Abstract

This paper discusses about the benefits of E–marketing and the development plans to build the relationship with our customer through internet marketing.  It also discusses about the planning, tactics in the digital marketing channel available to the customer’s requirements. We gave out the developing model of e-marketing and simply analyzed the model and its functions. From this paper we obtained that e-marketing advantages and the planning to identify the customer legal requirements relating with digital marketing like SMS marketing.

E-marketing means using digital technologies such as websites, mobile devices and social networking to help reach your customer base to create an awareness of your brand and sell your goods or services. These technologies can be used cheaply and effectively for your company or your business model.

Key words: E-Marketing, Digital Marketing, SMS, Strategy (SMART).

E-Marketing Development Plan

Dr.G.Azad Basha                                 Dr. D.S.A. Mehaboob                                    Dr.V.Valleeullah               Assistant Professor of Commerce, Islamiah College (Autonomous), Vaniyambadi.            .

e.mail:azadbasha2010@gmail.com

Introduction

E-marketing means using digital technologies such as websites, mobile devices and social networking to help reach your customer base, create awareness of your brand and sell your goods or services. These technologies can be used cheaply and effectively, whatever the size of your company or your business model.

The basics of marketing remain the same - creating a strategy to deliver the right messages to the right people. Though businesses will continue to make use of traditional marketing methods, such as advertising, direct mail and PR, e-marketing adds a whole new element to the marketing mix. Its flexible and cost-effective nature makes it particularly suitable for small businesses.

This guide describes the benefits of e-marketing, what the stages are for developing an e-marketing plan and also outlines some of legal issues that you will need to consider. The guide also provides a basic e-marketing plan template that you can download and use for your own business.

The benefits of E-marketing

E-marketing gives businesses of any size access to the mass market at an affordable price and, unlike TV or print advertising, it allows truly personalized marketing. Specific benefits of e-marketing include:

• Global reach - a website allows you to find new markets and trade globally for only a small investment.
• Lower cost - a properly planned and effectively targeted e-marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods.
• Trackable, measurable results - web analytics and other online metric tools make it easier to establish how effective your campaign has been. You can obtain detailed information about how customers use your website or respond to your advertising. See our guide on measuring your online marketing.
• Personalization - if your customer database is linked to your website, then whenever someone visits the site, you can greet them with targeted offers. The more they buy from you, the more you can refine your customer profile and market effectively to them.
• Openness - by having a social media presence and managing it carefully, you can build customer loyalty and create a reputation for being easy to engage with. See our guide on online business networking and social networking.
• Social currency - e-marketing lets you create engaging campaigns using different types of rich media. On the internet these campaigns can gain social currency - being passed from user to user and becoming viral.
• Improved conversion rates - if you have a website, then your customers are only ever a few clicks away from completing a purchase. Unlike other media which require people to get up and make a phone call, or go to a shop, e-marketing can be seamless and immediate.

Together, all of these aspects of e-marketing have the potential to add up to more sales.

Stages in developing your e-marketing plan

It is important to recognize that planning for e-marketing does not mean starting from scratch. Any online e-communication must be consistent and work with the overall marketing goals and current marketing efforts of your business.

The main components of an e-marketing plan will typically include the following stages:

• Identify your target audience - if you identify multiple targets, rank them in order of importance so that you can allocate resources accordingly. Profile each target group and understand their requirements and expectations. This type of customer segmentation will help you choose the right tactics for your plan.
• Understand your competitors - profile your competitors and the market in which you operate. What types of online marketing do your competitors use and how well do they perform? This type of benchmarking will help you understand the environment in which you are operating. See the page in this guide on planning - situation analysis.
• Set your objectives - possible objectives could include raising awareness of your brand, improving sales or online registrations, improving customer retention, providing greater internal efficiencies such as decreased marketing costs and reduced order-taking and fulfillment costs. The objectives that you choose depend on your business needs. For more information see the page in this guide on planning - objectives and strategy.
• Plan your tactics - once you have a top-level strategy including your overall objectives, you need to identify the tactics that you want to use. The plan can also cover any other non-internet marketing activities that are being undertaken. Think about how you will measure your success - build in feedback mechanisms and regular reviews to enable you to assess the performance of your e-marketing activities and identify areas for improvement. For more information, see the page in this guide on planning - tactics.
• Agree a budget - careful budgeting allows you to prevent costs spiraling out of control. Identify the returns you expect to make from your investment in e-marketing activities and compare these with the costs in order to develop a cost/benefit analysis. For more information, see the page in this guide on planning - budget.

Planning - Executive Summary

The executive summary of your e-marketing plan should provide a short synopsis of your entire e-marketing strategy. It should include highlights from each section of the rest of the document.

The role of the executive summary is to provide enough detail to interest busy senior executives and encourage them to buy in to the e-marketing plan and how it can benefit the business.

It should be concise - ideally a page in length - easy to understand, and interesting without using hype. It's advisable to write this section of your plan after you have completed the rest.

The summary should outline the following

• Your business environment
• The key issues that have emerged from your situation analysis
• The key objectives of your e-marketing plan
• The strategies and tactics to be used
• The projected outcomes and expected return on investment

Planning - Situation Analysis

The situation analysis section of your e-marketing plan needs to describe the context in which your e-marketing will take place. It should include an analysis of your business' internal (micro) and external (macro) environments.

Internal considerations include:

• Customers
• Market, and any trends in this
• Current online proposition
• Competitors

External considerations include:

• Social - how changing consumer attitudes could affect your approach
• Legal – i.e., complying with e-marketing laws, such as data protection
• Environmental – e.g., making sure your approach is ethical and sustainable
• Political - how local or national government could impact on your plan
• Technological - how advances in technology could affect your marketplace

Planning - Objectives and Strategy

The objectives you decide on for your e-marketing need to be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely). For more information on SMART, see the page on your marketing objectives in our guide on how to write a marketing plan.

When defining your e-marketing objectives, you should think about how they will align with your overall business' goals and your key performance indicators.

You should also consider what the return on your investment will be - this is likely to be financial, but could also include, for example:

• An improved conversion rate
• Greater brand awareness
• An increase in visits to your website
• A greater market share

How you measure the success of your plan will depend on your general business and marketing objectives. This will differ from business to business.

Your plan needs to look at the whole customer journey – i.e., how a customer will become aware of your brand, why they will then want to visit your website and finally how easily will they be able to make a purchase or register once on your site. This can be summarized simply as awareness, acquisition and conversion. Different online tactics will support different parts of this customer journey.

Strategy

Once you have defined your objectives, you should provide a summary of your strategy, showing how you are going to use e-marketing to meet your goals. This should summarize the 'big picture' and lead naturally into the next section of your plan, in which you will define the tactics that you want to use.

Planning - Tactics

The tactics section of your e-marketing plan will describe how you will implement your strategy, and defines the channels and tools that you will use. It should define what you hope to achieve by using each tactic, how this relates to your main objectives, and how you will measure your performance.

Your tactics should include:

• A summary of your digital marketing mix - what channels will you use?
• The reasons why you have chosen each channel and details of implementation
• The customer segmentation that you will use and how each channel will be targeted
• A summary of the metrics that you will use to measure performance for each channel
• What key performance indicators you will use to assess performance

Digital marketing channels available for you to use

Email - great for building relationships and keeping your customers up to date with offers, and is less intrusive than telephone marketing. However, growing concerns about spam mean you need to make sure you adhere to government regulations. For more information, see the page in this guide on legal considerations in e-marketing.

SMS (short messaging service) - almost everyone has a mobile phone, so marketing via text messaging is a viable option. However, the personal relationships people have with their phones means marketing needs to be carefully considered.

Websites - a hugely flexible option to meet any marketing need. However, with so many other websites, you need a strategy for getting yours noticed and used.

Presenting your tactics in a table will help make your summary easier to read. It may also be useful to group tactics into awareness, acquisition and conversion activities. If you are employing an agency to carry out specific parts of your e-marketing, they should feed into this section.

 

Legal considerations in e-marketing

There are a number of regulations that relate specifically to e-marketing. You need to keep abreast of developments in this area to ensure that you are complying with the various rules.

Email and SMS marketing - regulations

There are rules covering marketing emails and SMS messages to individuals.

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations introduced an opt-in consent procedure for commercial emails - which means you can only target people who have agreed to be contacted.

The rules only apply to new customers. You can continue marketing to existing customers provided they can opt-out of future messages and the marketing messages cover similar products and services.

You must also clearly mark your emails with your contact details and include a valid return email address.

Conclusion

The basics of marketing remain the same - creating a strategy to deliver the right messages to the right people. Though businesses will continue to make use of traditional marketing methods, such as advertising, direct mail and PR, e-marketing adds a whole new element to the marketing mix. Its flexibility, wider coverage and cost-effective nature make it suitable for all nature and type of businesses including small businesses.

REFERENCES

1.      E. Jerome McCarthy (1975)”Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach," fifth edition, Richard D. Irwin, Inc., p.37.

2.      Banting, Peter; Ross, Randolph E. "The marketing mix: A Canadian perspective". Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (Springer Link) 1 (1). Retrieved 2010-11-12.

3.  McCarthy, Jerome E. (1964). Basic Marketing. A Managerial Approach. Homewood, IL: Irwin.