Importance of Marketing
What is marketing? Marketing is a strategy for allocating resources (time and money) in order to achieve certain business objectives. The objective is to make your organization known by promoting materials, events, public relations, social networking, information, loyalty, branding, and customer relationship and so on.
This is the modern definition of marketing where 'promotion' occupies a significant position. In fact, today no company can survive without allocating resource on promotion. Gone are the days of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Mousetrap Theory' -Build a Better Mousetrap and the world will beat a path to the door. To accuse Emerson of injuring IT vendors is a curious indictment considering he died almost 70 years before the first commercial computer became available. In today's digital marketing, the principle and philosophy of marketing is undergoing a rapid change. With the use of computer and internet, many organizations are re-writing their marketing writs to capture new audiences who are more literate, more aware and more tech-savvy. Today, market is not a particular place where goods and services are exchanged. The place of market is much wider than it was ever before the advent internet. Every one's laptop is a lap shop now where transaction is just a click away from their thought. The moment we think to buy, we surf, browse, and find website to book the order.
E-Marketing Vs Conventional Marketing
With there is growing penetration of internet usage, every organizations -be they small or large, are fast adopting e-marketing to reach their potential customers. The definition of marketing, as mentioned above, is same except an addition of the word 'digital'. Yes, e-marketing is your strategy for allocating resources (time and money) digitally in order to achieve your objectives. The major differences between conventional and e-marketing can be explained in terms of customer integrated into process.
E-Marketing Tools
There are numerous e-marketing tools. The most important that marketers use to promote products and services via online are:
- Podcasting,
- Video-Casting
- Online CRM
- Web 2.0 & Social Websites
- Direct mail (e-mail)
- Banner Ad
- Press Release
Marketing Synergies
Although e-marketing exuberance exposes plenty of opportunities however, the foundations of marketing don't show any signs of becoming obsolete. Marketing still involves products, services and ideas which have to be sold at some price. E-marketing is often misconceived as the use of technology (online) to conduct specific marketing activities. Savvy industry professionals recognize this to be a relatively limiting definition of what truly constitutes e-marketing. More than a series of isolated tactics e-marketing actually refers to a philosophical way of considering strategic objectives and understanding how technology can be more efficiently and cost-effectively leveraged to support brand strategies, differentiate them from competitive entries, and extend or expand their value. When considered as an adjunct to conventional marketing initiatives, e-marketing - and the Internet in particular can provide significant scalability and optimization to marketers.
Accordingly, e-marketing allows brands to build on the success of their conventional programs and expand their reach to a wider and more diverse audience of healthcare professionals and/or consumers. Equally important is the ability of e-marketing to achieve this goal with better scalability and lower expense to a company. Various companies currently spend millions of dollars each year to develop and deliver its messages to their prospects through conventional tactics. Fortunately, some organizations/companies already possess sufficient conventional experience and the technological wherewithal to expand and measure this landscape. However, a good synergy between conventional and e-marketing is required for a laying down successful marketing strategies. No company purely on the basis of e-marketing can milk the benefit to its fuller potential without conventional marketing strategies and vice versa. Google is a perfect example of integrating online marketing with traditional media as it offers conventional print, radio and TV advertisements via AdWords.
It is unfortunately true that the traditional marketing alone is no longer adequate to meet the increased demands of customers, especially catering to niche market. Today, all mortar and brick businesses have online presence. Whether they are into B2B, B2C and C2C, all are endeavoring to make use of e-marketing with existing tools and technology to promote their products and services. While e-marketing ensures a fair return of ROI, it however never means that a company should single-handedly focus on e-marketing. Rather, a blend of both traditional and modern marketing methodology should be undertaken to promote business. There are pros and cons for each of the two marketing methodology. Using multiple media in a campaign has a far greater impact than an individual medium by itself. The more interactions you can engage a consumer in, the greater the likelihood of winning them over to your brand and/or making a purchase.
