E-Marketing and the Consumer Buying Process

In order to connect both E-marketing and the consumer buying decision process, we must first understand the entire process, step by step. Many books, websites and marketing gurus have different definitions and steps to the process. However, I feel the most accurate decision making process has four stages: need-and-want recognition, information gathering, evaluation and purchase.

Consumer Buying Process:

Need and Want Recognition: This is the start of the consumer buying process that deals with awareness. In this step the consumer figures out what their problem or need is. This triggers the consumer’s want to purchase something that would satisfy their need or fix their problem. From an E-marketing standpoint, E-marketing opportunities can help establish awareness and need. E-marketing activities such as Banner ads, sponsorships, etc., expose customers to products and services. Also, by using different data-gathering tools such as online surveys, help uncover the customer’s want or needs.

Information Search:  After the consumer has established a need or want, they begin seeking information about the product or service they feel will resolve their problem. From an E-marketing standpoint, Contextual e-marketing techniques are becoming very useful online instruments to search for information and have also become a routine step in the consumer buying process. For example, Google is a great tool used to look for endless information about pretty much anything. 

Evaluation: At this point in the process, the consumer then sees all of the choices available to them that will help satisfy that want or need. They begin to evaluate each alternative based on the qualities that are more important to them such as: Service, price and convenience. The consumer reaches out to people they trust such as Family, friends, social media, and/or professionals who know the product/service; this plays a huge role and makes a considerable impact on the evaluation. From an E-marketing standpoint, there are different tools that help the consumers through the evaluation process toward their purchasing goal. Some of the tools are: Customer feedback, message boards, reviews and blogs.

Purchase: The consumer now takes all the knowledge they have learned in each of the previous steps and makes a final decision regarding which product or service they will finally purchase. Once they make a final decision of which product or service they want to purchase, they then chose where to purchase the product/service. The consumer either goes to a store they typically go to or simply a store that offers the product/service at the cheapest price. From an E-marketing standpoint, transaction e-marketing activities such as e-mail marketing, gift registries, etc., help consumers make a final purchase or possibly an additional purchase.

Using the Consumer Buying Process, Marketers have the opportunity to improve the consumer’s experience and influence the consumer throughout all steps in the process towards making a purchase.  Now-a-days, plenty of consumers actually go through the entire consumer buying process online. In each one of the stages, e-marketing technologies can be best placed to help or lead consumers towards a purchase. 

Sources:

http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5438201_consumer-buying-decision-process.html

http://strategicmarking.blogspot.com/2011/02/e-marketing-and-consumer-buying.html

http://users.wfu.edu/carterra/iworld_site/iworld_readings/Influencing%20Online%20Consumers%20Behaviour.pdf

http://creativemarketingonline.blogspot.com/2011/02/how-to-use-e-marketing-in-buying.html

Online Taxation

It’s the 21^st century and technology has become a huge part of our lives. We now have the luxury of shopping from the comfort of our own home; that brand new shirt you’ve always wanted is just a click away. You can thank the Internet for making online shopping possible, not only is it convenient it’s also tax-free. Due to tax-free online shopping, large online retailers such as Amazon and eBay have the ability to undercut prices even more than a brick and motor store. As a result, this has led to the demise of several stores such as borders and different mom and pop locations.  It may be a huge threat to other stores but a huge plus for consumers who like saving money and like getting the best bang for their buck. Unfortunately, it seems like those tax-free days are soon coming to an end for online shopping. However, this topic has its pros and its cons for both sellers and buyers.

There has been a “Massive shift in support for online taxation and even Amazon is ready to admit it,” according to the Wall Street Journal.  Amazon’s change of heart is due to their desire of increasing shipping times to their customer. In order to make that possible, Amazon would have to build numerous distribution centers in places such as: Florida and New Jersey. By building more distribution centers it will definitely bring much more jobs into each of the states. Government Christie has agreed to postpone online sales tax collections for Amazon for a year so this plan can be implemented. According to WSJ, Amazon has also made similar agreements with three other states; however, Florida did not agree.

The pro’s of online taxation is that the different states are poised to pull an additional $23 billion yearly on online sales tax.  The con’s for the consumers is a probable hike on online prices to cover the cost of tax collection, plus the applicable taxes on every sale. Unfortunately, small online storeowners will also have to implement the new taxations. Another pro is that Brick and Motor owners can be at a huge benefit because they could be the big winners in the online tax war. Online taxation will help keep prices much more competitive than previously and most likely drive consumers back to local stores where they do not have to deliver.

Sources:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49071916/ns/business-motley_fool/t/online-sales-taxes-are-coming/#.UGkBAWgm-lI

http://www.valuewalk.com/2012/07/amazon-online-sales-tax-will-it-save-the-retailers/

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/43833.html

Politics and Social Media

Ever since the 2008 elections, social media has made a huge impact on the way politics work. This was the first time in history a presidential candidate (Obama) took full advantage of the power and potential of E-marketing. Even though social media wasn’t the sole reason for Obama’s success in winning office, there is no doubt he created a more effective web presence than any other presidential candidate in the entire history of politics. Social media played a huge role in helping Obama gain a massive amount of followers, which out numbered his rival “John McCain’s” efforts. It was also a huge success which ended up “raising over half a billion dollars, registering over 2 million voters, and enabling 3 million phone calls to be made in the final four days of the campaign,” according to online strategist Dan Siroker.

This year’s presidential race will definitely be the first to completely reflect a major political shift in the digital world, there is no doubt we will see the most presidential candidate ads in the entire history of politics. No matter what social media site you are on, there will be information regarding one of the candidates. For instance, if you go on YouTube to watch a video most likely you’ll encounter a 30 second ad of one of the candidates; if you go on twitter you’ll see tweets from a candidate. Each of the presidential candidate’s teams work hard and around the clock to keep up with the race and turn voters into donors. Those candidates who lack social media presence will most likely be left out in the dust and lose the race.

One of the biggest issues with social media and politics is the fact that anything being posted online has the ability to become viral in the matter of seconds. This can either be a good thing or a terrible thing. An example of a political campaign ad gone wrong is Rick Perry’s “Anti-gay” campaign. Within hours of his campaign launch there was tons of immediate negative responses especially amongst the tumblr community. Perry mentioned, “there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.” This campaign was a complete failure; people began creating pictures and writing comments on social media bashing Perry, calling him “the gay community Anti-Christ.”

Another huge problem that lies within social media and politics is whether or not what we hear or see online is true. When it comes to posting ads on social media sites, there really aren’t any boundaries as to what an ad can contain, just a few guidelines. One of the few ways an ad could be taken down is if a countless amount of people start reporting that ad. Bottom line: do not always believe what you hear or see and always make sure to check if the information that has been posted comes from a reliable source.

Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/rift-in-perry-camp-over-ad-criticizing-gays-in-military/

http://bebonta.blogspot.com/2012/03/e-marketing-and-politics-how-social.html

http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/obama-popularizes-himself-among-youth-through-emarketing-399430.html

http://10edge.com/political-internet-marketing.html

Interactivity in Online Marketing

Interactivity in Online Marketing

Interactive Marketing is what distinguishes the old marketing techniques from the new marketing style. In the past, sellers using old marketing techniques would try to persuade their audience by pushing media to as much people as possible instead of focusing on their target market; this would create traffic into their stores and/or websites. Companies would send out tons of offers to different consumers asking to purchase their products and then try to create some sort of relationship with them. Yes, this technique worked at times; however, the main problem was that companies lacked a relationship between the buyers and sellers.

Using interactivity in online marketing is extremely beneficial; it gives you tons of different ways to make more personal connections with your audience. It’s all about creating a bond with your customers and building trusting relationships. With the Internet at an advantage, the old days of making cold calls became a tool of the past. Now a days, companies can interact with their target audience in many ways that would have been though impossible or even overly expensive just a few years ago. Online interactivity shouldn’t primarily focus on just having a conversation; it should also focus on showing results in advance for the customers. Consequently, people will be much more willing to do business with the company due to the fact that they care about solving their customer’s problems/issues.

Three things you must do to succeed in online marketing:

The first thing you need to do to succeed in online marketing is attracting visitors to your blog or website. You can attract visitors by using different interactive features on your website or blogs such as: videos, forums, webinars and auto responder email sequences in order to convince your customer that they must buy from you. There are several tactics a company can use such as: paid advertising (Google Adwords,) social networking sites (Facebook or LinkedIn,) and article directories (Ezinearticles and Articlesbase.)

The second thing you need to do to succeed in online marketing is once you have already started driving traffic to you site, you may begin interactivity with your visitors and turn them into customers. There are several different ways this can be done; for instance, you can create forums in which visitors can post comments, share ideas and insights regarding your company. This will help create a buyer and seller relationship and will make the customer feel as if the company has a personal interest in them.  

The third thing you should do to succeed in online marketing is converting your visitors into leads. On your website or blog you should have a signup form where visitors can join your email list. You should offer them some incentives such as something of value like discounts, coupons or free samples. Make sure not to constantly hammer your customers with tons of emails trying to convince them to buy something from you instead send a decent amount of emails offering a great deal of value. As time progresses you can slip in a sales pitch here and there and the customer won’t feel as if they are only just a prospect to you. Using interactivity in online marketing will definitely help increase your company’s chances of success. It will help create a more personal connection between the buyer and seller resulting in a higher chance of becoming a repeat customer. 

Sources: 

http://emarketing4begginers.blogspot.com/2012/04/online-interactivity-secret-sauce-to.html

http://www.email-unlimited.com/articles/interactivity-is-key.html

http://blog.safeguard.com/index.php/2012/02/09/social-media-and-interactivity-driving-brand-engagement/