E-Marketing Communication Tools Instructor: Hanniya Abid Assistant Professor COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Lecture 18 E-Marketing

Objectives After this lecture, you will be able to: Know Online Communication Tools Discuss how marketers use the Internet for advertising, Know marketing public relations, sales promotions, direct marketing, and personal selling.

Online communications tools The Internet extends and integrates all ten online communications tools. This section summarizes the opportunities and the challenges of online communications. First we will consider the range of online promotion tools that are available.

Online communications tools Online promotion is continuing to grow in importance and gaining an increasing share of marketers ’ budgets and efforts – whether a text message that changes behaviour immediately or key words that attract more enquiries or contextual banner ads that change attitudes, or viral marketing that makes people talk about a brand. Online channels can do things that offline communications simply cannot, e.g. some web sites can promote, communicate and create a brand experience which is unique to the online users.

Online communications tools The complete promotional mix or communications mix – the ten communications tools (advertising, selling, sales promotion, PR, sponsorship, direct mail, exhibitions, merchandizing, packaging and word-of-mouth) – can be used to communicate or promote in the online or offline world. They can all be extended online in new and dynamic ways. Think about their online equivalents.

Online equivalents of established communications tools. Although web sites can be considered a separate communications tool, they are best thought of as an integrator of all ten tools

Guidelines For Effective Promotion o The online promotional challenges marketers need to respond to can be summarized by the six key issues: mix, integration, creativity, interaction, globalization and resourcing.

Mix the promotional mix E-marketers need to mix the promotional mix. This involves deciding on the optimum mix for different online promotional tools. Think about whether you use the full range of promotional tools and whether you are using the most cost effective techniques for acquiring your target customers

Integration Support the overall positioning and online value proposition which the e-marketing strategy defines. A single consistent message and a single integrated database are needed – which recognizes and remembers customers ’ names and needs regardless of which access devices are being used (TV, telephone, PC or hand-held device). Online integration is difficult enough. Online and offline integration requires even more management skills.

Creativity Next comes the extra layer of creativity – interaction. This enhances the experience and deepens the communications impact (and can also collect customer data). This is where the online opportunity can really create some ‘ sizzle ’.

Globalization Then of course there are the added complications of a global audience. Web sites open your window to the world. When global audiences look in (to your site) they may not like what they see.

Resourcing The online communications opportunity is infinite. However resources to design and maintain the content, interactions and the database are not infinite. Resources are also needed to service customer enquiries whether online or offline. Even ensuring consistent use of the brand requires time, energy and money. Finally, remember all communications are wasted if the rest of the mix is wrong, for example a poorly targeted product.

Online Marketing Communication All ten communications tools should be reviewed for how they can be extended and enriched online. Online communications challenges include: mix, integration, creativity, globalization and resourcing. Take advantage of the characteristics of the new media through promotion that is: dynamic, carefully targeted, highly relevant and helps build an ongoing relationship based on the permission and trust of the customer

Internet Advertising Advertising is non-personal, usually persuasive, communication about products or ideas paid for by an identified sponsor. All paid space on a website or in an is considered advertising.

Trends in Internet Advertising  Online advertising reached $23.5 billion in 2008, $22.7 billion in  In 2009, 14.3% of ad dollars were spent online.  Most spending came from:  Retail  Telecom  Financial services  Automotive  Computing

U.S. Internet Advertising Expenditures

Internet Advertising Formats Keyword search is the fastest growing and most important technique. Display ads are the second largest. Display ads include traditional banners and many additional sizes. Formats include rectangles, pop-ups, banners, buttons, and skyscraper display ads.

Advertising Dollars by Format

Rich Media Ads Rich media ads are interactive, at least offering click-through. Rich media ads often use Flash animation to attract attention. Many formats can be rich media, including: Banner ads. Interstitial ads. Floating ads. Expanding ads. Polite ads.

Contextual Ads Ad servers serve ads into web sites as appropriate users view pages. Facebook also offers specific ad targeting based on user profiles. This process is also the basis for Google’s AdSense program. Contextual ads (keyword search) are the largest category of online advertising.

Advertising advertising is the least expensive type of online advertising. Advertisers can purchase space in another firm’s e- mail content, such as newsletters. Note that messages sent from a firm directly to Internet users are direct marketing, not advertising.

Sponsorships Sponsorships integrate editorial content and advertising. Sponsorships allow great interactivity and help firms build synergistic partnerships that provide useful content. Sponsor disclosure is an important issue for e- marketers.

Mobile Advertising Mobile Internet usage grew about 25% annually from Techniques for mobile devices include: Display ads Messaging Location-based ads Paid search Video Advertising on mobile devices is likely to increase.

Mobile Advertising Venues by Goal

Marketing Public Relations (MPR) Public relations includes activities that influence public opinion and create goodwill. MPR includes brand-related activities and nonpaid, third-party media coverage to positively influence target markets. A website can serve as an electronic brochure. Online events can draw traffic to a site. Users can download video podcasts. Viral marketing can create buzz online.

Sales Promotion Offers Sales promotions are short-term incentives that facilitate the movement of products to the end user. Coupons Rebates Samples Contests, sweepstakes, and games 2010 usage estimates are 6%-75% of Internet users. Sales promotions do not help build customer relationships in the long term.

Direct Marketing Direct marketing is direct communication designed to generate a response. Online techniques include: Outgoing . Targeted online ads that solicit a direct response. Text messages or Short Message Services (SMS). Multimedia and instant messages.

, used by 89% of Internet users, is the Internet’s killer application. 75% of marketers invest in campaigns. has advantages over postal direct mail marketing. No postage or printing costs. Immediacy and convenience. s can be automatically individualized. also has disadvantages. Unsolicited (spam). Effective lists are hard to obtain and maintain.

Metrics for Electronic and Postal Mail

Permission Marketing: Opt-in, Opt-out When consumers opt-in, they are giving permission to receive commercial . Marketers should obtain lists that are guaranteed to be 100% opt-in. Opt-in techniques are part of a bigger marketing strategy called permission marketing or “turning strangers into customers.”

Viral Marketing Viral marketing is the online equivalent of “word of mouth” marketing. Hotmail is a viral marketing success story. Movies such as Blair Witch Project and American Psycho were promoted using viral marketing techniques. Burger King’s Subservient Chicken campaign drew 14 million visitors in the first year.

Text Messaging Short Message Services (SMS) are up to 160 characters of text sent over the Internet with a cell phone or smartphone. Marketers can build relationships by sending permission-based information where consumers want to receive it. SMS use continues to grow in all industrialized nations.

Location-based Marketing Location-based marketing includes promotional offers pushed to mobile devices and based on the user’s physical location. Google is on the leading edge with its local search.

Direct Marketing Metrics Response rate and ROI are the most appropriate metrics for direct marketing campaigns. receives a widely varied and generally low click through rate, but the highest ROI of any direct media. In a study of SMS campaigns, 94% of messages were read by recipients and 23% showed or forwarded messages to a friend.

Spam Spam is unsolicited . The CAN-SPAM Act appears to have little ability to stop spam. Spammers routinely harvest addresses from newsgroup postings and then spam the members.

Personal Selling Personal selling involves real time conversation between a salesperson and customer, face-to-face, by telephone, or by computer. Some companies provide real time sales assistance online. Land’s End has a live chat feature. The Internet can also generate leads for salespeople.

IMC Metrics Display ads are generally ineffective. Only 0.2% of all users click on them. Online ads that were bigger or contained rich media delivered greater impact. There is increasing evidence that online and offline advertising work well together.

Best and Worst Performing IMC Tactics