E-Marketing

These technologies use web, e-mail, sms, mobile phones and interactive digital TV that form the online channels which e-marketers use to build and develop relationships with customers.

It's not the technology that drives e-marketing. It's the business returns from gaining new customers and maintaining relationships with existing customers. E-marketing does not occur in isolation, but is most effective when it is integrated with other communications channels such as phone, direct-mail or face-to-face. On-line channels should also be used to support the whole buying process from pre-sale to sale to post-sale and further development of customer relationships.

Customer-centric e-marketing is based on knowledge of customer needs developed by researching their characteristics; behaviour, what they value, what keeps them loyal and then delivering tailored electronic communications.

"Marketing (on-line) is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably."

This definition emphasises the focus of marketing on the customer, while at the same time implying a need to link to other business operations to achieve this profitability. Internet technology can be used to support these aims as follows:

• Identifying - the electronic records left in the wake of customer purchases and the Internet can be used for marketing research to find out customers' needs and wants;
• Anticipating - the Internet provides an additional channel by which customers can access information and make purchases - understanding this demand is key to governing resource allocation to e-marketing.
• Satisfying - a key success factor in e-marketing is achieving customer satisfaction through the electronic channel, this raises issues such as is the site easy to use, does it perform adequately, what is the standard of associated customer service and how are physical products dispatched?

• E-mail
  • Promotional offers
  • Personalised news letters and blogs
  • Viral marketing via competitions
  • Personally customised brochures and catalogues
  • Automatic notification of sought items for sale/bargains
  • Feedback on the processing of customer orders
• SMS
  • Employee alerts
  • Company wide broadcasts
  • Work group notices
  • Answering employee queries
  • Personalised advertising
  • Viral marketing via competitions
  • Automatic notification of sought items for sale / bargains
  • Sending emails via SMS
  • Receiving short emails via SMS
• Web banner
• Search engine

Lochgardie Media has expertise in all of the above. We can integrate your sales strategy into the on-line tools needed for you to participate successfully in E-Marketing.

REFERENCES