E-Marketing Strategy

E-marketing is an effective tool to establish and strength the corporate brand image. The brand relation can be strengthened by online presence (through website and services) with an aim to retain the customers and eliminate the price factor. More and more people are using net which is creating great potential for online business. A brand expressed the hopes and expectations of customers. The online presence of an established brand also requires such criterions where customers expect some thing different than every day website. For an well known brand, it is not just dumping information online, but establishing communication, telling the visitors clearly; what is company about and what it stand for? Pepsi is successful in conveying that image. Its website www. pepsi. com is filled with many innovative features to capture the attention of visitors. The E-marketing strategy is based on the similar principals as traditional marketing 4P’s (Product, Price, Promotion and Position); however online marketing needs some additional P’s (People, Process, and Proof). E-marketing is the extended form of traditional marketing requiring the synthesis of the following factors; Personalization, Privacy and Security, Customer Service, Site, Sales Promotion. These functions allow managers to further their businesses online. (a) Personalization The basic concept behind the personalization is to understand a certain customer and establish relation. Thus the vital issue is to gather information about customer and then develop personalized products and services. For example Amazon asks the customers to make an account; where customer provides information about themselves. Based on this customer information, every time a customer logs in, products related to customer interests automatically pops up. This strategy works two ways; it allows the marketers to target individuals on personal level; and on the other hand it allows individual customers to go no further, but find product right in front of their eyes. (b) Privacy and Security Privacy is related to personalization. When businesses gathers information and store this customer information; the crucial issue is to make it safe. A major task of e-marketing strategy is to develop policy or guide lines for gathering information and keep this information private and confidential. Another crucial issue is security. Any transaction performed on the websites becomes the responsibly of the business and to ensure that no outsider is able to access the information. Thus a wise marketer will convey clear and convincing the customers that their provided data is safe hands. (c) Customer Service Like any traditional business, customer service is an essential part of e-business. Good customer service is a key to gain loyalty form the customers. Compared to traditional service online shoppers can come from anywhere in the world with different time zones; providing 24/7 customer service in crucial. One example is precisionreservation. com which provides online (hotel) booking to travelers. The booking is done automatically, while the copy of booking is sent via email. In case of any question, live support is available 24/7 through online customer service. Such excellent strategy allows the customers service to reach customers in real-time. d) Site E-marketing interaction takes place online on digital location which is called site. This location /site have to be available 24/7 and should have the infrastructure to support the number of visitors it receives each day. For any online business, the name should be very clear and should not be confused with any other name. The site should not have any resemblance to any other brand or any other business which makes t he customers confused. Any such resemblance is considered unethical practice and has severe consequences. Another issue is scalability; Amazon receives million of visitors with hundreds of orders each day. Amazon is able to meet the growing number of customers orders as its website has the vital infrastructure for its growing number of customers. (e) Promotions In any effective marketing campaigns, sales promotions are crucial. While developing an e-marketing strategy it is essential to develop online sales promotions targeted at shoppers. The target of any promotion is not long term sales, but achieving immediate goals (in term of volumes). Other than traditional methods; such as discount marketing manger needs to understand the latest technology well enough to exploit it. For example; doing promotions through RSS, which instead of news letter provides almost live data on day- to- day basis. It is very easy for online shoppers to compare the price before they make purchase; which makes it inevitable to check the competitors prices and promotions before starting any campaign. Conclusion For companies who already have established brands need to reach to the online consumers through consistent advertising to enhance their corporate image. One easy way is use the search engines; such as Yahoo and Google who offer relevant add with the queries surfers are seeking. This strategy helps in reaching old and new customers more effectively rather than waiting for customers. E-marketing needs new dimension to be considered compared with traditional marketing, even though e-marketing is evolved from traditional marketing. However such concepts revolve around the principal where customer and business can reach each other in a meaningful way.