EMarketing | Online marketing

EMarketing is about people not about technology, technology is just the 'enabler'

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EMarketing is gaining more influence on consumers' buying decisions and television's influence on awareness is decreasing.

EMarketing is not just about technology. EMarketing is like most marketing - you have to understand your mission and engage your customer or potential customer positively in the experience.

EMarketing gets you closer to customers by creating a dialogue, asking questions and learning about customers' preferences. In all aspects of internet and online marketing we must always remember that it is not about the technology - that merely 'enables'.

EMarketing is about people and making sure that the process, like all marketing, is people orientated - far too many times it is producer or technology orientated and businesses wonder why it doesn't work.

Before the internet, consumer purchases were restricted by time, geography, location, and physical store space. In the digital economy, buying is unlimited by these constrictions. The internet allows near-instant gratification and any internet marketer has to realize this and ensure that the internet marketing programs they create take account of this consumer behaviour.

But remember what we said right at the beginning? EMarketing is about people and making sure that the process, like all marketing, is people orientated - far too many times it is producer or technology orientated and businesses wonder why it doesn't work. Basically, being interactive means that you give people choices that they act upon. People like to be involved. But what does EMarketing technology give you. That's it! The chance to give people what they want: to become involved.

As an example e-mail marketers sometimes offer a choice between HTML and plain text messages, but that's where interactivity usually stops. Some companies let users make further decisions about frequency and format of the messages their recipients get. This usually increases ROI quite significantly. So something as simple as the format in which an EMail is sent or requested or wanted can dramatically affect the success of your EMarketing campaign.

But why not go further? Let people decide when and what they want to receive. This is a great idea for online stores and catalogues. Simply add a small box "Notify me when this item goes on sale." Allow a person to select whether he or she wants to receive an offer about this particular item only, or other special deals as well. "OK", the classic marketer would say, "but that means I am losing high margin sales." But is this true? To often things like this are not measured but an interenet marketing campaign can be constructed - just like any direct marketing campaign - to give you the answers to thsi sort of question.

Here is another EMarketing idea - the human being is a strange creature that does not trust sales people (well, maybe they have a reason for that). However, people do trust others who are just like them. Plus, people like talking to each other and exchanging ideas. So, create a community. Frequently, people lack enough information to make a decision, but they are afraid to ask.

Why not add an option "Put me in touch with other people who bought this product." You have to be careful here and create a forum that allows them to interact in a chat room like way.

Or how about a discount? Simply offer people a choice, what discount they'd like to get - 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, etc. Let a website visitor make his or her selection. Most people opt for the biggest discount first. After they made their selection, you explain how they can get that discount - for example, order 100 copies, or spend £10,000. Now that's interactive and gives you the chance for larger orders. EMarketing allows you to do this in a more interactive and interesting way than classic marketing.

Most people aren't going to spend that much money or order so much stuff. But they will explore other discount options if you set the thing up to be database driven and may find a deal they are looking for. Your EMarketing objective is to inform people about discounts available. The usual discount table is not nearly as effective. Also, remember one very important thing - always offer the smallest discount (5% in this case) forjust participating as the way of thanking the customers.

So, we repeat that in all aspects of interactive marketing we must always remember that it is not about the technology - that merely 'enables'.

Interactive marketing is about people and making sure that the process, like all marketing, is people orientated - far too many times it is producer or technology orientated and businesses wonder why it doesn't work.