Why use Analytics for e-marketing?

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. So, why is this important for e-marketers? If you had a website (whether social or not) to promote your business, would it not be vital for you to follow up on how many people are using it and many other numeric details to see if it is an efficient method for marketing?

It is very true that the quality of information is quite important in measuring efficiency but quantitative data is just as important. How can you analyze the quality of information if you do not know how many people are even interested? Web analytics is not just a tool for measuring website traffic but can be used as a tool for business research and market research. It can help these e-marketers to really analyze their market to be more effective at targeting their right audiences.

E-marketers also have the advantage of measuring statistics easily and inexpensively. Nearly all aspects of an e-marketing campaign can be traced, measured, and tested. So why should e-marketers not take advantage of this? This is the main reason why so many businesses are using analytics to promote their entities.
There is a greater need for web analytics these days than the actual technology itself. This article shows recent statistics about the use of analytics compared to technology by companies.
http://www.nma.co.uk/news/brands-spend-more-on-web-analytics-budget-staff-than-technology/3014329.article

Is the Online Market safe?

With the evolution of technology, governments, businesses and consumers all have to face the problem of the Internet and security issues. Privacy protection has been a public policy concern for decades. However, these rapid technological changes, the rapid growth of e-commerce, and the development of more sophisticated methods of collecting, analyzing, and using personal information have made privacy a major socio-political issue in the world.

Buying online is easy and less time-consuming but is it really safe? Most businesses collect and retain sensitive personal information from their customers and employees such as names, addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers and other account numbers. Protecting personal information not only makes good business sense, it can also help them avoid legal problems. Depending on the type of data they are collecting, and who they are collecting it from, a business may be subject to federal and state privacy laws. This is the reason many businesses try to use systems like the PayPal system which consumers, like myself, seem to trust a little more. It protects consumers from identity theft and credit card fraud when shopping online. PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay online without exposing your credit card information and is a security relief for consumers.

Consumers are becoming increasingly sensitized to the protection of their personal information. Nonetheless, some people appear to be willing to trade-off various degrees of personal privacy for discounts on merchandise, free computer hardware, software, or e-mail, and other benefits. Privacy concerns are reflected in opinion polls and surveys. For example, a recent survey by Privacy and American Business showed that 81% of Net users, and 79% of users who buy products and services on the Net, expressed concern about potential threats to their personal privacy while online.

Governments are also worried about the safety of the online market in terms of protecting their states' secret laws, which if disclosed could harm their security or interests in political, economic, defense and other realms. There are so many internet hackers and cybercrimes being committed, governments have to ensure security of all their essential documents which are mainly online today. For example, China is trying to tighten their data control system to help protect their state secrets. They also claim that they are doing this to strengthen the government’s control over private communications. However, is this fair to the Chinese population to have the online privacy being controlled and monitored by the government? It does not seem fair to me but in the effects that China is still a communist state, they may have the rights to 'invade' their online market and control private communication. The following article gives furtther insites of China tightening their data control to "protect" their country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/world/asia/28china.html

Brand Loyalty: Is using lower prices and e-marketing effective?

Brand loyalty consists of a consumer's commitment to repurchase or otherwise continue using the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy. However, it is more than simply repurchasing. Customers may repurchase a brand due to situational constraints (such as vendor lock-in), a lack of viable alternatives, or out of convenience. Are e-marketing or lowering prices effective strategies for brand loyalty?

E-marketing has great power to affect brand awareness and other elements in the hierarchy of brand loyalty but I do not believe it is powerful enough to affect brand loyalty itself. E-marketing promotes a business for online users whether it be through online advertising, or blogs or social sites, but to actually get customers to keep buying products over and over, e-marketing would not really work. I buy goods online but a firm promoting its products online is not going to make me repeat my purchases. The product quality is what keeps me buying repeatedly of any product or service. Even if their online customer service and support is exceptional, I am not going to buy that product again if it was not of good quality or gave me the benefit I wanted.

Very similar to the e-marketing strategy that some firms use is the lowering of prices to try to create brand loyalty of products and services. Cheaper prices work for some customers but it does not work for that many. Some people simply cannot afford the prices of other brands of a product and would remain loyal to a particular brand because they are not able to do any better or increase their choice range. However, most people are loyal to brands because of the quality they receive from that particular brand rather than the price.

Some people claim well Walmart has very low prices compared to its competitors and they have a large market share, so why lower prices are not effective? But I believe that Walmart is one of the few firms where low prices work for them. I also think that its not jus lower prices but also their convenience and product variety that helps their increase in market share and brand loyalty. Additionally, Walmart is able to survive with low prices because of their low cost due to economies of scale and other low cost techniques that other firms are unable to take advantage of.

Many people seem to believe that e-marketing and lower prices are effective tools nowadays to increase brand loyalty but I do not believe they are. E-marketing is now one of businesses biggest fads and people believe they can use it to get the world to buy and keep buying their product. Many people also feel that lower prices will help their firms but that is not always the case because it can come across as poor quality sometimes and deter brand loyalty especially if the product is really not of good qaulity. Here is a link that give some further insites about brand loyalty.
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/pdf/c5-54.pdf

2010 WITHOUT Social Media?

Social Media today is used by everyone around the world, ranging from little children to old adults using it. This encourages firms to use social media to market or sell their products because they know almost everyone will at least glance at their brand or hear about them in some way or the other. I believe some brands can survive and thrive without social media as in the past, but it is a simple way to mass-promote your business and eventually increase sales, hence the reason it is being adopted by many business, including small firms. The advantages of using the social media outweight the disadvantages by alot. I believe in this technologically-inclined age, 2010 and beyond, social media will be a vital aspect of business life.

Many people claim social media is useless because people only use it to reconnect with old friends or for simple entertainment. However, they fail to realize social media does not just include facebook and twitter which are probably the largest social networks now. Social media, which is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques, also includes Internet forums, weblogs, social blogs, microblogging, wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, rating and social bookmarking, which are all becoming more popular with the evolution of time.

Social media allows firms to megaconnect for their targeted customers, most times, through these social media websites. For example, I am a member of a greek organization and we have a facebook group. Nearly all greek stores advertise on my facebook account because I, along with the millions of other greeks around, am most likely to buy greek apparel from them. Social media works for firms like this. Also, some brand names just get stuck in your head from continuously seeing them. For instance, DeVry Univerisity advertisements are always popping up on my facebook page so I always remember them. Also, you can become a fan of stores like Nike. When you become a fan of something it stays on your page until you delete it so you are always reminded about this store that you choose to be a fan of. These examples are simply from my facebook and shows how firms promote through social media. There are many other kinds of social media as I described before that promote in other ways as well to the users of that kind of madia. For example, firms that probably sell books will be more likely to use social blogs or weblogs to promote since book readers and writers are usually bloggers.

Firms that are using social media do face several problems but they can also overcome them with a little extra effort. As our professor mentioned, one of the problems with online social media is that you alwyas have to have something new to say. This is true in order to keep your audience interested and alert. However, this is not such a hard thing to do. May business owners are creative people. They had to be creative to set up business in the first place and to maintain a business, one has to be creative anyway. So I do not see it as a problem for a firm to always come up with new things to say. This may be a challenge as it is a bit time consuming as well but the extra effort is worth the challenge because your business will be more in the spotlight.

http://e-marketingforsensiblefolk.blogspot.com/2010/05/can-your-brand-thrive-without-online.html

Online social media may not be necessary for your brand success depending on the type of business you have. Some brands are already so established people are going to buy them even if they do not promote through online social media. Also, if the people in your target market, like older folks who do not really use the internet, are not likely to use online social media, it is not necessary to use this online social media to improve your brand and business. However, for most firms today, especially in this world of vastly increased competition, it is essential to stay in the public's eye continuosly to promote yourself effectively and gain a greater market share and thus profits. Thus, online social media is an indispensable tool for brand success for most firms in this 21st century era.

Paywalls for news: Good idea or not?

The New York Times is the largest local metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the third largest overall behind The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. The weekday circulation of the paper has fallen drastically in recent years to fewer than one million copies daily for the first time since the 1980s. Today, due to the many advancements in technology, the revenues of the hard copy newspapers have been declining. This is due to two major factors: people can access newspapers online for free, and advertisers can advertise online much easier and sometimes cheaper. Ad revenues have severely fallen across the newspaper industry as can be seen at the following website:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/A-look-at-newspaperindustry-apf-2524980193.html?x=0&.v=1

The New York Times(NYT) is considering to move to a subscription or pay-per-read method. We are not sure if this is a good/safe strategy for them though. In 2005, they attempted to do this. It lasted for two years and stopped because they lost many viewers. Now, there is a possibilty that this could happen again and they would be unsuccessful. However, I do not believe that the NYT will attempt this again without having information or knowledge that they will still have a large audience even if they moved to this new method. They must have done great research with surveys taken, for example, to see that enough people will now pay for news that was free before, allowing their profits not to fall. Of course they are going to lose viewers who will not be willing or capable of paying, but I beleieve that they have thoughtfully considered this and know that it would not affect their profits too heavily. (Yea I know I could be very wrong! Lol!)

When i was much younger, I always wondered how newspaper companies made money because they were sold for so cheap, until my mother told me that the advertisements really paid for them. So now that ad revenue is on a major decline, ads are not paying for hard copy newspapers as much, and it is more expensive for the newspaper companies to manufacture and sell hard copies, thus they are looking for other ways to decrease cost and increase revenues. Soon there may not be any hard copy newspapers and everything may be online. Maybe this is what the NYT is predicting,with how the newspaper industry looks right now, and trying to take the first initiative, hoping everyone else will follow the trend.

I also believe that many people will be loyal and subscribe to the NYT, if they do start charging again because many people trust the paper as a great source of accurate and intellectual news. People from all over the world read the newspaper to get information about the US and the rest of the world. I knew about the NYT when I was back in Trinidad before I came to the US, because my teachers would refer me to it, showing that it is known world-wide and appreciated as a good source.

It would be sad for people who cannot afford it though and this is the major disadvantage NYT and other companies who may want to do the same has to consider. Yes they are businesses and they need to make their profits somehow but denying poorer people access to this essential intellectual information may not be the best way. Maybe the tv news channels, like CNN and MSNBC, are going to have more viewers if these newspapers begin implementing this method?!

Should all businesses use E-Marketing?

The Internet has brought media to a global audience. The interactive nature of e-marketing in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. E-marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it not only refers to the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media, but it includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management systems.

All businesses may see e-marketing in the positive light because of the many forseen benefits.
According to the Business Link Guide by the UK, 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 personalised marketing. Some benefits of e-marketing include:
Global reach - a website can reach anyone in the world who has internet access. This allows you to find new markets and compete 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 - marketing by email or banner advertising makes it easier to establish how effective your campaign has been. You can obtain detailed information about customers' responses to your advertising.
24-hour marketing - with a website your customers can find out about your products even if your office is closed.
Personalisation - 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.
One-to-one marketing - e-marketing lets you reach people who want to know about your products and services instantly. For example, many people take mobile phones and PDAs wherever they go. Combine this with the personalised aspect of e-marketing, and you can create very powerful, targeted campaigns.
More interesting campaigns - e-marketing lets you create interactive campaigns using music, graphics and videos. You could send your customers a game or a quiz - whatever you think will interest them.
Better conversion rate - 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, post a letter or go to a shop, e-marketing is seamless.
Together, all of these aspects of e-marketing have the potential to add up to more sales.

With the technology that exists today, many businesses are taking advantage of the internet to promote their goods and services. But are all the businesses equipped enough or know their market well enough to do this?

I do not believe all businesses should use e-marketing strategies. For instance small business that may lack knowledge of technology should not use the internet to try to sell. Hardware safety and quality assurance, software that facilitates the unique business requirements, setting up or tagging with online payment channels, online distribution costs, maintenance of site and upgrading are all the requirements for a successful sustaining business on the net. Lack of technological knowledge may cause the small busines to spend more money trying to learn and use the technology rather than just marketing the traditional way physically. Thus, e-marketing would not be a cost-effective approach for the business.

Additionally, e-marketing does not cater to markets with people of low income status/older people who do not utilize newer technologies/people that just simply do not use newer technologies like the internet. People with lower income statuses are most likely not to have a computer or access to the internet. If your product or service targets these poorer people, there is no need to try to market online because most of your market would probably not even have a chance to see your online marketing. This also applies to the older people and people who are not familiar with/do not use these newer technologies.

There are some consumers who do not trust information online that they cannot physically see and would still rather do the traditional way and go to a store, that is, orthodox buyers who prefer physical interaction and physical review of goods/ services before buying them. Building up the trust that interactions in the virtual world are real and honest is an ongoing process and it would require some more time to achieve this dependence on internet marketers. Marketers who are selling commodities where they need to build good relationships and trust with customers or who promote to older people that rather physically review their goods should minimize or not use e-marketing.

The internet is still regarded as a source of information and not all customers are comfortable making transactions on the World Wide Web. Many of the businesses that exist offline use internet marketing just for showcasing and promoting their products and services while purchases and transactions take place physically, in person. So maybe this is what some businesses should do to still capture online users if you know your target market is not very much online-oriented.

Therefore, it is very important that businesses are aware of the reward and inconveniences of internet marketing before they really strategize to optimize their revenue on the advantages and nullify the disadvantageous effects of virtual e-marketing. Not all business would be capable of taking advantage of the great benefits of e-marketing and they should realize this before attempting to show out online.

Blog Marketing: Is it an effective tool for your business?

A company may use an online business blog to provide information about and generate interest in products and services sold offline, or as a blog marketing tool to generate e-commerce sales. Blogs are an attractive alternative to traditional corporate website because they are more interactive and collaborative.

Blog marketing is something that has become a very important area for any growing business. Businesses have been able to really leverage their online appearance by implementing a blog into their website. Blog marketing is really internet marketing using a blog as a promotional vehicle. Companies can use blogs to promote products and services, linking directly to a sales page, or use pay-per-click, affiliate, or banner advertising to generate income from the blog. Typically, corporations use blogs to create a dialog with customers and explain features of their products and services.
Many organizations use blogs with their user community. This allows them to share and preview product features, functions, and benefits before the products are released. Blogs are an excellent way to gather feedback and to make sure products meet the needs of users. Blogs have become the next generation marketing tool to corporate websites which merely post collateral and do not provide any interactive feedback.

There are many advantages of using blogs to market your business but I believe there are also setbacks. A business may have to hire an additional person to keep abreast and maintain the blog. Since blogging is a 24-hour job because people can continuosly comment on it, a peron/persons may have to be put in place to monitor the blogs and ensure nothing is written to destroy the business' reputation and if so, to correct they matter quickly and efficiently. This additional hiring increases the cost to your business as labor costs increases.

This ongoing maintenance of blogs can also be very time consuming. When you post a blog about your business, it takes time for alot of people to reach to it to actually read it in order for you get responses and feedback. With so much competition and other blogs being around, it takes people time to actually read your blog to get information from it and then leave comments.

Misinterpretations of blog information may also occur when blog marketing. Any information posted can be misinterpreted as people have their own opinions and ideas of things. Since feedback and comments are allowed on blogs, by consumers, they may change the idea that you are trying to get across to other consumers, obstructing your marketing strategy for these consumers.

There is also the possibilty that you would not be getting a true evaluation of your market through these blogs, which is one of the main reasons for blog marketing. Your target market, the people you may actually want to look at your products through the blog may not be the ones commenting. Many people do not use blogs or pay attention to them for information especially about goods or services. I can speak on this for myself because I have never written on someone's blog or considered one when purchasing a commodity, in all the years that I have been living.

This website shows how blog marketing does help some businesses.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/aweber-communications-named-2010-american-business-awardssm-finalist-2010-05-18?reflink=MW_news_stmp