Unique Characteristics of the Web as a Marketing Media

Social Media


Social media is the use of sites such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest.  It is used in business to drive sales by connecting with other businesses and consumers, to build a community where businesses engage with their clients.  Content must be both informative and interesting and must be continuously updated.  Customers can ‘like’, comment/review or share the company’s contents, thus creating free advertising.  It is also used to recruit staff, conduct market research and it provides great exposure for the business.  Feedback and discussion with users can be extremely helpful to gain valuable input on products.  Connecting with users builds traffic to the company’s site, drives sales and can create brand loyalty.  It is free and cuts marketing and recruitment costs to a minimum.  Skype can be used to keep down the costs of business telephone calls.  It can be used worldwide for conferencing, and keeping in contact with both customers and staff, and potential staff can be interviewed over the internet.  It is an extremely useful e-tool for cutting the cost of business calls and business travel.

The Global Nature


The global nature of the web means companies have a far-reaching audience.  There are over 2.6 billion internet users, and more than 6.5 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and businesses can advertise to anywhere around the world that has internet, giving easy access to new customers and therefore, expanding their markets.  The consumer need only to have access to the internet and a device, of which they usually have more than one, and in the case of mobile phones they are generally carried everywhere the consumer goes.  The internet enables communication to be done faster, over distance and companies can communicate with millions of people at the same time.  Though they must comply with legal issues which vary regionally, and with the techniques that are used.

 

Rich Media  


Rich media is a digital marketing term for an advert that includes features such as videoclips, interactive flash games, advergames and audio clips that enables consumers to interact with the contents.  In the case of interactive games consumers can gain some enjoyment therefore, they hold the user's attention by making the advertisement more fun and more likely to be successful.  Data on consumers entrance and exit from the ad, their interaction or their downloading of the contents can be monitored so companies can instantly see if their campaign was successful.

24/7 Business


Businesses using the web can operate continually.  Once websites are set up consumers can visit at anytime from anywhere around the world, so businesses are constantly advertising, and are able to sell their products at any time of the day or night.  Bringing companies greater opportunities for retail and having continuous incoming traffic also means that they can sell their products and have their content shared outside of working hours, without a staff member having to be there. Businesses that are operating 8 to 5 are finding it hard to compete with 24/7 internet competitors.  Companies can be run from any location, during Public Holidays, and they can even receive orders and payments while staff members are sleeping.

Interactivity/Feedback


Interactivity and feedback are important to business and consumer relations.  A consumer’s action is often prompted by a thought or emotion, which creates an expectation for a specific response.  Should the response be quick and useful, then the experience will be a positive one for the consumer and they will be more willing to ‘like’, comment, review, share the company’s posts and have brand loyalty.  Businesses can instantly learn the reaction to their posts through consumer's comments and therefore, can change or update quickly.  Valuable information may be gained through feedback, whether a product is popular or whether consumers find fault or are confused by it.

Cost


It can be free using social media or have a minimal cost, and by targeting specific audiences through social media, blogging or websites, advertising can be done cheaply and effectively.  There is also no additional cost to advertise globally as the company’s sites can be access from anywhere and by anyone who has access to the internet.  It is a lot cheaper than traditional marketing, as it does not have the additional expenses such as television and radio commercials, print as in Newspapers, flyers and posters, or the distribution costs such as postal costs.  Digital marketing has the advantage where businesses can change or update their ads, without the expense that traditional advertising has.



Google Ads


Google ads is used in Search Engine Marketing.  It is an application that helps drive people to companies’ websites.  It allows the companies to place paid for keywords that a searcher might use for products or services on Google, resulting in the company’s website appearing higher on a search engine results page (SERP).  Google places a small green ‘Ad’ label next to these search results.  Companies need to bid against rival companies for these keywords, on how much they are willing to pay Google Ads every time their site is clicked.   As it is ‘pay per click’, it is very cost effective as businesses only pay when traffic visits their sites.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)


Search engine optimisation is the process of increasing a business’s websites visibility on a search engine, meaning that the company’s website will appear higher up on the first page of a web search using a search engine, and thereby improving the quality and quantity of traffic to the company’s site.  Research shows that 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.  Therefore, to improve the company’s results they must make their content relevant and increase specific unpaid for keywords that users will use in their searches.  By using Blogs businesses can be more specific with their contents and therefore, get more hits.  By using two to three relevant words instead of just one, businesses will have a greater chance of becoming more relevant to a consumer's search, e.g. instead of colleges, which would show up billions of results, they use phrases such as Technical colleges Cork.

Viral Marketing


Viral marketing is when companies encourage their audience to share contents through social media, thereby increasing brand or product awareness.  It happens when recipients pass on information from person to person, spreading like a virus, on their social media pages, such as video clips, Interactive flash games, images, emails, blogs, texts or posts.  It is free and a very effective way of marketing as the further it spreads the larger the audience, thus generating sales.

Google Analytics


Google analytics is a free analytic application by Google, it helps companies to track only the human activity on their site.  It enables businesses to measure how many browsers visit their websites, where they are from, what browser and operating system they have used, what keywords they used to find the company's site, what they looked at, when and how long they stayed and what action they took.  It will also record if they return to the company’s site, and it also enables businesses to see instant results of their advertising.
 

Segmentation


Segmentation is the process of sub-dividing the market into groups of consumers with similar preferences, characteristics and tastes.  There are four ways to segment a market:

1.     Demographics, which includes age, gender, income, ethnic group and occupation.

2.     Geographic, which is location, this could be countries where they may have different tastes according to their religion and customs. Or it may be the different regions of the same country, e.g. urban vs rural, or county.

3.     Lifestyle, this could be people's interest or hobbies.

4.     Behaviour, which is based on behavioural patterns like frequency of use, or loyalty to a product.

Breaking down the market in this way means that companies know who they are advertising their product to, ensuring that it is the market they wish to target. 

Different groups of consumers are drawn to different marketing media, trends and fashions, e.g. with age, young social media users tend to use Instagram and Snapchat instead of Facebook which they deem to be for an older profile.  Companies therefore, would use Instagram, Snapchat or any other e-tool that this age group use to appeal to them.  To target men companies could advertise through football, using blogs or football sites, as they are still the largest audience for this sport.

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