|
|
Book Summary: Secrets Of Word-Of-Mouth Marketing
Book Summary: The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing By: Regine Azurin and Yvette Pantilla This article is based on the following book: The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing "How to trigger exponential sales through runaway word of mouth" George...
Marketing on a budget
Many business owners put off beginning to market their business until sales increase. While this may make perfect sense to an accountant, it is more often than not a poor choice for a business owner to make because until something is done to...
Race And Marketing: Does Skin Color Still Matter In America?
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the article is not altered and the resource box is left intact. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. Send to: ...
The importance of forum participation in promoting an internet business
Many internet business owners are really lost when doing anything with regards to their
Internet business and this is sometimes because people try to do it alone without any external help. Contrary to the notion that the internet is an unfriendly...
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO REBUILD YOUR SMALL BUSINESS MARKETING?
A week ago, Allen arrived at our home, here in Connecticut, with all his worldly possessions; his laptop, a few law books, and a couple of changes of clothes. He'd just completed his first week at Tulane Law School before being forced to leave his...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
E-marketing Strategy: 7 Dimensions To Consider (The E-marketing Mix)
What is e-Marketing?
e-Marketing is still quite a controversial subject to talk about, since no one succeeded to unify the various theories around it; however there is one thing upon which there is no doubt – that e-Marketing first appeared under the form of various techniques deployed by pioneer companies selling their products via the internet in the early 90's.
The frenzy around these new marketing techniques created by e-tailers and supported by the internet rapidly gave birth to a new dimension of what we knew as Marketing: the e-Marketing (electronic Marketing).
There are many definitions to what e-Marketing is, the simplest and shortest one being formulated by Mark Sceats: e-Marketing is Marketing that uses the internet as manifestation media. A working definition is that coming from a group of CISCO specialists: e-Marketing is the sum of all activities a business conducts through the internet with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers.
e-Marketing Strategy
The e-Marketing Strategy is normally based and built upon the principles that govern the traditional, offline Marketing – the well-known 4 P's (Product – Price – Promotion – Positioning) that form the classic Marketing mix. Add the extra 3 P's (People – Processes – Proof) and you got the whole extended Marketing mix.
Until here, there are no much aspects to differentiate e-Marketing from the traditional Marketing performed offline: the extended Marketing mix (4 3 P's) is built around the concept of "transactional" and its elements perform transactional functions defined by the exchange paradigm. What gives e-Marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions, that can be synthesized in the 2P 2C 3S formula: Personalization, Privacy, Customer Service, Community, Site, Security, Sales Promotion.
These 7 functions of the e-Marketing stay at the base of any e-Marketing strategy and they have a moderating character, unlike the classic Marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of moderate, operate upon all situational functions of the mix (the classic 4 P's) and upon each other.
1. Personalization The fundamental concept of personalization as a part of the e-Marketing mix lies in the need of recognizing, identifying a certain customer in order to establish relations (establishing relations is a fundamental objective of Marketing). It is crucial to be able to identify our customers on individual level and gather all possible information about them, with the purpose of knowing our market and be able to develop customized, personalized products and services.
For example, a cookie strategically placed on the website visitor's computer can let us know vital information concerning the access speed available: in consequence, if we know the visitor is using a slow connection (eg. dial-up) we will offer a low-volume variation of our website, with reduced graphic content and no multimedia or flash applications. This will ease our customer's experience on our website and he will be prevented from leaving the website on the reason that it takes too long to load its pages.
Personalization can be applied to any component of the Marketing mix; therefore, it is a moderating function.
2. Privacy Privacy is an element of the mix very much connected to the previous one – personalization. When we gather and store information about our customers and potential customers (therefore, when we perform the personalization part of the e-Marketing mix) a crucial issue arises: that of the way this information will be used, and by whom. A major task to do when implementing an e-Marketing strategy is that of creating and developing a policy upon access procedures to the collected information.
This is a duty and a must for any conscious marketer to consider all aspects of privacy, as long as data are collected and stored, data about individual persons.
Privacy is even more important when establishing the e-Marketing mix since there are many regulations and legal aspects to be considered regarding collection and usage of such information.
3. Customer Service Customer service is one of the necessary and required activities among the support functions needed in transactional situations.
We will connect the apparition of the customer service processes to the inclusion of the "time" parameter in transactions. When switching from a situational perspective to a relational one, and e-Marketing is mostly based on a relational perspective, the marketer saw
himself somehow forced into considering support and assistance on a non-temporal level, permanently, over time.
For these reasons, we should consider the Customer Service function (in its fullest and largest definition) as an essential one within the e-Marketing mix.
As we can easily figure out, the service (or assistance if you wish) can be performed upon any element from the classic 4 P's, hence its moderating character.
4. Community We can all agree that e-Marketing is conditioned by the existence of this impressive network that the internet is. The merely existence of such a network implies that individuals as well as groups will eventually interact. A group of entities that interact for a common purpose is what we call a "community" and we will soon see why it is of absolute importance to participate, to be part of a community.
The Metcalf law (named after Robert Metcalf) states that the value of a network is given by the number of its components, more exactly the value of a network equals the square of the number of components. We can apply this simple law to communities, since they are a network: we will then conclude that the value of a community rises with the number of its members. This is the power of communities; this is why we have to be a part of it.
The customers / clients of a business can be seen as part of a community where they interact (either independent or influenced by the marketer) – therefore developing a community is a task to be performed by any business, even though it is not always seen as essential.
Interactions among members of such a community can address any of the other functions of e-Marketing, so it can be placed next to other moderating functions.
5. Site We have seen and agreed that e-Marketing interactions take place on a digital media – the internet. But such interactions and relations also need a proper location, to be available at any moment and from any place – a digital location for digital interactions.
Such a location is what we call a "site", which is the most widespread name for it. It is now the time to mention that the "website" is merely a form of a "site" and should not be mistaken or seen as synonyms. The "site" can take other forms too, such as a Palm Pilot or any other handheld device, for example.
This special location, accessible through all sort of digital technologies is moderating all other functions of the e-Marketing – it is then a moderating function.
6. Security The "security" function emerged as an essential function of e-Marketing once transactions began to be performed through internet channels.
What we need to keep in mind as marketers are the following two issues on security:
- security during transactions performed on our website, where we have to take all possible precautions that third parties will not be able to access any part of a developing transaction;
- security of data collected and stored, about our customers and visitors.
A honest marketer will have to consider these possible causes of further trouble and has to co-operate with the company's IT department in order to be able to formulate convincing (and true, honest!) messages towards the customers that their personal details are protected from unauthorized eyes.
7. Sales Promotion At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume.
This function counts on the marketer's ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan.
On the other hand, the marketer needs to continuously keep up with the latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them.
To conclude, we have seen that e-Marketing implies new dimensions to be considered aside of those inherited from the traditional Marketing. These dimensions revolve around the concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e-Marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.
About the Author
Otilia is a certified Marketing consultant with expertise in e-Marketing and e-Business. She developed and teach her own online course in Principles of Marketing (http://class.universalclass.com/emarketing). You can contact Otilia through her Marketing resources portal at http://www.teawithedge.com
|
|
|
|
|
When You Know How | Network Marketing Works! |
Your guide to tips, resources, opportunities. Get your Free CD the Science of Network Marketing. We can show you how to make it work for you. |
www.network-marketing-works.com |
  |
Marketing, business - Is Network Marketing Just a Scam? |
Marketing, business - Is Network Marketing Just a Scam? - Entrepreneur.com. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
  |
Business Opportunities: MLM, Network Marketing, Work at Home |
Listing of Business Opportunities: MLM, Network Marketing, Mail Order, Kiosks and more. |
www.entrepreneur.com |
  |
Multi-level marketing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Multi-level marketing (MLM) (also called network marketing or NM) is a business ... In a typical multi-level marketing or network marketing arrangement, ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
List of network marketing companies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Jump to: navigation, search. This is a list of companies which utilize network marketing, also known as multi-level marketing. ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
MLM - Network Marketing Business Journal |
MLM industry journal is the oldest, largest MLM newspaper for the newest network marketing, direct sales, homebased income opportunities and articles. |
www.mmmonthly.com |
  |
The Real Problem with Network Marketing and Multi-Level Marketing ... |
It never ceases to amaze me the extreme polar views on the topic of network marketing and MLM. Some people are passionate about it in the extreme, ... |
entrepreneurs.about.com |
  |
Network Marketing News ONLINE - Home |
Network Marketing and MLM Tools, Training, and Information - your online resource. Business Opportunity. Free fax-on demand. Free autoresponders. |
www.networkmarketingnews.com |
  |
MLM Woman Newsletter - The Complete MLM/Network Marketing Resource ... |
MLM Woman Newsletter - The complete resource on the Internet for the MLM Woman and Man. |
www.mlmwoman.com |
  |
Site Build It! - Network Marketing |
Site Build It! is the only all-in-one site-building, site-hosting, AND site-marketing system of software tools for Network Marketers (MLM). |
networkmarketing.sitesell.com |
  |
Amazon.com: Your First Year in Network Marketing: Overcome Your ... |
Amazon.com: Your First Year in Network Marketing: Overcome Your Fears, Experience Success, and Achieve Your Dreams!: Books: Mark Yarnell,Rene Reid Yarnell ... |
www.amazon.com |
  |
Home based buisness ideas, MLM and Network Marketing Business ... |
Home based business ideas. Best home business and home based business ideas.Spiritual marketing your home based business ideas. Namaste. |
www.mlmforums.com |
  |
Network Marketing: Home |
Special Offer. >> Home. News / Events. 15.08.06: APPOINTMENT OF GREG GUTHRIE. © Copyright Network Marketing 2002, |, Terms of Use, |, Privacy Policy ... |
www.networkmarketing.com.au |
  |
Specialists in marketing and creative recruitment both agencies ... |
One of the UK's leading marketing recruitment consultancies. Specialists in marketing and creative recruitment both for agencies and clients on a temporary ... |
www.networkmarketingjobs.com |
  |
Network Marketing Success Now |
Tips and resources to help you build a successful network marketing business online... |
nmsnow.com |
  |
MLM Network Marketing Resources by Online MLM .com |
Directory of network marketing and direct sales companies. |
www.onlinemlm.com |
  |
MLM Network Marketing training Randy Gage |
MLM Network Marketing training resources by Randy Gage and other leading MLM industry experts give business building secrets for success in your home ... |
www.networkmarketingtimes.com |
  |
multi-level marketing |
multi-level marketing (a.k.a. network marketing & referral marketing) ... EVALUATIONS of MLM or Network Marketing Companies, Based on the "5 Red Flags" of a ... |
skepdic.com |
  |
Network Marketing |
Network Marketing as the basis of a home based business. |
www.homeworking.com |
  |
Network Marketing Support Services |
Offers resources for the MLM professional. |
www.mlmhelp.com |
  |
|