-85% good
There is a train of thought that paying incentives is not always a good

thing. Amongst less affluent or educated respondents, it may predispose
them to feel that they need to give so-called “good” or “correct” answers
which may bias your results. Alternatively, you may attract respondents
who are in it just for the reward. One approach could be to run the survey
with no incentive with the option to offer one if the responses are limited.
Designing the survey so as to assure respondents of the time commitment,
and privacy implications, of completing the survey can also help to increase
responses.
5.6.5 Steps to Conduct Research Surveys
As with all things e-Marketing, careful planning goes a long way to

determining success. As market research can be an expensive project, it is
important that planning helps to determine the cost vs. the benefit of the
research. Qualitative Research and Secondary Research are critical steps in
determining whether a larger scale research project is called for. Bear in
mind that many tasks that fall under the umbrella of research should be
ongoing requirements of e-Marketing activities, such as Conversion testing
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and optimising and Online reputation management. Polls and small surveys
can also be conducted regularly, and non-intrusively, among visitors to
your website.
1. Establish the goals of the project: What you want to learn from
Secondary research can be used to give background and context to the
business problem, and the context in which the problem can be solved.
It should also be used to determine alternative strategies for solving the
problem, which can be evaluated through research. Qualitative
research, particularly using established online research communities,
can also help in determining what the business problems are that need
to be solved. Ultimately, determine what are the actions you will be
considering after the research is completed? and what insights are
required to make a decision on those actions?
2. Determine your sample: Whom you will interview, you do not need to
survey the entire population of your target market. Instead, a
representative sample can be used to determine statistically relevant
results. In selecting a sample, be careful to try to eliminate bias from
the sample. Highly satisfied customers, for example, could give very
different results to highly dissatisfied consumers.
3. Choose research methodology: How you will gather data, the

Internet provides a multitude of channels for gathering data. Surveys
can be conducted online or via e-mail. Online research panels and online
research communities can all be used for gathering data. Web analytics
can also be used to collect data, but this is passive form of data
collection. Determine what will provide you with the information you
need to make decisions. Be sure whether your research calls for
qualitative or quantitative data as this determines the methodology as
well.
4. Create your questionnaire: Keep the survey and questions simple

and ensure that the length of the survey does not overwhelm
respondents. A variety of questions can be used to make sure that the
survey is not repetitive. Be sure when creating the questions that you
keep your goals in mind: don’t be tempted to try to collect too much
data, or you will likely overwhelm respondents.
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5. Pre-test the questionnaire, if practical: Test the questions. Test

questionnaires to determine if questions are clear and that it renders
correctly. Ensure that test respondents understand the questions, and
that they are able to answer them satisfactorily.
6. Conduct interviews and enter data: Ask the questions, run the
survey! Online surveys can be completed by respondents without your
being present, you just need to make sure that you get it in front of the
right people. A survey can be sent to an e-mail database or can be
advertised online.
7. Analyse the data: Produce the reports and remember that quantitative
data must be analysed for statistical significance. The reports should aid
in the decision-making process and produce actionable insights.
5.7 SUMMARY
Internet Marketing Research is "the function that links the consumer,

customer, and public to the marketer through information — information
used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems;
generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing.
The task of marketing research (MR) is to provide management with

relevant, accurate, reliable, valid, and current information. Marketing
managers make numerous strategic and tactical decisions in the process of
identifying and satisfying customer needs.
In this chapter we have discussed the role of Internet Marketing research

in managerial decision making by using the framework of the "DECIDE"
model: this model conceptualises managerial decision making as a series of
six steps, which we have discussed previously.
We have discussed in detail Online Marketing research characteristics. Here

we have seen that Online Marketing research is objective and is relatively
low in cost. We have seen that
Online market research is an important tool which many of the market

research companies utilise to draft the data and stats into furnished market
research reports.
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Consumer Market research is divided into Qualitative and Quantitative

marketing research. Both methods stated above have been discussed in
great detail to provide you with an insight on Online Consumer Market
research.
Here we have discussed methods of planning an Internet Marketing

strategy and also discussed the steps in order to develop a unique online
marketing strategy. Four Internet Marketing strategies that will help you to
advertise your product and service online have also been discussed, which
are: Search Engine Optimisation, Affiliate marketing, Social marketing,
Business directory listings.
Online Research panels and communities and Online Surveys have also
been discussed in detail. Snapshots of ratings have been provided to give
you a practical insight into online survey methodologies along with
techniques of obtaining the right responses online.
Finally we have discussed Steps to conduct research surveys which provide

you with a step-by-step guide to create and conduct effective online
surveys from scratch.
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1. Write a short note on marketing managers making numerous strategic

and tactical decisions in the process of identifying and satisfying
customer needs?
2. Enlist and describe the steps in the DECIDE model.
3. Describe the role of a market research company.
4. In consumer targeted marketing, who becomes the central focus of the

organisation’s strategy?
5. What can reveal how people feel about a product or service and how
you can improve it to make more money?
6. What are the types of questions asked in Qualitative (qual.) research?
7. Why is Qualitative data more difficult to quantify? Give reasons.
8. What are the types of online marketing strategies?
9. Describe the concept of “Scanner Research”.
10.Write a short note on the types of survey questions.
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A MCQ Identify correct answer from following options:
1. The DECIDE model conceptualises managerial decision making and

Stands for___________
a. Decision
b. Definition
c. Consumer research

stands for___________
a. Decision
b. Collect information
c. Consumer research

stands for___________
a. Evaluate
b. Decision
c. Develop
4. Quantitative research gathers data that can be statistically analysed to

determine results.
a. True
b. False
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5. In its most basic interpretation, quantitative research makes use of

questionnaires and surveys to reach a sample in order to understand a
specific question a company has. Unlike qualitative research,
quantitative researchers do not use focus groups or interviews; rather,
they collect a set of quantifiable data to assess customers' desires,
perceived needs, and opinions.
a. True
b. False
Answers
1. (b) 2. (b) 3. (a) 4. (a) 5. (a)
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REFERENCE MATERIAL
chapter
Summary
PPT
MCQ
Video Lecture
172
ONLINE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS
Chapter 6
Online Consumer Behaviour Analysis
Learning Objectives
• After reading this chapter you will be able to:
• Understand the concept of online customer behaviour
• Learn about the concept of Consumer Satisfaction
• Define the Indian Perspective of customer behaviour
• Get a clear picture of the aspect of Online Reputation Management
173
Structure:
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Understanding the Online customers
6.2.1 Online Pricing Strategy
6.2.2 Perception of Product Information Online
6.3 Online buying behaviour
6.3.1 Online marketer’s persuasion tools
6.3.2 Web experience: definition and importance
6.4 Aspects of Consumer Satisfaction
6.4.1 Technology Factors
6.4.2 Shopping Factors
6.4.3 Product Factors
6.5 Concept of Online Reputation Management
6.5.1 Role of Social media
6.5.2 How does Online Reputation management work?
6.6 Attributes of Online Shopping
6.7 Summary
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6.1 INTRODUCTION
Online shopping behaviour (also called online buying behaviour and

Internet shopping/ buying behaviour) refers to the process of purchasing
products or services via the Internet. The process consists of five steps
similar to those associated with traditional shopping behaviour. In the
typical online shopping process, when potential consumers recognise a
need for some merchandise or service, they go to the Internet and search
for need-related information. However, rather than searching actively, at
times potential consumers are attracted by information about products or
services associated with the felt need. They then evaluate alternatives and
choose the one that best fits their criteria for meeting the felt need. Finally,
a transaction is conducted and post-sales services provided. Online
shopping attitude refers to consumers’ psychological state in terms of
making purchases on the Internet.
These studies have all made important contributions to our understanding

of the dynamics of online shopping field. However, there is a lack of
coherent understanding of the impact of relevant factors on online
attitudes and behaviour and an inconsistent identification of relevant
independent and dependent variables. This makes comparisons of different
studies difficult, applications of research findings limited, and the prospect
of synthesising and integrating the empirical literature in this area elusive.
Companies who conduct business online, or whose entire business is tied
to the web, have many things in common.
Most notable is that they collect large and constantly growing amounts of
data they need to analyse and report on. Understanding customer
behaviour, segmenting customers for market targeting, assessing the
effectiveness of advertising or marketing campaigns, optimising websites,
or a host of other questions may mean the difference between business
success and failure.
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6.2 UNDERSTANDING THE ONLINE CUSTOMERS
Companies in online advertising, marketing, publishing or other web-

related service providers may have a greater challenge in terms of data
volume as well as the need to provide fast insight to their customers as
part of their service. Off-the-shelf web analytics products don’t provide the
detailed data or enable the flexible reporting, what-if analysis or predictive
analytics that online businesses require, particularly when the website data
needs to be enriched with other enterprise data sources for a more
comprehensive story. This means building analytic applications that meet
your unique requirements.
Online consumers are time conscious and are often willing to gamble with
their money rather than time as it is impossible to recover lost time, where
a moderate financial loss can be compensated. Consumers will appreciate
businesses, which value for customer’s time by employing technology,
tools, information and customer service.
6.2.1 Online pricing strategy
Online pricing strategy may strongly affect consumers in a number of

ways. Part of the research paper on consumption decisions and personal
rules focuses on pricing consistency impact in online environment.
Consumers expect online prices to be lower or equal to those in the
physical stores. Increase in choice contributes to a more active research
process and more prominent selective criteria. Failing to satisfy their
expectations can reduce their interest in the product and direct their
research toward better-priced product with similar or matching features.
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Chart 6.1: Expectations from online pricing and payment options
Chart 6.2: Privacy and security
177
Chart 6.3: Physical Proof
6.2.2 Perception of Product Information Online
When buying products and services online, consumers face two

fundamental differences: removal of physical presence and (as a
compensation) abundance and versatility of product information. In other
words, a physical product has been replaced by product information.
Due to rapid growth in technology, information collection and organising

has become a rather feasible activity and more consumers are turning
towards their own research “pulling” the information than information
being “pushed” to them as that would be the case in most forms of non-
interactive media.
One of the main emerging characteristics of online users is the growing

lack of patience (Chart 6.4). Lack of patience is especially prominent when
a consumer engages in product research, feature and price comparison.
This has been tested with a focus group and the survey results confirm that
this is still the case. A majority of interviewed individuals stated that they
are willing to wait only up to five seconds for a page to load.
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Chart 6.4: Amount of time consumers are willing to wait for a page
to load
a moderate financial loss can be compensated.
Consumers will appreciate businesses, which value for customer’s time by

employing technology, tools, information and customer service.
Having to inquire about a certain product due to lack of information

available on the website delays the transaction, however most participants
were willing to wait extra time for a human response to an online inquiry
(Chart 6.5).
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Chart 6.5: How long are consumers willing to wait for a reply to an
online inquiry?
A sales person can interrupt a customer in a physical store while they are
engaged in their initial research. This is particularly harmful if occurring
prior to the stage when the customer is ready to buy or even ask any
meaningful questions. Removing consumers from their ‘safety zone’ can
delay or cancel the purchase.
Online stores have an obvious advantage in this case. The absence of the
sales person allows website visitors to research products in their own time
and pace, with no external pressure or time restrictions. After receiving a
satisfactory level of information, consumers either make a further inquiry
or complete their purchase.
180
Chart 6.6: Consumer opinions towards place of purchase
A website can traditionally be seen as a place of purchase, however, for

consumers it is also a store, a brochure and a sales person, and is
expected to serve quickly and perform well. Survey results show that the
quality of presentation and information breakdown can affect consumer
attitude towards the product and buying confidence. For example, basic
quality standards are necessary in order to create consumer trust (speed
and structural integrity). Second most prominent factor seems to be
simplicity of the check-out process. Majority of participants have stated
that they prefer not to fill out long registration forms.
Survey participants responded best to the product information available on

the actual product description page.
181
As visible from the Chart 6.7, consumers favour almost all timesaving tools
such as:
• Pop-up descriptions
• Photo galleries
• Product summaries before full product information
• Product comparison
An interesting observation is that most interviewed consumers considered

automated product suggestions either irrelevant or unnecessary, therefore,
most would not follow such leads. An example of this would be Amazon’s
“Customers who bought this item also bought the following…” and eBay’s
“Related products” section. Instead, members of this consumer group
choose to do their own independent research, compare their own findings
and read other people’s reviews and recommendations. In addition, very
few consumers were willing to read FAQs, as they tend to appear too
generic and broad, therefore, requiring extra effort to find the required
piece of information.
Chart 6.7: Consumer Opinions towards Place of Purchase – Part 2
182
6.3 Online Buying Behaviour
Understanding the mechanisms of virtual shopping and the behaviour of

the online consumer is a priority issue for practitioners competing in the
fast expanding virtual marketplace. This topic is also increasingly drawing
the attention of researchers. Indicative of this is the fact that more than
1200 relevant academic papers were published by now. Given the
continuous expansion of the Internet in terms of user numbers, transaction
volumes and business penetration this massive research Endeavour is not
surprising.
More than 60 per cent of Internet users in several countries already buy
products and services online while more than 75 per cent of US net users
regularly buying online.
These developments are gradually transforming e-commerce into a

mainstream business activity while at the same time online consumers are
maturing and virtual vendors realise the importance and urgency for a
professional and customer-oriented approach.
Yet the Internet meltdown at the end of the 1990s and plenty of more
recent anecdotal and empirical evidence indicate that many online firms
still do not completely understand the needs and behaviour of the online
consumer.
As in the case of traditional marketing in the past, most of the recent

research and debate is focused on the identification and analysis of factors
that one way or another can influence or even shape the online consumer’s
behaviour; a good deal of research effort is focused on modelling the online
buying and decision-making process. While many researchers do not see
any fundamental differences between the traditional and online buying
behaviour, it is often argued that a new step has been added to the online
buying process: the step of building trust or confidence.
183
6.3.1 Online Marketer‘s Persuasion Tools
Exposure of customers to the company’s marketing can affect the decision-

making by providing inputs for the consumer’s black box where information
is processed before the final consumer’s decision is made. Online
marketers can influence the decision making process of the virtual
customers by engaging traditional, physical marketing tools but mainly by
creating and delivering the proper online experience, the Web experience:
a combination of online functionality, information, emotions, cues, stimuli
and products/services, in other words a complex mix of elements going
beyond the 4Ps of the traditional marketing mix. In the diagram 6.1 given
below a new category of controllable elements – the Web experience – has
been added to the factors influencing the online consumer.
Forces Influencing the Online Consumer’s Behaviour
Diagram 6.1: Factors affecting the online consumer’s behaviour
184
Identification and classification of the Web experience elements is

necessary for an all inclusive picture of the controllable factors likely to
affect or even determine the outcome of the virtual interaction. The
classification can help marketing practitioners to recognise and better
understand the nature and potential of their online marketing tools. It can
also contribute to the ongoing theoretical debate on online consumer’s
behaviour by summarising the prevailing ideas of researchers and
identifying issues for further research.
6.3.2 Web experience: definition and importance
Several academics and practitioners have identified the “online shopping

experience” or “virtual experience” as a crucial e-commerce marketing
issue. The online shopping experience is defined as a process of four
stages describing the successive steps of an online transaction.
The Web experience embraces elements like searching, browsing, finding,

selecting, comparing and evaluating information as well as interacting and
transacting with the online firm. The virtual customer’s total impression
and actions are influenced by design, events, emotions, atmosphere and
other elements experienced during interaction with a given Website,
elements meant to induce customer goodwill and affect the final outcome
of the online interaction. It should be noticed here that the Web experience
is important not only for Websites marketing products or services but also
for sites targeting customers interested in informational content (news,
weather, sports etc.), sites acting as online intermediaries and generally to
all types of Internet ventures competing for the attention of the online
public.
The Web experience as a major parameter of customer influence is crucial

not only for dot.com-type firms but also for multi-channel vendors. For
traditional firms expanding their business with Internet presence, the
quality of online experience they deliver is an issue requiring special
attention: poorly designed and dysfunctional Websites are a potential
threat not only to the company’s virtual aspirations but also a hazard for
their physical activities.
The definitions used in describing the main building blocks of the Web
experiences, as basis of the classification are the following:
185
Chart 6.8: Web Experience Building Blocks: Literature References Per

Sub-category
Web Experience: Main Building Elements
Functionality factors: Factors enhancing the online experience by

presenting the virtual client with a good functioning, easy to explore, fast,
interactive Website. Functionality includes “Usability” and “Interactivity”
elements.
Psychological factors: Websites must communicate integrity and

credibility in order to persuade customers to stop, explore them and
interact online. Psychological factors are those playing a crucial role in
helping online customers unfamiliar with the vendor or unfamiliar with
online transactions to overcome fears of fraud and doubts as to the
trustworthiness of the Web-site and vendor.
186
Content factors: Factors referring to creative and marketing mix related

elements of the Website. These factors exercise a direct and crucial
influence on the categories neither reflects any hierarchical ranking nor is
meant to be associated with any particular steps of the decision-making
process
6.4 ASPECTS OF CONSUMER SATISFACTION
Customer Satisfaction is critical for establishing long-term client

relationships and, consequently, is significant in sustaining profitability. As
a result, a fundamental understanding of factors impacting online customer
satisfaction is of great importance to e-commerce.
187
Customer Satisfaction is the consequence of experiences during various

purchasing stages:
• Needing something,
• Gathering information about it,
• Evaluating purchasing alternatives,
• Actual purchasing decision, and
• Post-purchasing behaviour.
During information gathering, the Internet offers consumers extensive

benefits, because it reduces search costs, increases convenience, vendor
choices, and product options. However, online consumers are dependent
upon the Website information as a replacement for physical contact with
salespersons. As a result, consumers make inferences about the
attractiveness of a product based on:
1. Information provided by retailers, and
2. Design elements of the Website such as ease and fun of navigation
6.4.1 Technology Factors
Technology factors include the qualities of a website that ensure

functionality of the site, including: security, privacy, and usability/site
design. Technology factors deal with the consumer’s perceptions of their
interaction with the B2C website and the Internet merchant responsible for
that website. Three features of each attribute (security, privacy, and
usability/site design) will be evaluated using a conjoint analysis to get a
preferred feature within each attribute as well as determining an overall
ranking of each attribute, including an overall importance score.
188
Security: Security threat can be define a as a circumstance, condition, or

event with the potential to cause economic hardship to data or network
resources in the form of destruction, disclosure, modification of data,
denial of service, and/or fraud, waste, and abuse. Many consumers are still
reluctant to release payment card information to online merchants, fearing
a loss of control over their accounts. Merchants and financial institutions, in
turn, are concerned about the costs associated with online charge backs
and fraud. To alleviate customers’ fears, many B2C Websites offer alternate
forms of payment (e.g. telephone ordering) and/or accounts with ID’s and
passwords found that the presence of security features on an e-commerce
site was important to consumers, and discuss how consumers„ security
concerns may be addressed by similar technology protections as those of
the business, such as encryption and authentication. In this study, the
features evaluated within the attribute of security include:
1. Whether the site provides encryption,
2. Whether the site requires the user to set up an account with an id and
password, and
3. Whether a confirmation screen is displayed after the completion of the

purchase to ensure accuracy.
189
Privacy: Privacy in e-commerce is defined as the willingness to share

information over the Internet that allows for the conclusion of purchases .
B2C Websites gather information about visitors via explicit modes (e.g.
surveys) and implicit means, providing the necessary data for decision-
making on marketing, advertising, and products.
A Business Week/Harris poll of 999 consumers revealed that privacy was

the biggest obstacle preventing them from using Websites, above the issue
of cost, ease of use, and unsolicited marketing. An IBM Multi-National
Consumer Privacy survey showed that 80% of the U.S. respondents felt
that they had lost all control over how personal information is collected and
used by companies. Seventy-eight per cent had refused to give information
because they thought it was inappropriate in the circumstance, and 54%
had decided not to purchase because of concerns over the use of their
information collected during the transaction.
Study by Forrester Research supports these findings, showing that two-

thirds of consumers are worried about protecting personal information
online. To address issues of privacy, many Websites display privacy
policies. Also, independent companies (e.g. TRUSTe) can verify, audit, and
certify privacy policies. In this study, the features evaluated within the
attribute of privacy are:
1. The use of a privacy statement
2. The merchant’s policy on selling customer information to third parties,

and
3. The use of cookies to collect personal information.
Usability/Site Design: Navigation, product information, and site design

are critical to e-satisfaction. Thus, a key to building a usable Website is to
create good links and navigation mechanisms. An advantage of the
Internet is its capacity to support interactivity for users. Fast, interactive,
uncluttered, and easy-to-navigate sites with quality searching capabilities
should be perceived more favourably by consumers. The features
evaluated within the attribute of usability and site design are:
190
Providing a user-friendly interface
An interactive site, and
Possessing adequate searching capabilities.
6.4.2 Shopping Factors
Shopping factors focus on customers’ feelings and perceptions during and

after the shopping experience. The prototypical online consumer leads a
wired lifestyle and is time starved, suggesting that online shoppers may do
so to save time.
This indicates that the overall convenience of the shopping experience is

very important as well as the amount of time it takes for the product to be
received. Trust is of importance during the actual shopping experience
because if the consumer does not trust the merchant to make good on
their purchase a transaction will not take place. Three features of each
attribute (convenience, trust, and delivery) will be evaluated using a
conjoint analysis to get a preferred feature within each attribute as well as
determining an overall ranking of each attribute, including an overall
importance score.
191
Convenience: Convenience is often found to be the most important

determinant in retail store patronage and many forms of shopping such as
catalogue and Internet shopping. E-commerce gives an individual the
opportunity to economise on time and effort by making it easy to locate
merchants, find items, and procure offerings.
B2C sites should be designed so that consumers minimise time finding the
product or information. Websites should there for remake it more
convenient to buy standard or repeat purchase items (such as Amazon’s
one-click-to-purchase approach). Convenience includes the overall ease of
finding a product, time spent on shopping, post purchase service, complete
contact information, and minimisation of overall shopping effort. The
features evaluated for convenience will include:
Overall ease and fun of the shopping experience,
Post-purchase customer service, and
Ability to look up detailed product information and to make price

comparisons.
Trust and Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness is the perception of

confidence in the e-marketer’s reliability and integrity. Buying decisions are
partly based on trust in the product, salesperson, or company. Internet
shopping decisions involve trust between customers and merchants, and
their computer systems prior research has identified and validated many
elements of trustworthiness, such as ability, benevolence, and integrity.
The ability of a merchant is reflected in its ability to handle sales

transactions, and the expertise to generally conduct business over the
Internet. The consumer must have faith in the ability of the merchant and
their system. Integrity is evidence of the Internet business’s honesty and
sincerity. For trust to exist, the online consumer must perceive the Internet
business as being reliable and as having integrity. In this study, the
features evaluated within the attribute of trust/trustworthiness are:
The customer’s faith in the merchant and their computer system,
The Internet merchant’s perceived reliability and integrity, and
192
The overall minimisation of the customer’s worries and regrets.
Delivery Time: Delivery time is the total time between order placement
and delivery, which includes: dispatch, shipping, and delivery. Dispatch is
the amount of time necessary for an order to go from initial order
placement to being shipped out. During shipping the purchase is in transit
from the merchant’s warehouse to the shipping company’s distribution
facility. Delivery is the amount of time necessary for the package to go
from the distribution centre to the customer’s door. Customers must be
made aware of delays to minimise disappointment when the delivery date
isn’t met. Satisfaction is partially dependent upon expectations being met.
The features of the attribute delivery time to be evaluated are:
Overall minimisation of the delivery time,
The customer being made aware of any potential delays in shipping, and
Providing customers a tracking number for their shipment.
6.4.3 Product Factors
Product factors pertain to the qualities of the product or service for sale.
Often, products purchased online are no different than those purchased at
brick and mortar stores. Customers choose between competing products
depending upon which offer the best value.
Factors determining this include merchandising, overall product value, and

availability of product customisation. Product factors deal with consumers’
perceptions of the actual product being purchased. Three features of each
attribute (merchandising, product value, and customisation) will be
evaluated using a conjoint analysis to get a preferred feature within each
attribute as well as determining an overall ranking of each attribute,
including an overall importance.
193
Merchandising: Merchandising is defined as the factors associated with

selling offerings online separate from site design and shopping
convenience. Merchants who have offered a wide variety of products and
selections seem to be more successful. Jarvenpaa and Todd claim that it
may be that consumers expect e-commerce to offer a wider product
variety because of the reach of the Internet and the potential to track
down specialty goods and services.
Superior product assortment results in positive perceptions of customer

satisfaction especially if the customer wants an item that isn’t widely
available. The features of the merchandising attribute to be evaluated are:
Offering extensive product assortment and variety
Offering exclusive and specialty products, and
Offering seasonal products.
Product Value: Minimising product cost and maximising product quality

are major factors in e-commerce success Total cost includes product cost,
taxes, shipping, Internet, and travel costs Quality is an intrinsic property of
a product. Product quality is the expected standard of product or service
excellence. Brands and retailers that are well known and well regarded
from the traditional channels may translate to quality on an online channel.
The question becomes how consumers will assess product quality when
194
they are unfamiliar with the retailer or the product brand to provide
independent evaluations of goods and services to convince consumers of
the quality of the merchandise sold by the Internet merchant on the web.
Thus, the end result for the consumer should be a feeling of gratification
with the purchase once completed. The features of the product value
attribute to be evaluated are:
(1) Post purchase feeling of customer gratification

(2) Perceived product quality, and
(3) Overall product cost.
Product Customisation: Product customisation is the users’ ability to

customise products according to personal preferences. For example,
configuring a computer and related product features directly on a
merchant’s Website. Customisation is one of the great advantages of online
shopping, allowing what some have termed a segment of one, where each
customer is unique in his or her tastes, choices, and acquisitions.
The features of the product customisation attribute to be evaluated in this

study are:
(1) Offering a customisable product

(2) Offering online configuration capabilities, and
(3) The number of options that are available for the product.
6.5 CONCEPT OF ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Online conversations are taking place all the time: about politics, about
IPL, about a pet dog, about just about anything. People everywhere are
engaging in and creating blogs, videos, mashups and more. It’s called
consumer generated media (CGM), and it’s big news for any company or
personality today. We’ve learned about the tools of social media and the
importance of word of mouth when it comes to viral marketing. Consumers
trust each other, and search engines find that trust very relevant.
Increasingly, CGM is showing up in the top results of the SERPs (search
engine results pages).
195
The use of social media has equipped consumers with a voice and a
platform, and the ability to amplify their views. The connected nature of
the Internet makes these views easy to share, and the accessibility of
social media tools makes it easy for other consumers to respond. Whether
positive, negative or just slightly off-centre, consumers are making their
views known.
Added to this, is the rising prevalence of CGM in search results. Entries

that companies have no control over are ranking highly in brand search
results. A Google search on “brand name + complaints” will display a whole
lot more CGM.
A company’s reputation can make a difference to its bottom line.

Companies seen to engage with their customers; who appear honest and
transparent and who listen to their consumers, benefit from a growing fan
base of loyal customers who can then turn into passionate spokespeople.
Companies who ignore the voices of their customers will see diminishing
loyalty, and a growing resentment among the vocal online consumers.
Companies, and individuals, need to listen to what is being said about
them, and learn how to respond to and engage with their consumers in this
world of shifting power.
6.5.1 Role of Social Media
Companies in online advertising, marketing, publishing or other web-

related service providers may have a greater challenge in terms of data
volume as well as the need to provide fast insight to their customers as
part of their service. Off-the-shelf web analytics products don’t provide the
detailed data or enable the flexible reporting, what-if analysis or predictive
analytics that online businesses require, particularly when the website data
needs to be enriched with other enterprise data sources for a more
comprehensive story. This means building analytic applications that meet
your unique requirements.
a moderate financial loss can be compensated. Consumers will appreciate
businesses, which value for customer’s time by employing technology,
tools, information and customer service.
196
social media tools makes it easy for other consumers to respond.
Whether positive, negative or just slightly off-centre, consumers are

making their views known. Added to this, is the rising prevalence of CGM in
search results. Entries that companies have no control over are ranking
highly in brand search results.
A Google search on “brand name + complaints” will display a whole lot

more CGM. Online reputation management uses the tools of the Internet to
monitor and analyse a brand’s reputation and to engage in conversation so
as to influence its reputation. On the Web, reputation matters. Many
communities have their own reputation management for members, such as
Amazon, Digg and Reddit. This is based on the feedback given by other
community members, and affects the success of that member’s ability to
transact within the community. Generally, participation, engagement and
response are all used to rate a member’s reputation. Websites which place
an emphasis on the reviews of the community, such as IMDB.com for
movies or Amazon.com for books, have algorithms which determine their
most trusted reviewers, and they base some of their rankings on the
opinions of that part of their community.
6.5.2 How does Online Reputation management work?
When shifting to the greater community of the Internet, participation,

engagement and response remain key factors in determining a company’s
reputation.
Step 1: Listening – Monitoring the Buzz
Focus groups are not required for gauging customer sentiment on the
Internet. It’s all out there, connected via hyperlinks and crawled regularly
by search engine spiders. Keywords make it relatively simple to listen to
the chatter online. Customers are not using channels designated by a
company to talk about that organisation, but the good news is that the
Internet makes it easy for a company to use the channels that customers
have selected.
197
ORM Keywords: ORM allows a company to track mentions of itself, its

staff, its products, its industry and its competitors. In fact, the tools allow
for the tracking of anything; it just comes down to deciding what is
relevant to you. It is also important to track common misspellings, all
related companies and all related websites. Tracking the names of people
key to a company can high-light potential brand attacks, or can
demonstrate new areas of outreach for a company.
Brand names, employee names, product names and even competitor

names are not unique. To avoid monitoring too much, identify keywords
which will indicate that a post has nothing to do with your company, and
negative match that keyword in your searches.
Step 2: Analysing – What’s being said by whom
As an Internet marketer, the first step in looking at who is saying what is to

take stock of the messages being sent by your own company. This
includes: all websites and domains owned by a company, all blogs
maintained by employees (whether company blogs or personal blogs) and
all blogs maintained by ex-employees. An audit should give an idea of the
content that is available to the public and what that content is saying. With
regular RSS updates declaring that selected keywords have been used in
some form of social media, a growing list is being created of mentions
surrounding a brand. They vary in terms of positivity or negativity and
influence. Not all mentions require action from a company. Some require
drastic measures to be taken. But all, no matter how quiet or how loud, are
an indication of consumer sentiment. Whether a post is positive, negative
or indifferent can be quickly assessed by reading it.
Influence can be a little harder to establish. Indicators such as traffic, links

and subscriber numbers can all assist in assessing the influence of a blog.
To be able to monitor reputation over time, it can be a good idea to

aggregate the information into a spreadsheet or database along with the
factors mentioned above. It is necessary to determine what is important to
the reputation of the company you are monitoring, and perhaps adapt
factors accordingly.
198
Step 3: Influencing – Engaging in and Leading the Conversation
The best way to show that you are listening is by responding. Online, there
are many channels available to companies to respond to the conversation
and to become an active participant in it. Complaints are from stakeholders
who have had dealings with a company. By complaining, this customer is
giving the company the opportunity to make things right and is probably
indicating where the company can improve.
Responding: This involves recognising that consumers dictate the

channels of communication, and that a company needs to go to the
consumer, not the other way around. When responding, be transparent and
honest. Remember that emails can be reproduced on blogs.
At all times, remember that you are engaged in conversation, not a

dictation. Understanding the mechanisms of virtual shopping and the
behaviour of the online consumer is a priority issue for practitioners
competing in the fast expanding virtual marketplace. This topic is also
increasingly drawing the attention of researchers.
199
6.6 ATTRIBUTES OF ONLINE SHOPPING
Customer satisfaction is critical for establishing long-term client

relationships and, consequently, is significant in sustaining profitability. As
a result, a fundamental understanding of factors impacting online customer
satisfaction is of great importance to e-commerce.
Customer satisfaction is the consequence of experiences during various

purchasing stages:
• Needing something,
• Gathering information about it,
• Evaluating purchasing alternatives,
• Actual purchasing decision, and
• Post purchasing behaviour.
200
During information gathering, the Internet offers consumers extensive

benefits, because it reduces search costs, increases convenience, vendor
choices, and product options.
However, online consumers are dependent upon the Website information as

a replacement for physical contact with salespersons. As a result,
consumers make inferences about the attractiveness of a product based
on:
Information provided by retailers, and
Design elements of the Website such as ease and fun of navigation
6.7 SUMMARY
Online shopping behaviour (also called online buying behaviour and

Internet shopping/ buying behaviour) refers to the process of purchasing
products or services via the Internet. Companies in online advertising,
marketing, publishing or other web-related service providers may have a
greater challenge in terms of data volume as well as the need to provide
fast insight to their customers as part of their service.
social media tools makes it easy for other consumers to respond.
Online marketers can influence the decision-making process of the virtual

customers by engaging traditional, physical marketing tools but mainly by
creating and delivering the proper online experience, the Web experience:
a combination of online functionality, information, emotions, cues, stimuli
and products/services, in other words a complex mix of elements going
beyond the 4Ps of the traditional marketing mix.
Market segmentation can be defined as the process of dividing a market

into different homogeneous groups of consumers. Companies in online
advertising, marketing, publishing or other web-related service providers
may have a greater challenge in terms of data volume as well as the need
to provide fast insight to their customers as part of their service.
201
their money rather than time. A sales person can interrupt a customer in a
physical store while they are engaged in their initial research.
Understanding the mechanisms of virtual shopping and the behaviour of
the online consumer is a priority issue for practitioners competing in the
fast expanding virtual market place.
For traditional firms expanding their business with Internet presence, the
quality of online experience they deliver is an issue requiring special
attention: poorly designed and dysfunctional Websites are a potential
threat not only to the company’s virtual aspirations but also a hazard for
their physical activities.
The overall convenience of the online shopping experience is very

important as well as the amount of time it takes for the product to be
received. Three features of each attribute which are convenience, trust,
and delivery will be evaluated using a conjoint analysis to get a preferred.
Review Questions (Browse Internet Search Engine and for various sites)
1. What do you understand by Attributes of Online Shopping?
2. How do we use customer survey or experience online?
3. How do we create social networking policy?
4. How can we use social media tools such as face book, Instagram to our
customer online?
5. What are Attributes of Online Shopping?
202
1. Identify Attributes of Online Shopping
a. Search Engine
b. Structure
c. Consumer Characteristic
d. (c) and (b) of the above
2. Identify Attributes of Online Consumer satisfaction:
a. Search Engine
b. Technology
c. Product
d. (c) and (b) of the above
3. The Web experience as a major parameter of customer influence is

crucial not only for dot.com-type firms but also for multi-channel
vendors. Identify various factors affecting web experience
a. Content
b. Technology
c. Search Engine
d. All of the above
4. Shopping factors focus on customers’ feelings and perceptions during

and after the shopping experience.
a. True
b. False
5. Product customisation is not the users’ ability to customise products

according to personal preferences.
a. True
b. False
Answers
1. (c) 2. (c) 3. (a) 4. (1 ) 5. (b)
203
REFERENCE MATERIAL
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Summary
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MCQ
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Internet Marketing

Sub Code - 652

Program Design and Advisory Team

Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Mr. Manish Pitke

Prof. Kanu Doshi Prof. B.N. Chatterjee

Prof. Dr. V.H. Iyer Mr. Smitesh Bhosale

Prof. B.N. Chatterjee Prof. Vineel Bhurke

Prof. Venkat lyer Dr. Pravin Kumar Agrawal

Prof. Dr. Pradeep Pendse Mrs. Margaret Vas

Prof. Sandeep Kelkar Mr. Anuj Pandey

Prof. Dr. Swapna Pradhan Course Editor

Prof. Bijoy B. Bhattacharyya Prof. B.N. Chatterjee

Mr. P.M. Bendre Course Coordinators

Mr. Ajay Prabhu Ms. Kirti Sampat

Mr. A.S. Pillai Mr. Kishor Tamhankar

COPYRIGHT © by Prin. L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research.

NOT FOR SALE. FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.

1st Edition, April 2019

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Senior Professor in Management with a wide range of experience in the

He has served International Computers Indian Manufacture (ICIM) for

He is instrumental in developing various educational modules of Welingkar

At present, in addition to his own consultancy, he has taken up teaching

He has developed innovative student focus methods of learning and

He is author of books— Management Information System, Human Resource

Prof. Nitin C Kamat is Manging Director of Finesse Learning Consultants.

He conducted “Teachers Training Seminars” on e-learning and using

His mission is “Digital Literacy” at all levels UG to PG and adult also,

1 Basics of Internet Marketing 6-29

2 Environment Analysis and Strategy Development 30-61

3 Internet Marketing Plan Creation 62-98

4 Websites and Portals — Your Internet Marketing Hub 99-141

5 Internet Marketing Research 142-172

6 Online Consumer Behaviour Analysis 173-204

7 Internet Marketing Strategies 205-242

8 Online Product Offering and Pricing 243-298

9 Online Distribution Channel 299-317

10 Creative E-mail Marketing 318-345

11 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Web Analytics 346-384

12 Communication Tools 385-415

13 Using Social Media for Internet Marketing 416-469

• After going through this chapter you should be able to know:

• Assess the Significance of the Internet to the Modern Marketing Concept

• Get a Chronological Perspective of Marketing on the Internet

• Understand the Difference and Benefits of Internet over Traditional

1.2 The Internet Marketing Basics

1.3 Role of World Wide Web

1.4 Benefits over Traditional Marketing

1.6 Recent trends in Internet marketing

1.8 Self Assessment Questions

1.9 Multiple Choice Questions

In the present scenario, this answer varies dramatically for different

The significance of the Internet is relatively low in the manufacturing

Things to Remember about Internet marketing

First and most importantly ~ Internet Marketing is not free or cheap.

1. Internet marketing is complex

2. Internet marketing is a concept. It’s not a product or service or

4. Don’t just start Internet marketing activities without having a proper

5. Don’t expect quick results.

6. Don’t try to do everything together

1.2 DEFINING INTERNET MARKETING BASICS

1.2.1 Marketing Basics Covered

The important concept of Marketing is covered in this introductory section.