E-marketing Essay
The aim of this paper is to introduce the subject of e-marketing, which appearance is closely associated with the development of many related areas. First of all, the foundation of the discipline itself is marketing, which for the years of its existence has gone the long evolution, and introduction of information technology has made the most significant contribution to the emergence of e-marketing. The main driving force is the emergence and widespread of the global computer network, improvement of methodologies and enterprise management systems, development of interoperability standards of information systems.
The main thing to point out is that one of the main driving forces of the occurring today revolutionary changes in business practices is Information Technology. It has become an indispensable tool for the interaction of all market participants, the main tool in business, which is used for most business processes in the companies. Thus, the emergence and development of the Internet, advances in information technology, systems and standards of their interaction led to the creation of a new trend of modern business – e-business. It can be explained as an activity that uses the possibilities of global information networks for doing business, the essential part of which is e-commerce. E-commerce is only one element of e-business, which is limited to carrying out transactions using electronic systems, such as the sale of goods or services over the Internet. By type of interacting agents e-business can be divided into the following categories:
1. business to business (B2B);
2. Business-to-consumer (B2C);
3. consumer-to-consumer (C2C);
4. business administration (B2A);
5. consumer Administration (C2A). (Smith, p.8)
Also the development of information technologies, Internet, the emergence and rapid growth of e-commerce, became the basis for the emergence of a new trend in modern marketing concept of interaction – Internet marketing, or e-marketing. Today e-marketing is a new quickly developing activity that includes a wide range of both traditional (off-line) elements of marketing activity, and specific (online) technologies and techniques. And by definition of the American Marketing Association (AMA) Internet marketing is marketing activities, based on the principles of the Internet and e-mail and includes advertising through banners, e-mail, search engines optimization, e-commerce and other tools. (Chaffey, 2006)
What are the specific ways of use of the Internet in marketing? Large companies widely use the Internet for global communication, in the implementation of large-scale projects that require joint efforts of several departments and branches, as well as unique opportunities of information access provided by the network. In contrast to previous more passive model of marketing, the Internet allows for interaction between suppliers and consumers, in which the latter are becoming providers (particularly providers of information about their needs). It is important to point the high efficiency of communication with the help of Internet, which makes it possible to reduce the time to search for partners, decision making, new product development, etc. The information and services on the Internet are available 24 hours a day. In addition, such communication is very flexible, allowing for easy changes in the information provided, and thereby allowing to maintain its relevance, without time delay in information distribution.
Because the Internet represents an entirely new communications medium unlike traditional media, in many cases some of the techniques and tools of marketing can not be applied in their current form. In the new marketing environment managers should focus on developing new ideas and principles, based on Internet. The modern concept of marketing requires the companies to be engaged into much broader area of activities than just developing a good product, conducting a reasonable pricing policy and bringing their products to the target market segment. In addition, companies must communicate with current and potential customers, retailers, suppliers, other stakeholders and consumers. The main means of promoting products using the Internet is advertising, sales promotion and public relations. (Chaffey, 2004)
One of the main elements of e-marketing is a web-site of the company. From a marketing perspective, web-site is a collection of information blocks and tools to interact with one or more segments of the target audience. Web-site provides the company with a wide range of additional features of communication, as the company can now provide users with additional services: to give information, provide pre-and after-sales service, sell products and services. The company’s own web-site increases effectiveness of the web advertising campaigns, and it makes a more complete view of the company and its proposal. (Smith, 2009)
Thus, web-site is one of the main elements of the marketing system on the Internet and requires the greatest attention from the marketing services of the company. Successful implementation of the program of communications on the Internet, in terms of creating an effective web-site of the company, can only be achieved if the indicator of repeated visits to the site of its target audience is high enough. This condition is possible with a qualitative solution of the following questions:
– Appropriate site content and its periodic updating;
– The presence of tools to work with the audience on it;
– Maintaining constant feedback from its visitors.
It is important to stress that e-marketing always orients on the customers and their satisfaction, while e-marketing is not only building company’s web-site, but building a web-business to harmonize relationships with customers. (Smith, p. 12)
Thus, e-marketing is the core of e-business, as it allows the company to get closer to the customers and understand them better, it widens distribution channels and promote sales through running e-marketing campaigns, using digital media channels. (Smith, 2009)
