E-Marketing, yes you guessed it, is short for "electronic marketing". Like its siblings (e-commerce, e-news, e-business, e-etc etc), it defines pretty much any marketing activity that takes place within the enormous domain of the Internet.
Generally it is used to promote websites or other web based services, however with the astronomical growth of the Internet over the last few years it is fast becoming an essential tool for the marketing of other more general products and services.
Though e-marketing comes in many shapes and sizes, the most commonly used forms are search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising, banner advertising, viral marketing, affiliate marketing and e-newsletters. Even having a website could be classed as a more basic form of e-marketing.
All of these methods, when utlised properly, can produce outstanding results although they all do have their specific strengths and weaknesses. The e-marketing strategy that you choose will depend heavily on the type of business that you operate and a number of other factors, for example your budget.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search engine optimisation is the process of optimising your website so that it features more prominently within search engine results for search terms or "keywords" that are specific to your business. For example, if you are a business selling cheap designer clothes into the UK, you may want your business to move up the rankings for search terms such 'cheap designer clothes' or 'designer clothes uk'.
Search engine optimisation can be a complex business, however it can produce great results and, if you are a commercial entity that drives business through your website, it is something that should always be reviewed on a regular basis. If you fancy a bit more reading on this topic, my article on search engine optimisation provides a good overview of what you can do.
Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay per click advertising (PPC) does just what it says on the tin. When you publish a pay per click advertisement online, you don't pay a single penny for it to be displayed. Instead, you are charged when someone clicks on your ad.
Generally you will see pay per click ads within the search results of any major search engine. On Google, they appear down the right hand side and sometimes along the top just above the normal search results.
It has a number of benefits over traditional advertising mediums:
- Firstly, through the careful selection of keywords and ad configuration, it allows you to generate ads that are heavily targetted towards specific groups of users in specific countries. Good targetting is vital for an effective advertising campaign.
- Secondly, if your ad is not effective some one reason or another and isn't bringing any visits to your website, you won't pay very much for it at all. How many times have you spent hundreds or even thousands of pounds for a press ad that has brought in no business at all? On the other hand, if you have a very successful ad that brings a lot of visits to your site then you will pay a reasonable rate.
- Thirdly, you can define how much you want to pay. If your budget is only £10 per day, then you can set your ad to display until your budget has been used up. It will then start to display the following day once your budget has been re-instated. You can also define the maximum charge that you want to pay for each click (cost per click or CPC).
PPC can be very useful if you are not ranked very well in the normal search results. With a well structured ad and a bit of budget, you make sure that you appear on the first page of Google every time.
Check out our article on Google Adwords for some more information.
Banner Advertising
Banner advertising, like pay per click advertising allows you to advertise your products or services on other websites. The difference however is that banner advertising uses a more traditional advertising billing model, with websites selling slots for banner ads on a time basis.
Banner ads also allow for a good, targetted advertising and the ability to publish an image can make for an ad with a much higher impact.
Interestingly, more recently a lot of pay per click providers have started selling banner ad space as well as traditional search engine space, so these two e-marketing approaches are merging together.
Viral Marketing
To develop a viral marketing campaign you first need to come up with a funny or compelling idea for an ad. The idea doesn't necessarily have to be too closely related to your brand, however it will need to be compelling enough for people to forward the ad onto their friends, either by forwarding an email or inviting them via a website. Hence the term "viral"; a viral campaign is an advertising campaign that is spread through the target base via a one to one communication channel, like a virus!
Successful viral campaigns normally involve some kind of video or interactive game that people enjoy so much they send it onto their friends. To be effective the ad must also generate visits to your website either by registering to view the ad or simply displaying a link on the ad.
When viral campaigns work, they work brilliantly and even better, they can be implemented on a budget. The success rate however is low and they can take a while to get going.
The Cadbury's Gorilla ad is a brilliant example of how viral marketing on the web can dramatically increase the impact of an advertising campaign.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is the process of selling your goods through other websites, then passing a share of the takings to the owners of that website. If you are in the business of selling goods online, then affiliate marketing is definitely worth a look in. Very quickly it can help you get your products onto websites that are far more established than yours, with considerably more visitors.
Amazon and EBay are among the biggest retailers of affiliate products.
E-Newsletters
E-Newsletters are broadcast style communications to large numbers of users via some kind of electronic media, the most common being email. The word 'spam' is probably at the forefront of your mind right now, and yes 'spam' is a type of e-newsletter, however despite this derogatory association e-newsletters can be very powerful in promoting your business, especially if you targetting customers who have purchased from you in the past.
If you like you can purchase large numbers of email addresses that are targetted towards specific groups of people, however the sucess rate of emailing lists like this is very low. This can however be an effective approach if you are a new business looking to expand your customer base.
Targetting your existing customer base will provide much better results as these customers will likely already trust you and will be familiar with your products and services. Sending regular updates to your existing customer base outlining your latest offers and new products is an activity that every e-commerce store should be doing on a regular basis.
So, what is the Best Approach for me?
It is likely that the best approach for you will be a combination of the above. If you are a new business, try some pay per click while your normal rankings build, or give E-newsletters a punt. If you are well established try driving some more traffic to your site through some good search engine optimisation or maybe some affiliate marketing. With pretty much any type business, investing in a bit of e-marketing can be a very benefical move.
