Defining the Internet
Internet marketing may be defined as:
Using the world-wide web to perform marketing
functions.
In the last three decades, the internet has perhaps been the most
revolutionary addition to the traditional marketing communication tools like
television, newspapers, magazines and radio.
Internet marketing occurs when digital media collaborates with
conventional communication tools like radio, television and newspapers in
marketing activities.
Benefits and weaknesses of
Internet Marketing
What are some of the potential benefits the internet brings to the
African global business player? Well, it brings a number of unique marketing
possibilities which include:
·
Wider, versatile communication at relatively low cost.
A small business with limited resources can reach the same global audience
accessed by bigger, more financially capable firms.
A wide array of marketing communication is possible. It includes
advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing relationship-building and
product updates.
Advertising is non-personal, paid marketing communication
by an identified promoter of goods, services or other types of product,
normally using media like radio and newspaper that reach a wide audience.
Sales promotion is short-term marketing communication
frequently aimed at immediately raising sales and rejuvenating interest in a
product.
Direct marketing is communication in which a
prospective buyer is reached with a taylor-made message and prompted to act in
a certain way, such as placing an order.
Relationship-marketing is the cultivation of long-term
partnerships with customers.
The two-way communication capability of the
internet (via email, for example) improves the pace of business and helps
prevent or keep minimal cost-escalation caused by passage of time.
Older media like newspapers, billboards, television and radio do not
give the combination of flexibilities and cost-savings available in internet
marketing.
·
Stock-ordering and selling.
Businesses
can use the internet to ‘window-shop’ and order inputs from their suppliers,
and sell to their own customers.
In the case of products like books, newspapers, movies, news and
music, the actual product can be sent to the client as a digital copy. This
way, the internet serves as a global distribution medium. Distribution, as we
saw earlier in this chapter, is one of the four key marketing mix variables.
·
Increasing sales volume.
The wider
exposure made possible by the internet means greater sales figures are also
possible – from across the globe. Using traditional media, this level of exposure
would have big cost implications, and be a real limitation for small
businesses.
·
Holding onto mobile customers.
The
internet minimises distance-sensitivity of business. It creates greater
capacity to maintain communication with customers who have moved farther away,
and therefore increasing the possibility of continued loyalty.
·
Spreading information.
Companies can use
the internet to disseminate general information including staff movement, share
value and policy changes.
·
Web analytics.
Web analytics enable instant collection of statistics on the market
and market behaviour. The information enables (quicker) decision-making by
business people.
·
‘Beating night’.
Both ordering of production inputs and
selling can take place round the clock, making it possible to accomplish more
in a day than when human beings (who have to rest, for instance) are used.
The internet as a marketing tool also has weaknesses. For example,
some potential customers might still not be excited enough by an internet advertisement
until they see the actual offering or get middleman assistance. Naturally, the
fear is that a product may not live up to the hype on the internet.
Another challenge is that competition can increase, as the products
of across-the-globe marketers who may otherwise prefer to concentrate on their
local markets also have increased visibility: customers, understandably,
normally go for the best package of offers.
Despite challenges like the above, African entrepreneurships, many
with not enough resources to reach the world using the customary (but indeed
still very useful) communication means like television, newspaper and radio, or
opening physical subsidiaries abroad, perhaps have an indispensable means of
competing with gigantic firms on the world stage. Besides, even if the internet
can increase competition, the larger exposure can also have the effect of
bringing more potential buyers.
The challenge, quite clearly, is how to take advantage of the revolutionary
capabilities of the internet.
General Marketing Strategy
on the Internet
The internet is basically a communications channel. So, internet
marketing must be seen as use of an additional communications tool to further
promote business.
The fundamental aspirations of business people are the same
irrespective of marketing instrument used. For example, profit remains the main
focal point. The marketer only takes advantage of the possibilities and
opportunities presented by the internet to do their job better.
The internet has to work in conjunction with other information
channels like magazine, billboard, radio, mobile advertising, newspaper and
television. What the internet must achieve, and how, (taking into account its
capabilities like interactivity, wide reach, video, sound, general inexpensiveness,
two-way communication, text and memory) must be clearly defined, just as with
other communication media like television.
Some Internet Marketing
Tools
The internet offers numerous technical instruments for performing
marketing functions. A few of the best known are listed and explained below.
Websites and blogs
A website is an address or location on the internet where
information about a particular subject is found. Creating a website therefore
means giving a globally visible and accessible ‘residence’ to any or all of the
following:
·
The business.
·
The enterprise’s products.
·
Purchasing point.
·
Information exchange centre.
A good website needs to be user-friendly, so that visitors are able
to easily get the services they require, such as placing an order or making
clarifications they consider important to them.
Blogs, like websites, are internet ‘homes’, but are normally used as
news update centres of individuals, groups or organisations, both commercial
and non-commercial. Increasingly, businesses have placed their adverts on
popular blogs (those that enjoy interesting content and frequent visits). Many
blogs are maintain a single theme, such as gardening.
A blog is simply an
internet information centre.
E-mail
Electronic mail (e-mail) enables sending and receiving of digital
messages. Marketers are able to cost-effectively and quickly communicate with
suppliers, customers and intermediaries such as insurers and bankers. They can,
for instance, easily send customers a digital copy of the product with prices
and specifications and prompt them to buy. They can also send regular news
bulletins to keep customers up-to-date and loyal to their brands and
company.
Social and Professional Media
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are examples of internet platforms
that provide marketers an opportunity to ‘meet’ customers, through
advertisements.
Extranet
The extranet is a closed
internet in which a marketer is able to share information with suppliers or
other parties, usually in the same business environment, to improve
collaboration.
