If there was ever a time to take the plunge into Internet marketing, now is the time. Why now?
Internet marketing — or eMarketing, as we refer to it at GotMarketing — is incredibly cost-effective, and in today's uncertain economy, cost-effective marketing is mandatory. eMarketing is immediately measurable in ways that traditional marketing will never be, and no one can afford to make mistakes on a limited budget.
If you're like most of us, you'd like to do more marketing for your buck. If you aren't already an expert, read on. This article will help demystify eMarketing. At the end, you'll feel like you've had a reality check. You'll come to realize that the Internet is really just another marketing tool, but a very powerful and cost-effective marketing tool with a new set of rules and opportunities.
This article will focus on the 4 Ps of eMarketing — a new world order that is both a constraint and an opportunity for marketers trying to take advantage of the Internet's power and reach.
What the heck is eMarketing, anyway?
When we asked our users what eMarketing meant to them, we got many interesting answers, including “email”, “marketing on the Internet”, “Web-based marketing”, “online marketing”, “Customer Relationship Management” and “marketing automation”. That's quite a range of answers. It implies that there is no generally accepted answer and proves that there is a lot of confusion out there.
Basically, eMarketing is still marketing: the art and science of crafting and delivering a message that will influence a recipient's behavior. But the truth is, eMarketing can be anything you want it to be. So, instead of wrestling with definitions, let's focus instead on how the Internet can be harnessed to help you find and retain customers.
The New 4 Ps of eMarketing
Remember the 4 Ps of marketing? Product, price, place and promotion. Well, the world of eMarketing has new rules and a new set of Ps that overlay the original four. Ignore these at your peril. Embrace them, and you can harness the power of the Internet to do more marketing, more affordably and more successfully to acquire, retain and grow your customer base.
The 4 Ps of eMarketing are:
- Personal
- Pervasive
- Permission
- Privacy
Personal
Since its inception, the Internet has been a catalyst for user control — no longer can marketers broadcast a message to a group of people and expect that it will have the intended effect. The Internet has created a revolution of users who have come to expect personalized, tailored communications.
Internet technology makes personalization possible by asking users what kind of information they want to receive and automating the process of preparing and delivering customized messages. The promises of database marketing and one-to-one marketing have become realities. You must now give people something personally relevant. Otherwise, it's easy for them to tune out or turn off.
Pervasive
Marketing messages can now move virtually at the speed of light, or at least at the speed of the Internet. It's incredibly easy to “pass on” an interesting email message, banner ad or Web page to hundreds of your closest friends.
We've all done it — forwarded beer commercials, political jokes… even an awesome article containing great marketing advice. It's a three second investment in time that can have widespread repercussions, as the people who receive the forwarded message also sometimes pass it on. Many analysts attribute the growth of highly successful companies like AOL and Hotmail to this phenomenon. We call it “viral marketing”. It's made possible by the Internet, and its very pervasiveness is something you should harness.
Permission
I have never figured out why it's perfectly acceptable to send a paper-based direct mail piece to anyone whose address you can get your hands on, but perfectly unacceptable to send a direct email campaign to someone unless you have obtained their permission to do so in advance. But that's the way it is. Permission-based direct email marketing means that you only send messages to people who have told you they want to receive them.
There are different ways to collect these permissions: some are indirect (using the “Click here if you DON'T want to receive messages from me” is called opt-out, and although widely used, is often frowned upon by your target customers); others are direct (“Click here if you want to receive messages from me” is direct and is called opt-in).
Then there's double opt-in: a double check. A query goes back to the person who opted-in to ensure that they really did intend to opt-in.
You can see, by how complex this can be, that permission marketing is serious stuff. People now expect credible vendors to adopt permission marketing policies. If you choose to ignore permission marketing, I'll guarantee that a significant portion of the people who receive your communications will not be pleased. Unhappy recipients can harm your reputation and your brand, and the cost becomes much greater than any cost associated with setting up a permission marketing system.
The good news about permission marketing is that your marketing programs can be much more effective and successful because recipients are more inclined to respond positively to a message they asked to receive. More importantly, your return on investment (ROI) increases when you use permission marketing techniques.
Privacy
Privacy and permission are inextricably linked. When you get permission to send messages to people it does not mean you also have permission to give away, rent or sell their names or email addresses to anyone else. This is a cardinal rule of eMarketing. People expect that. In fact, people demand it.
In addition to legal ramifications, which increase daily, nothing is more destructive to a company than bad press. We all have heard how one unhappy customer tells, on average, 10 people about how unhappy he or she is with a certain company. The fastest way to an unhappy prospect or customer is to violate the permission rules. The information you get is precious and is intended for you and you alone, unless specifically stated otherwise by the recipient.
If you don't have a privacy policy in your company, get one today. It can be as simple as a statement posted on your Website that says, “We will never sell, rent or give away your personal information to anyone”. You can find sample privacy policies at www.truste.com if you want something a bit more extensive. It's also great food for thought since privacy issues are not restricted just to the marketing department — they must be adopted company-wide.
So what's the bottom line on all this?
The Internet is a vehicle that lets you:
- Touch more people more quickly and cost effectively than ever before.
- Market to individuals, personally and interactively.
- Leverage technology to help you implement and measure the success of your marketing programs.
The Internet has its own marketing rules that you must keep in mind when doing any eMarketing programs:
- Users expect that they will only get communications from you if they have requested them.
- Users expect that you will never ever make their email addresses available to anyone else without their specific permission.
- Users expect useful and relevant marketing messages — if they don't get this, they'll revoke their permission in a heartbeat.
We've seen three opportunities that the Internet has handed to you and three simple rules for ensuring success. That's the bottom line.
In future articles, we'll review three eMarketing programs no marketer should do without... three programs that are easy to implement (as long as you follow the 4 Ps) and that will save you time and money — two of the most precious resources under your control.
After all, we started this discussion by saying that eMarketing is more cost-effective and more measurable than traditional marketing. Rarely would anyone suggest that you only do eMarketing, but to ignore its potential in this part of the economic cycle just doesn't make sense.
