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Why Is Business Slow To Embrace E-marketing?Pro Member
Posted By: Hans De Keulenaer on 11/25/2007 4:04 AM (CST) 250 Points
E-marketing offers unprecedented opportunities for knowledge management, team interaction and marketing communications, to name just a few. Yet, business organisations seem slow to adopt them. For most organisations I observe, e-marketing means a static website and an electronic newsletter.

Your thoughts please why this is so. Is the barrier cultural, or is there something else at play?

Posted by: Jay Hamilton-Roth Accepted Answer
11/25/2007 8:45 AM (CST)
How much e-marketing is enough? For some businesses, a static website + e-newsletter is quite sufficient. People can find and contact them online.

As best practices evolve to include more e-marketing (proving the ROI on various approaches), the average business likewise shift. Most businesses don't have the vision/time/budget to experiment on new approaches.
 
Posted by: Synergy* Accepted Answer
11/25/2007 11:39 AM (CST)
The only constant is change....

Businesses are slow to embrace e-marketing because it is new and different. In the same way that individuals were hesitant to discard their typewriters in favour of word processors, or computers in favour of the hand-written invoices, record-keeping, etc. Well, you get the idea...

Small businesses especially can benefit, but there are usually few resources to dedicate to educating and launching new technologies and methodologies. There is further caution until they "see for themselves" the benefits. Once a demonstrated value (usually quantifiable) has been determined, you will have dedicated proponents of e-marketing.

Therefore, if you can show even ONE benefit of emarketing which can relate directly to the business and the managers perceive that not only is it beneficial, but also easy to employ, businesses will more readily adopt e-marketing.

Tina:)
 
Posted by: Steve Hoffacker Member Response
11/25/2007 11:53 AM (CST)
It's hard to generalize. EBay, Amazon, GM, Walmart, etc., have a great online presence and emarketing capabilities. Fred's Hardware Shop or Betty's Beauty Salon likely need far less sophisticated online approaches for their businesses. Part of it is a function of the way customers are generated, the size of the business, the markets they serve, and the relationships they have with their customers or clientele.

Steve
 
Posted by: Mike Volpe - HubSpot Accepted Answer
11/25/2007 3:43 PM (CST)
People do what works for them, and even though modern marketing / e-marketing / inbound marketing / Internet marketing is much more effective, people start new jobs and projects leveraging thier past experience, so thier natural reaction is to do the same thing over and over. Its easier to do something again and again than to learn somehting new.
 
Posted by: TAnderson3469 Accepted Answer
11/25/2007 4:00 PM (CST)
Everyone's comments above ring true. If you were to attempt to make a general statement about the reluctance to embrace e-marketing, it is this: FEAR OF CHANGE.

Until the pain of losing market share and lost opportunity is greater than the pain associated with trying new approaches, there will be resistance.
 
Posted by: Neil Member Response
11/25/2007 6:18 PM (CST)
It seems strange that you would suggest that business is slow to embrace permission-based email marketing. We started as a dedicated server, hosting, and Web application development company. Now, our StreamSend email marketing service is, by far, our fastest growing service.

In fact, we have a very popular email marketing reseller program as well.

I see some very interesting things happening in the permission-based email marketing service industry. What exactly are you saying is not going the way it should be going? More details are needed to respond appropriately to your point. This could make for a very interesting discussion.
 
Posted by: mgoodman Accepted Answer
11/25/2007 6:24 PM (CST)
I'm not sure I buy your premise. If you come on up to 30,000 feet, you'll see that e-marketing has actually come a long way in the last decade. How fast do things have to change to satisfy your assumption?

Of course, people resist change. The easiest thing to do today is whatever you did yesterday. And successful businesses are not eager to jump out of the boat so fast.

My take is that there are a lot of very interesting e-marketing changes going on, and things are probably moving more rapidly than your question would suggest. Look, for example, at the impact of search engines and SE advertising on the marketing world.

Just my US$0.02 worth. I'll be interested to see what others have to say.
 
Posted by: AmSam Accepted Answer
11/25/2007 9:30 PM (CST)
I think, the beauty of eMarketing and eCommerce it only require the "power of individuals", to be success. If you have the right set of people, you can build a world class brand in just about 1 year. Coca - Cola took 100 years, to build their brand to the level they are now in. But, did Google or eBay too so long? No. Because of the immense power of eMarketing and eCommerce.

A company based in a remote village of India or Brazil, can now compete head to head with a company in the Silicon Valley, thanks to this new technology.

And, to your question about "why businesses are slow to adopt eMarketing?" my answer is "No they are not slow". Think about any industry, and you'll find an online version of it anywhere. Google for any product category, and you'll find a whole lot of sponsored links. Business do adopt eCommerce. But in different forms. For one company, adopting eMarketing may means running a sophisticated website to sell their products online. For another company, it means just running a Google adwords campaign, for the keywords related to them, and land them on a free hosted webpage where you post a broacher of your product, and your telephone number.

And, the level of development in the country you are talking about is also matters. You can't compare the take up rate of eMarketing in the USA, with a country like Venezuela or Guyana!

BTW, I would like to know the conclusion of your study. Please let me know your final conclusion on this topic, by writing to [Email address deleted by staff]
 
Posted by: AmSam Member Response
11/25/2007 9:33 PM (CST)
Hey! There are few typo's in my reply above. Apologies for that. Was in bit of a hurry to post that reply
 
Posted by: Slyshooter Accepted Answer
11/26/2007 9:51 AM (CST)
I believe that the slow adoption rate of e-marketing is a direct reflection of the development of the country and its market.

Countries with more advanced markets have readily adopted e marketing and e commerce for trade and are very successful in their service.

But most of the developing countries are hesitant as they know that their customer base may be only 50% aware. The fear of losing the rest 50% directly reflects on their web trade.

But still a fear of uncertainty always prevails till now for E-marketing and thus is still not regarded as a high effective media. Or for most of the companies just posting a webpage to provide location and tel no. works for them as they don't require more.

One more point would be the spamming and hacking has much tarnished the image for e-marketing/trade.

For example if your bank sends you a mail stating that there are spam mails coming under the bank's name, therefore, try to authenticate (the address different things that they suggest) before you continue. Now would you not just visit the Machine or Branch for the service instead of using it online.

I have summed up a few points according to my knowledge but would definitely be looking for other perspectives.
 
Posted by: billthomasweb Member Response
11/26/2007 1:00 PM (CST)
I think it depends on the business or industry as to how fast or slow E-marketing is embraced.

Take, for instance, the CPG industry. These are folks who are simply not used to dealing directly with the consumer. CPG marketers specialize in traditional methods such as print, TV, and radio. E-marketing is viewed as an extension of traditional methods.

To build brands online means letting go of control, another thing CPG marketers are not used to. Also, it requires huge investment in infrastructure, technology, education, and/or agency retainers and spending.

No CPG company is going to do that unless they are sure of the ROI, or when industry share shrinks due to evaporating consumer loyalty.

I feel people stick with what they know until change is forced upon them. Why should E-marketing be any different?
 
Posted by: Neil Member Response
11/26/2007 6:54 PM (CST)
I have seen research that indicates that permission-based email marketing is a very fast growing industry. I wish I could remember the source off hand.

Do a google on this and you can find studies supporting what I am saying.
 
Posted by: Better Design* Accepted Answer
11/26/2007 9:11 PM (CST)
Where small and mid-size businesses are concerned, I do believe that some reticence to dive into eMarketing is generational. Technology has evolved quickly. The Millennials are comfortable with it because they have grown up surrounded by it. For many Baby Boomers, however, (whether they'd like to admit it, or not) there exists an element of intimidation where technology is concerned. Many from this generation are playing catch-up with the changes that technology has wrought in business. There is a learning curve involved in getting into the eMarketing game for those who have not been immersed in technology since birth.
 
Posted by: JudyJudyJudy Accepted Answer
11/27/2007 12:48 PM (CST)
I think it might be a resource issue, especially in small to medium size businesses. It takes a person's time to research and develop the content. Then, if we have more online media, we will need more internal support. True, it should funnel into more sales eventually.
I recommend the book called "The New Rules of Marketing & PR" by David Meerman Scott. He says alot of companies are sticking to the old rules, but it will be easier to find your company if your buyers can find you on the web.
 
Posted by: Hans De Keulenaer Author Response
11/27/2007 1:01 PM (CST)
Thanks for the many useful answers. Barriers are cultural (habit, fear of change) but also organisational (lack of time or resources). And the picture is not all bleak - some businesses are moving fast.

I would comment though that electronic marketing is much more than email marketing, and the comments about the good shape and growth of the e-mail marketing industry surprise me. In my view, e-mail marketing is a sunset industry. We observe enormous saturation effects (more than a factor 2 reduction in open rates in 2 years), and basically stick to e-mail since our industry has not realised the potential of rss.
 


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