The Importance of E-Marketing

One of the questions I'm sure all of the readers of this blog, as well as the students in this class have asked ourselves is why should I care about internet marketing, and does it actually work in teh real world ? I hope this blog can help to address these questions and show us why we should learn these concepts for our future as marketers. Although this blog will be very fundamental, it should serve to be an introduction to internet marketing for the more in-depth blogs to come. Furthermore,I believe the most important part and single thing I would like to walk away from this class with is the relevance of this course to everyday life. In this regard, I feel everyone is affected by the influence of E-Marketing on their everyday life, and even moreso on their future.

The business world has drastically changed throughout the years. Some of the most important changes are the marketing efforts that drive it, allowing businesses to reach their goals if they are done right. The transition that has faced the most change, however, is undoubtedly the world of internet marketing. Throughout the years, businesses, consumers, marketers, and nearly every member of society has felt the effects of this evolving method in fulfilling customer needs. By utilizing this resource, businesses have welcomed many new opportunities that couldn’t have existed without it. Furthermore, consumers and suppliers in this “digital” age have come to expect these options and are in control of the market. Using the internet and other E-marketing methods is now critical in reaching a target market effectively, as well as doing business overall. Internet marketing is crucial to success because it covers such a large span while upholding a mass appeal. As today’s business environment continues to change, it is essential, if not expected and required, to utilize comprehensive internet marketing to attain or maintain a competitive edge. The endless advantages and effectiveness of e-marketing makes it nearly impossible for any business to turn away.

These forms of media are growing faster than any other and allow companies to save costs, earn more, and increase productivity. The cost to reach of target ratio is much lower than using any other form of media, allowing companies to make much more intelligent financial decisions, as well as make those funds available for other expenses or investments. Marketers have more options available to them by marketing online, including pay per impression, pay per click, pay per play, and many others to determine what is most appealing and effective to their company. Furthermore, consumers have the opportunity to research and purchase products or services at their own convenience, which enables them to generate even greater revenues. Companies are also able to measure their statistics easily and inexpensively, utilizing programs such as analytics as opposed to compiling it all on an organizational level, which comes along with much greater costs. By meeting customer demands through the internet, it has been found that serving customers is significantly cheaper than serving them over the phone. Although it is necessary to incorporate it with an interactive plan, using online resources for customer support, advertising, and sales can save costs as well as free up funds to become even more productive through daily processes and boost sales. One other opportunity for businesses comes from a strange, no-cost source, which comes from social media sites such as Facebook, Craigslist, and MySpace. These also fuel an opportunity for marketers to advertise effectively on these sites, which generally has a higher conversion rate than the typical forms of media. Through the recent changes to internet marketing, this form of media now makes managers even more effective in boosting sales, cutting costs, and increasing productivity in these times of rapid growth, which makes it increasingly important for them to leverage this understanding to boost their success.

Using internet marketing strategies allows companies to effectively reach out to their target market more effectively, as well as expand their audience to an even greater level than with forms of traditional advertising. The cost for distributing information and media is much lower, but also allows companies to reach a more global audience to boost sales even higher. Internet penetration is at an all-time high, with the USA alone at 71.4 %,( Strauss 389). This enables organizations to reach a greater, more specialized consumer base all across the world, as well as build up a greater reliance on this form of marketing. The various forms of internet marketing, as well as its flexibility, enables marketers and other relevant decision makers more control over design, advertisements, development, and other traits to run a truly customer based target market. This form of medium also provides for instant, measurable responses and allows marketers to instantly recognize what opportunities exist for their organization. By using internet marketing, it is possible to refine and target a very specific target audience, and also utilizes niche markets to boost sales to the fullest. By sorting through specific interests or demographics, such as age, gender, geography, activities, or interests, as well as geolocation, it is overwhelming how many options are available by capitalizing on available technologies to reach and expand their target market.

The importance of e-marketing through its various forms is constantly growing and evolving in today’s business world, which is becoming increasingly digital and tech-savvy. The benefits of internet marketing are endless and continue to grow. As the times change, people have come to expect the existence of this form of marketing, making it increasingly crucial to deliver on those needs to foster long-term success. By generating traffic, the visibility of the company is greatly increased. By offering this channel to attain or research their products, marketers and business can also effectively capitalize on their every opportunity. As the importance of this form of marketing has grown, it is also necessary that marketers remain flexible to never stop delivering on customer demand, as well as produce innovative ideas in a time of constant change. It would take an extreme amount of resources, including time, money, and effort, to even compete with the effectiveness of internet marketing. By utilizing this form of targeting their audience, users of this form of rapidly growing media have the opportunity for greater success than ever before.



Works Cited
Evans, Dave and Susan Bratton. Social Media Marketing. San Francisco: Sybex, 2008.
Holahan, Catherine. Businessweek - Advertising Goes Off the Radio (2006-12-07).
Strauss, Judy and Raymond Frost. E-Marketing. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 2008.