E-marketing or no E-marketing? If that’s the question, here is the answer….

The buzz surrounding Internet Marketing was expected, and evident was well. Afterall, the percentage of adults using internet in US is a mind-boggling 78% (more than the literacy rate in most countries; Source Infoplease.com).The particular interest in Social media marketing, which forms a major chuck of the internet marketing efforts can be seen today too, with more than 50% of the above population having an account in one or more of the social networking websites. Organisations are raring to go ahead and spend on social media marketing, which has been described in the following words by a marketing professor at the University of Cincinnati:

“Social media marketing is the ability to use non-traditional communication and connection to build a brand”

I am not sure whether the purpose is always to ‘build a brand’. The main purpose of an organisation might range from selling products or to provide information to its customers or even to ‘save a brand’. Though, whatever the purpose may be, it might, as a consequence result in the brand being built in the minds of the customers.

The same professor also mentioned: “It doesn’t matter if people are talking about your product in a good or bad way; you’re getting your product out there anyway”. I shall again, not agree with this statement of his completely. Social media is as powerful a tool for customers, as it is for marketers. According to Systems thinking, Counter Intuitive type – II error results when your product has negative features, people talk about it, criticize it and hence, out of curiosity, tend to buy the product. But with the social media tool in hand, people will not stop at this point. They would tell the entire planet about their negative experience after consuming the product, resulting in a dent in brand image, and psychological change in the consumers who might actually be satisfied with the product or the brand as a whole. The dent caused to the brand image, as a result of this, would be sustained and talked about, and would dive out of the ocean of internet, once in a while to remind both the customers and the organisation about the failure. This would result in a changed perception of the brand in the minds of the customer, which would be there to stay.

The question arises, why do some organisations, even after splurging millions of dollars of social media marketing, or Internet marketing as a whole, fail to succeed and build their brands. The article talks about the following reasons as to why your e-marketing efforts might go astray:

Technology vs. People: The article talks about the biggest mistake that the organisations tend to make is focusing on the technology part of the marketing efforts and not on the end users. It can be drawn in similar lines to Marketing Myopia, or short sightedness, where the importance of customers is ignored in the process of building a marketing strategy. The outcome should be recognised using surveys or feedbacks from customers and solution must be designed keeping in mind these outcomes.

“If you build it, they will come” only happens in movies: It says that customers won’t contact you themselves even if you have a fantastic site in place, a signup sheet, a blog and a social network presence. You have to approach the existing and prospective customers – by participating in conversations and initiating conversations. Importance of understanding the psychography and sociography of the target market is of utmost importance, as the conversations would be directed and written in the manner appropriate.Another point I would like to add on is that approaching and communicating with customers is a tricky task. The frequency of communication should not be such that the customer finds it interfering or irritating after some point. When to talk, what to talk and how much to talk must be evaluated by the organisation.

Product development is not marketing: It talks about avoiding being too entrepreneurial in nature. I agree that not focusing on the decreased sales of a particular product is not very healthy, but I do not agree on avoiding being entrepreneurial. Great ideas come only to people who experience a pain point, and try to solve it. Also, if an organisation wants to be sustainable, it has to innovate continuously. A single product in their portfolio won’t earn them revenues for the next 100 years (stories like that of Coca-Cola happen rarely….). Believing in the theory of Product Life Cycle, I believe it is necessary to innovate (and that too in-house) and keep your marketing department strong.

Marketing Gurus promising riches are the only ones getting rich: I had a hearty laugh after reading this, not only because of the statement per se, but also because the person writing this article is himself kind of, a Marketing Guru!! Strange but true, a number of books are available, both on-line and off-line that tell you the “secrets of on-line success” or “recipes to success” etc. etc. The author talks about building the mailing list/directory and it’s importance in on-line success. I couldn’t agree more.

Are you answering the door when people knock? : The author talks about having the “correct” information on your website/Facebook page, which is absolutely true. Out of the clutter of information available on the internet, it becomes difficult for a customer to search for the required information. Online chat, FAQs, contact information on the landing page etc. help. Website layout, design and structure plays a huge role.

The importance of social media in building a brand, therefore, cannot be denied. But should it be the only means of building your brand? If you are a brand, expanding in the mass markets of developing countries, social media marketing, or internet marketing as a whole, should be one of the two doors to open, the other being that of traditional marketing methods.

While carrying out marketing through internet, according to me, the following points should be kept in mind by the organisation (along with the above stated):

Be honest, build credibility: People know when an organisation is lying. Customers have resources to figure out the facts of the matter, and if caught lying, organisations will have a very heavy price to pay à Permanent brand damage and loss of trust.

Communication = Talk + Listen: The purpose of e-marketing should be more to listen and engage with customers, not to load them with information.

“Earn” the marketing: Let e-marketing be a small portion but highly effective, so that people carry forward your marketing efforts through word of mouth.

Stop Bragging, be humble: This will help organisations connect better with customers. This will also help them understand that it is not the social media they are interacting with, but humans.

Be the shoulder for your customers, build their trust for you: Let the customers rely on you, and come to you when they face any problem. Don’t let them go about talking negative about your brand. Find solutions for them, make them happy.

Be Human: Let the customers know that it is not the computer system they are interacting with, but with humans, just like them.

Therefore, go in for e-marketing, (your organisation won’t survive for long otherwise) but with a well-planned and a well-executed e-marketing strategy.

 

My report is based on : http://emarketingstrategist.com/internet-marketing-articles/why-doesnt-emarketing-work

References:

http://www.slideshare.net/guest55b505d/social-media-marketing-paper-2

http://marketing.balihoo.com/blog/susan-tormollen/new-micro-study-national-brands-will-continue-to-prioritize-local-marketing-local-digital-tactics

http://marketingwhitepapers.s3.amazonaws.com/SocialMediaMarketingReport2010.pdf

http://www.internetmarketingjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Research-paper-on-onlinesocial-media-marketing_by-Tejal.pdf

http://www.emarketingandcommerce.com/section/internet-marketing

 

One thought on “E-marketing or no E-marketing? If that’s the question, here is the answer….

  1. Great description of the facts….really helpful and up to the mark for any small brand going global through e-marketing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *