It may seem surprising but many companies, big and small, have yet to
develop a rational Internet marketing strategy. Considering the Internet
has now been used effectively by marketers since 1994, any organization
without a strategy to utilize the Internet for marketing is probably making
a big mistake. For any organization that still does not have a meaningful
Internet marketing effort we offer 10 Reasons why you should.
Possibly the most important reason why companies need to have an active
Internet marketing strategy is because of the transformation that has
occurred in how customers seek information. While customers still visit
stores, talk to sales representatives, look through magazines, and talk
to friends to gather product information, an ever-increasing number of
customers turn to the Internet as their primary knowledge source. In particular,
they use search engines as their principle portal of knowledge as search
sites have become the leading destination sites for most Internet users.
Marketers must recognize that the Internet is where customers are heading
and, if the marketer wants to stay visible and viable, they must follow.
2. What Customers Expect
The Internet is not only becoming the resource of choice for finding
information, in the next few years it is also likely to be the expected
location where customers can learn about products and make purchases.
This is especially the case for customers below the age of 25. In many
countries, nearly all children and young adults have been raised knowing
how to use the Internet. Once members of this group dominate home and
business purchases they will clearly expect companies to have a strong
Internet presence.
3. Captures a Wide Range of Customer Information
As a data collection tool the Internet is unmatched when it comes to
providing information on customer activity. Each time a visitor accesses
a website they leave an information trail that includes how they got to
the site, how they navigated through the site, what they clicked on, what
was purchased, and loads of other information. When matched to a method
for customer identification, such as login information, the marketer has
the ability to track a customer's activity over repeated visits to the
site. Knowing a customer's behavior and preferences opens up tremendous
opportunities to cater to customer's needs and, if done correctly, the
customer will respond with a long-lasting loyalty.
4. Extreme Target Marketing
The most efficient way for marketers to spend money is to direct spending
to those who are most likely to be interested in what the marketer is
offering. Unfortunately, efforts to target only customers who have the
highest probably of buying has not been easy. For instance, consider how
much money is wasted on television advertisements to people who probably
will not buy. Yet the Internet's unrivaled ability to identify and track
customers has greatly improved marketer's ability to target customers
who exhibit the highest potential for purchasing products.
5. Stimulate Impulse Purchases
Whether customers like it or not, the Internet is proving to be the ultimate
venue for inducing impulse purchases. Much of this can be attributed to
marketers taking advantage of improvements in technologies that: 1) allow
a website to offer product suggestions based on customer's online buying
behavior, and 2) streamline the online purchasing process. But online
impulse purchasing also takes advantage of the "purchase now, pay
later" attitude common in an overspending credit card society. How
this plays out over time as many customers become overwhelmed with debt
will need to be watched and could impact online marketer's activities.
6. Customized Product and Service Offerings
Companies know they can develop loyal customers when product and service
offerings are designed to satisfy individual needs. This has led many
online marketers to implement a mass customization strategy offering customers
online options for configuring products or services. The interactive nature
of the Internet makes "build-your-own" a relatively easy to
implement purchasing option. An empowered customer base that feels a company
will deliver exactly what they want is primed to remain loyal for long
period of time.
7. Takes Prospects Right to the Sale
No other form of communication comes close to turning exposure to promotion
into immediate customer action as the Internet, which allows customers
to make purchases immediately after experiencing a promotion. Prior to
the Internet, the most productive call-to-action was through television
informercials that encourage viewers to call toll-free phone numbers.
However, moving customers from a non-active state (i.e., watching television)
to an active state (i.e., picking up the phone to call the number) is
not nearly as effective as getting people to click on an Internet ad while
they are actively using the Internet.
8. Conveys Perception of Being a Full-Service Provider
For distributors and retailers the Internet makes it easy to be a comprehensive
supplier. Unlike brick-and-mortar suppliers who are often judged by the
inventory that is actually on hand or services provided at a store, e-commerce
sites can give the illusion of having depth and breadth of inventory and
service offerings. This can be accomplished by placing product and service
information on the company's website but behind the scenes having certain
orders fulfilled by outside suppliers via shipping and service agreements.
With such arrangements customers may feel they are dealing with providers
that offer full-service when in reality a certain percentage of the products
and service are obtained from other sources.
9. Lower Overhead, Lower Costs, Better Service
Internet technologies are replacing more expensive methods for delivering
products and services, and for handling customer information needs. Cost
savings can certainly be seen with products and services deliverable in
digital form (e.g., music, publications, graphic design, etc.) where production
and shipping expenses are essentially removed from the cost equation.
Cost savings may also be seen in other marketing areas including customer
service where the volume of customer phone calls may be reduced as companies
provide online access to product information through such services as
Knowledge Bases and answers to Frequently Asked Questions. Field salespeople
may also see benefits by encouraging prospects to obtain product information
online prior to a face-to-face meeting. This may help reduce the time
devoted to explaining basic company and product information and leave
more time for understanding and offering solutions to customer's problems.
As these examples suggest, the Internet may lower administrative and operational
costs while offering greater value to customers.
10. Create Worldwide Presence.
The Internet is a communication and distribution channel that offers
global accessibility to a company's product and service offerings. Through
a website a local marketer can quickly become a global marketer and, by
doing so, expand their potential target market to many times its current
size. Unlike the days before e-commerce when marketing internationally
was time-consuming and expensive, the uploading of files to establish
a website is all that is needed to create worldwide audience.
