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School of Business
Bangladesh Open University
Assignment No: 1 2 3
( Please Put)
Program: Masters of Business Administration (MBA)
Course Title: E-Marketing
Course Code: MBA 4 3 1 8
Submission
1 9 2 2nd 4th
Semester: . Level (please Mention):

PERSONAL INFORMATION OF THE STUDENT

Name (In Capital Letters): ALIZA SUBORNA
ID (In Numbers): 1 9 1 - 3 3 - 8 1 6 - 3 0 9
ID (In one Eight one - Three Three - Eight one Six - Three Zero Nin
Words): e

Study Center (SC) Where You Are Submitting Your

Assignments: Dhaka RC  RC DHAKA

Contract Address (Compulsory) For Use of the Coordinator’s Office

(If the Assignment is submitted after deadline)

Mailing Address:

8 No. Ward, Meher Ali Road, Trishal,

Mymensingh.
Tel: _________________________
Cell Phone: +8801633550131
E-mail: alizasuborna9@gmail.com
_____________________________
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Seal of the Late Submission
Date:___________
Course: E-Marketing- 4318

Question-1: ‘Now a day, a website is the best way to communicate with consumers and build a
long-term relationship’. Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? Explain

Answer: An effective website is a valuable – and essential – way to communicate with

customers, no matter what industry you’re in.

With the right strategy, design and content, effective websites can attract your ideal customers,
establish credibility and, crucially, convert visitors into buyers and raving fans.

But it’s no good having a website for the sake of it: you need to know what makes a good
website.

What you need for a website to be effective as a communication tool is to establish exactly what
it needs to achieve and make sure your site and domain name reflect this. But what does a
website do?

“The most important thing is to know the purpose of a website [for your business] and what
action you want the visitor to take,” says Wendy Tan White, co-founder of DIY website builder
Moonfruit and venture partner at Entrepreneur First, a pre-seed investment programme for
Europe’s best tech founders. “Are you looking for leads (emails/calls), providing information
(directions/service info), or selling things (transactions)?”

Once you’re clear on what to look for in a good website, depending on the website purpose, you
can start to think about what elements and communication channels make most sense for your
business.

But what do you need to have on a website?

1. A clear value proposition

Recent studies agree: you have less than 10 seconds to impress and engage a new visitor so you
need to know what makes an effective website layout. Your domain name and homepage need to
make it immediately clear who you are, what you do and what that visitor’s next step should be.

“Make sure you’re clear about who your audience is and what you want to communicate to
them,” says Chiara Pensato, director of marketing at MOVE Guides, a cloud platform for talent
mobility. “Dedicate the time and resources necessary to establish your company’s vision and
core messaging in a crisp and clear way.”

Once you have this nailed down, be sure to communicate this clearly on your website. When
doing this, remember that although you need to think about what to put on a website homepage,
not everyone will actually enter your website via the homepage – if you’re blogging effectively,
many will deep-link straight into specific articles via social media or Google. So, think about
how to orientate a first-time visitor no matter where or how they enter.

A descriptive business name and domain name can help with this, as can a clear and succinct
tagline that’s visible on every page (for example, in your site’s header).

2. A coherent brand

Once you’re clear on your business vision and audience, this should inform every decision you
make on your website, from the colours and fonts you use, to the language and tone of your site
and the content you create. Consistency builds trust and memorability, and a coherent message
and experience is key to creating the right impression.

“Always stay true to your brand,” says Pensato. “When looking at each component of the
website, it’s important to ask yourself, does this look, feel and sound like your company and how
does this fit into your overall journey and vision?”

A poorly designed website does not only look unprofessional, but confusing webpages can
actually be a turn-off for visitors. The design and usability of your website can either reassure,
establish credibility and increase conversions, or prompt people to leave your site and never
return.

3. An about page

When thinking about what to have on a website, an About page is an important page to include:
when a potential customer is trying to get a better sense of whether you’re right for them, this is
one of the first places they’ll turn. It’s also a great opportunity to tell your unique story, explain
what sets you apart from the crowd, humanise your brand and potentially establish what the
purpose of a website for your business is.

4. A blog

Blogging is one of the best ways to attract new visitors to your site, establish your expertise and
build a loyal audience. However, while this can be a great place to share important news and
updates, no-one wants to read an endless stream of company announcements. The most effective
business blogs are reader-focused, prioritising content that delivers value to their ideal
customers, and speaks to their questions, interests and needs.

“A website needs to be engaging and offer more than just company information,” says Pensato.
“We use our blog as a key tool to encourage dialogue on how we think talent without borders can
become a reality for all modern organisations.”

5. In-depth resources
MOVE Guides takes this a step further by creating and offering more in-depth and valuable
resources. Incentive examples for effective website marketing include white papers and case
studies, with the aim of becoming a destination for people looking for industry knowledge.

You could also offer these type of resources as free downloads to encourage people to sign up to
your mailing list – another great way to stay connected to potential customers and build lasting
relationships.

Pensato adds: “[Aside from our blog], other channels that we see are generating the highest
response rate are our customer case studies, industry white papers, fact sheets and user cases that
bring our story to life for our community.”

6. An explanation of how your business works

If you’re bringing something new to the market, one of the first things a customer will want to
know is exactly how your offering works and is different. Videos and infographics can be a great
addition to an effective website layout, helping to convey a lot of information or explain complex
processes in a short space of time.

7. Social buttons

Another place users will head to get a better sense of your business is your social profiles.
Having social buttons in a prominent place and visible on every page – for example in your
sidebar (if you have one) or footer, makes this super easy, as well as enabling people to easily
follow you and keep up-to-date with your business.

8. A client portfolio or testimonials

When it comes to doing business online, trust is fundamental to the buying process. Showing
examples of clients you’ve previously worked with (with their permission, of course) can help to
reassure potential customers that you’re legit.

“Being able to leverage third party validation is essential to establish credibility as a business and
earn trust at the early stages of engagement – think customers, press, partnerships, vendors,
investors, and more,” says Pensato.

9. A press page

Speaking of press, a dedicated press page or section collating the articles you’ve guest written or
contributed to elsewhere can also help position you as an authority in your field. But as with
many of these features, it’s only worth doing if it’s something you’ll update regularly.

A sparse press page (just like an abandoned blog) could end up having the opposite effect to that
which you intended, raising doubts about how your business is doing.
10. An FAQs page

As your business grows, you’ll begin to receive more and more enquiries. Pay attention, and take
note of the questions you receive over and over again. Answering these on an FAQ page can
make your communications more efficient and increase conversions (not everyone will take the
time to make an enquiry), as well as highlighting potential blog topics and other content ideas.

11. Live chat

While not suitable for every business, live chat can be extremely effective when it comes to
converting web visitors into buyers or subscribers. It can also be a useful tool for getting
feedback from your audience.

“If you have a more complex service or the human touch helps on buying decisions, [live chat] is
a great tool,” says Tan White. “Live chat can be added pretty quickly these days with services
such as Olark, and most services offer a free trial so you can measure the impact on conversions
before you invest.

12. Clear calls to action

When you know what action you want people to take, using ‘calls to action’ in your menus and
other key points throughout your site can help encourage this behavior. Examples might include:
‘Book a consultation’, ‘Download the guide’, ‘Work with me’ or even ‘Start here’. These can
link through to sales pages, sign-up forms or whatever works for your business and goals. You
can also test different page layouts and wording using tools such as Optimize or Visual Website
Optimizer.

Crucially, whatever features and functions you add to your website, make sure they really make
sense for your business. “There’s no point adding lots of trendy features if you don’t have the
skills or resources to manage them effectively,” says Tan White. “When possible, try them out in
a low-cost way, and see the impact. Some features, like blogging, may take a while to build up
momentum, but then be sure you can commit to doing one article a week for some months before
making a call to keep it.”

But how can you really know whether something’s working? It all comes back to understanding
your website’s purpose, while also being mindful of the metrics you monitor. For example,
100,000 pageviews a month means very little if none of those people are actually buying or
engaging with your brand.

Question-2: What will be the differentiation and positioning strategies to develop this website?

Answer: Positioning and differentiation connect in important ways. It can be confusing, but a
good way to look at it is:
Positioning is based on the differentiating characteristics or qualities that make your business
better than your competition’s in the mind of your target audience.

Both concepts are strategic actions and are designed to create a desired position for your business
in the market rather than having it be defined by your competitors. The result is your ideal clients
have a compelling reason to choose you.

To illustrate our positioning and differentiation points in this piece, we’ll use an accounting firm
as an example. The concepts covered, though, apply to whichever professional service sector
you’re in.

Here’s a fairly simple way to illustrate a differentiation strategy. A professional service

organization such as an accounting firm can have a vertical or horizontal position. What does
that mean?

Vertical segmentation is industry or category specific. You focus on working with clients in a
specific field – such as health care, information technology, or travel companies etc. For
example, an accounting firm might work specifically with clients in the construction industry.

Horizontal segmentation takes into consideration demographic information or the speciality you

hold. So, one accounting firm might only work with high-worth individuals or families. Clients
may come from many sectors, but they have a particular trait in common.

It’s also possible to combine the two. For example, a forensic accountant (horizontal) only works
in the construction arena (vertical) or an estate and trust accounting firm (horizontal) only works
with individuals bringing in more than a million a year (also horizontal).

To get started strategizing how your firm will differentiate itself, look at how you currently
handle your business model. Does your segment typically bill by the hour? Is the target audience
you want to reach not particularly interested in watching their bill climb with every phone call,
email, or other activity? If so, you might want to design a new business model where you charge
a retainer and the rest is billed as a percentage of results.

Before we move on to the different types of differentiation strategies, let’s recap:

Positioning is the place you hold in the mind’s eye of your target audience.

Differentiation is how your firm is different or stands out from your competitors on a non-price
basis.

From a marketing perspective this is important, particularly for professional service businesses
whose average client might not know specifically what the provider does. Put another way,
pretty much everyone knows what an accountant does, but they don’t know the ins and outs of
specific services.
Your ability to connect with an audience rests on positioning and differentiation. If the way you
present yourself and your services relates to people on a one-to-one basis, the more likely it is
they’ll feel emotionally connected with your firm and do business with it.

Types of Differentiation Strategies

A differentiation strategy is multi-pronged but can generally be condensed into three steps:

Identifying differentiating competitive advantages.

Choosing the competitive advantages that will build the best position.

Selecting a global positioning strategy.

Once completed, you must then effectively communicate your chosen position to the market.

The right positioning strategy improves your brand’s visibility both online and in the minds of
your target audience. There are several approaches you can take and, as we mentioned
before, rarely if ever is lowering your price one of them.

Here’s what we recommend instead:

What features of your service can be highlighted that differentiate you from your competitors?
What do you want to be known for?

What benefits does your service offer that the competition does not?

What unique problems does your target audience have that only you can solve?

How do your services financially benefit clients if they act today?

Are there additional services or features you can offer such as access to complementary service
firms?

Whatever it takes to make your firm stand out—and as long as it offers real value—is what
defines a good differentiation strategy.

It often happens you’ll need to choose between two similarly positioned options. That’s where
differentiation helps in the decision-making process. For instance, on the surface the odds are
good that two accounting firms can meet similar needs of a targeted market segment. The
differentiation questions set out above help you drill down to discover why your firm is the one
they should choose.

What you’re looking to do is lay out qualitative, focused, and innovative qualities that disrupt or
change the norm of how people do business with your type of professional service.
With product differentiation, it can be easier because manufacturers can come up with special
features that set them apart. With professional services, a lot of the work is done on a one-to-one
basis to meet a client’s needs, so one good way to differentiate is in how you market and “sell”
your services. It’s about providing value before they even become a client.