Internet Marketing Best Practice

The internet is now such an integral part of communication in our society that it has become impossible for businesses to ignore it, Porter (2001) and (http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/geographics/article.php/5911_151151). The aim of this dissertation was to identify best practice in internet marketing and apply this to a new business news website. This was achieved by reviewing the literature researching current best practice in internet marketing techniques. Data on existing users of the website was then collected via a survey and these sources were combined to apply best practice to SiliconFenBusiness.com. The results of this study indicate that a sound business plan is still crucial to the success of a business, (Kalyanam & McIntyre, 2002). The traditional marketing mix analysis of product, place, price and promotion was carried out and the use of internet-specific marketing techniques were evaluated for their appropriateness and used where necessary.

Introduction and Rationale 5

About siliconfenbusiness.com 9

Aims & Objectives 11

Methodology 12

Primary Research - Survey 14

Rationale 14

Survey development 15

Questions 16

Survey Results & Analysis 17

Secondary Research 18

General marketing principles 21

Internet marketing principles 25

Identifying best practice in internet marketing 33

Online Marketing Best Practice 33

Key strategies in website design 34

Application of Best Practice to SiliconFenBusiness.com 46

SiliconFenBusiness Design Strategies 46

SiliconFenBusiness Traffic Strategies 48

Conclusion 51

Recommendations 52

Discussion 52

Appendices 54

Introduction and Rationale

“There is a revolution going on in our economy. A fundamental change, not a dot.com fad, but a real transformation towards a knowledge economy. So, today, I am announcing a new campaign. Its goal is to get the UK on-line. To meet the three stretching targets we set; for Britain to be the best place in the world for e-commerce...”

The Prime Minister’s use of the words “fundamental change” makes the important point that the internet is not simply another medium, it involves a whole new way of people communicating with and within all sections of society. Marketers wishing to use the internet to market their services and products must acknowledge this fundamental change and add internet-specific marketing strategy to established marketing principles.

In addition to establishing basic and internet marketing strategy theory, this paper will then go on to identify best practice in developing an internet marketing strategy. These identified strategies of internet marketing will then be applied (where appropriate) to a new web-based news source, Silicon Fen Business Report (at www.siliconfenbusiness.com). Primary data will be collected on existing users of the site in order to better target the marketing plan.

The internet is a growing marketplace with over 83 billion dollars being spent online in 2005, an increase of 23.4% from the previous year (http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/data/pdf/05Q4.pdf). The popularity of the web as a communication tool is surging. Internet penetration into UK and US households is at an all time high and the worldwide internet population has reached 1.08 billion users (http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/geographics/article.php/5911_151151). It is now impossible for businesses to leave the web out of their marketing mix.

The global and UK internet population is constantly expanding, connection speeds are increasing and site design has become increasingly geared towards usability. These factors mean that online commerce will become faster and easier - as a result more popular. Recent data, show in Table 1. suggests more people are using the internet than ever before and those users are spending more time online every year.

The massive adoption of the internet by users is a result of the value that the internet adds to users lives. The internet provides incredible ease of access to information, this has driven the growth and positioned the internet as the first tool consumers use when researching (Bickerton, 2000). This new medium of the internet provides marketers with new challenges and opportunities. For example, with the enormous number of websites and products on the internet it is important and challenging for an organization to differentiate its products or services so that they stand out from this very crowded marketplace, appeal to niche markets or enable consumers to realize they fulfill specific needs.

With this exponential growth in the internet it is a medium which cannot be ignored, even by small firms serving local communities. Yet so far, only eight percent of advertisers include the internet in their marketing mix (http://www.clickz.com/ stats/sectors/advertising/article.php/3584801). For some businesses such as McDonalds internet marketing is less important as most revenue is taken at the till, the traditional point of sale, whilst to a company like Ryan Air, it is extremely important as over 98% of flight bookings are taken online (http://www.ryanair.com /site/EN/about.php). Although McDonalds takes most of its revenue at the till they do not ignore the internet as way of building their brand and reaching their customers. In the past 12 months News Corporation has spent over $1.4 billion (Economist, 21/01/06, p.67) on 3 websites to offset the reduction in advertising revenue the company is incurring on its traditional media channels. These purchase have given News Corp 55 million unique visitors each month and is stated by Rupert Murdoch as the “… best deal of my life” (Economist 21/01/06, p.69). This growth in online advertising and large scale investment into content website further shows the importance of internet marketing in the future.

Sultan and Rohm (2004) have recently reviewed a variety of firms for their changing use of the internet as a marketing tool. They initially examined how firms’ use the internet with regard to four aspects: (1) business Internet use and adoption, (2) value chain efficiency, (3) trust and customer relationships, and (4) communication and branding initiatives. They found that firms in distinct industries (such as a footwear retailer and a printing equipment manufacturer) may try to move all their business online to save costs as well as provide more customization for customers (‘disintermediation’). Using the internet to sell products also of course produced cost reduction and streamlined processes. With regard to trust and customer relationships, there was a concern on the part of firms as to channel conflict. Developing direct e-commerce initiatives was weighed up against the potential for conflict with channel partners (e.g. independent retailers and dealers) which would in turn harm their brand. Initially, firms felt that online communication and branding opportunities were limited and their online presence was limited to ‘brochureware’ or fairly basic web content.

In examining firms’ change in e-commerce strategy, the authors found that companies now focus on streamlining and achieving value chain efficiency rather than the previous primary aim of generating revenue online. Further, firms are now recognizing the potential of the internet for communication and branding and are becoming more sophisticated in how they use internet techniques. Reebok, for example, aired a commercial during the 2003 Superbowl which directed viewers to their website: traffic rose to 2 million and over 250,000 registrations were captured soon after the event. Through these registrations, Reebok has been able to maintain a relationship with its customers.

About siliconfenbusiness.com

SilconFenBusinessReport.com, see appendix 2, is a new startup based in Cambridge, UK. As the site is new there is limited traffic. By using internet marketing best practices the aim is to increase the traffic levels.

Silicon Fen Business Report provides an independent one-stop source of business news about the Cambridge Cluster of publicly listed and private high tech firms for investors, financiers, analysts, researchers and people in business with a keen interest in the region's firms. Its unique selling proposition is that readers will be attracted by original reporting, editorial integrity, an understanding of business fundamentals, a crisp style and a tightly controlled web site. The web site states that its principles of operating include that SiliconFenBusiness.com staffers value ethical, professional journalism, which means they rate high accuracy, honesty and context. These are attributes to be celebrated and they aim to reflect that philosophy in their reporting.

The news web site developers believe they can establish a unique niche in the market. There are no other know providers of such targeted news, though there are at least two other East Anglian-based publishers that incorporate selected news on Cambridge-based high tech firms. Their business model is based on establishing a credible presence, with a high level of original content, before approaching potential advertisers to sell a key advert spaces. It envisages that most of the advertisers, but not all, will be local providers of services to high-tech firms, including financiers, accountants, lawyers, public relations consultants and other business services.

Aims & Objectives

The aim of this dissertation is to identify current best practices in internet marketing strategy and its application to a new website.

Methodology

This paper will firstly review internet marketing principles and strategies. Due to internet marketing being in its infancy and the speed at which it is changing, most secondary research has been gathered from online publications. An additional reason for using mainly online sources is that, post-1999 sources are required due to the massive failure and bankruptcy of the majority of high profile internet companies at that time. Most books published on e-commerce strategy were published during the dot com boom and these may no longer be reliable. Furthermore, the books are often outdated (for example, chapters refer to optimizing websites for dial-up modem connections).

The search strategy involved searching search engines such as Google and Yahoo Finance. Additionally, a search was made on marketing-specific websites such as the Marketing Professionals’ website; Clickz, and the Economist’s website. Search terms included combinations of ‘e-commerce’, ‘internet marketing’; ‘web marketing’ and ‘internet strategy’.

This dissertation uses primary and secondary research to develop a marketing plan for a recently launched news website, Silicon Fen Business. Primary data will be collected by carrying out an online survey of existing users of the site. Surveying potential and current users of a service is an essential aspect of developing a marketing strategy. Administering surveys, especially online to site visitors, is cost-efficient and a well-designed survey has the potential to provide valuable information to use to target marketing activity. Secondary data will be gathered through books, journal articles and online data and reports.

Primary Research - Survey

Rationale

The American Marketing Association defined marketing research as “the function that links an organisation to its market through information.” This information is used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems.

“Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues; designs the method for collecting information; manages and implements the data collection process; interprets the results and communicates the findings and their implications” (Reich, p. 68).

In order to establish which are the best marketing strategies for the target demographic, an internet survey was conducted. Other research methods include qualitative designs such as using focus groups. However, a survey is preferable as it allows collection of data on a much larger number of people (Bickerton, 2000). Perhaps more importantly, surveying people who have come to the site means that the true sample is being investigated. This is preferable to imposing a theoretical sampling frame that would need to be devised in order to find participants for a focus group. Surveying visitors to the sites will allow analysis of the true characteristics of site users and it may be that this does not exactly reflect what is currently assumed about the audience.

Survey development

Bickerton (2000) states that marketing research on products or services should include the following: present uses of existing services, analysis of market size and volume, market demand and market structure (who buys), and these were taken into account during survey development. The aim of this survey is to discover the demographics, job function, industry, of the site users, competitors, other sites they visits, how often they use internet for business information, how much news they get off the internet. The survey was generated using commonly used online survey program called SurveyMonkey. The survey was made very short on purpose to increase the chances of responses. Response options were mutually exclusive (respondents could only click one option out of a number of options). In addition, it was felt that information about respondents needed to be specific rather than exhaustive. As the target market was likely to be busy investors or company executives SiliconFenBusiness.com wanted to maximize survey completion by minimizing response time.

Some of the more traditional questions asked in similar surveys such as age and sex would not have made any difference as how we would have dealt with the response. Marketing was seen as being targeted by job function, industry and profession, and therefore this was the information sought. For example, whether an accountant was 25 and male or 55 and female was not seen as relevant as the fact that the respondent was an accountant.

Questions

The survey was taken by placing a link to a survey on the website asking site users to volunteer and complete the survey and a limit of 150 responses placed on the survey. The site receives 300 visitors per day and the survey link ran for 15 days, this equates to 4,500 visitors having the opportunity to answer the survey, therefore the sample size is 3.3%. A copy of the original survey may be found in Appendix 1. The survey contained the following questions and response options.

Survey Results & Analysis

The results of the survey can be seen in graphical representation in Appendix 3.

The results are summarized below. They will be used to target marketing activity when best practices are applied to the website.

The data gathered through the survey gave direction for the best practices being applied to SiliconFenBusiness.com. As the majority of visitors are coming from links and referrals more effort should be put into establishing links with other sites. Although it may be said that if the majority of users are coming from links and referrals then more effort should be put into other channels of traffic generation. Education and IT are the biggest users of the site by industry and therefore links to the site could be established with other education and IT news resources, especially as the largest visitor segment is students and professionals. As site users are predominantly UK bases, the link exchange effort can be further focus to UK based websites. Site users’ favoured new sources were BBC online and Google News, therefore a marketing coup would be to establish a link exchange with either of these sites in an attempt to increase traffic. As large portion of our visitors use the internet to find news on a daily basis and obtain more than half of their news information from the web it is important to focus upon the high users.

In the chapter on the application of best practice to SiliconFenBusiness.com the survey data will be used where necessary.

Secondary Research

“Secondary sources are generally in the form of commentaries, reviews, opinions, critiques, interpretations and other researchers’ findings.

The advantages of secondary research are that it is less expensive than primary research, provides a useful comparative tool and when answers to questions are required quickly the most practical thing to do is consult secondary resources. However, secondary sources must be evaluated carefully to ensure the source is reliable. Stewart and Kamins suggest (1993, p.17):

“not all information obtained from secondary resources is equally reliable or valid. Information must be evaluated carefully and weighted according to its recency and credibility.”

Online articles, statistics and journals will be an important type of secondary research that is used in this dissertation. Journals are the most valid and type of secondary research that is available, this is because they are written by key authors and are fairly recent publications. Journals are available on the internet through the research database “Athens” as well as direct from the publishers. Key journals have been used as secondary research for underpinning theories such as the e-marketing mix by Kalyanam and McIntyre (2002). However, journals are not always the most recent, as internet marketing is moving at such a pace, research can be outdated in as little as three months, online articles where used where necessary to ensure information used was the most recent. Books have been used where appropriate to outline the basics of the marketing mix. Books do tend to date fairly quickly and the Internet has been used for journals as well as information on internet marketing. All information was reviewed carefully for reliability. Another source of secondary data are Government or semi-government publications such as the office for national statistics and strategy documents from the cabinet office. Generally, government publications are updated regularly for use by members of an organisation or general members of the public. For this study, many key websites where used which provided up to date statistics on the state of the internet as well as current views on marketing.

Every discipline has its current best practices - Internet Marketing is no exception. But due to the rapid pace of change in this field, best practices are only current for a few months until new approaches and technologies sometimes render previous recommendations obsolete. As a result, the majority of sources used to define best practice are online and marketers must keep themselves continually updated or risk falling behind.

General marketing principles

Marketing is defined by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” For Bickerton (2000, p9), marketing is

“a human activity aimed at satisfying customer needs and wants through an exchange process, providing customers with benefits that satisfy their wants for payment and profit”.

To market effectively the organization must integrate different marketing activities such as pricing, market research, public relations, advertising and selling. To achieve this there needs to be an underlying structure driving the marketing and co-ordination of marketing methods. A number of these frameworks that guide the development of a marketing plan will now be reviewed.

Varadarajan and Yadan (2002) provide an organizing framework for marketing strategy on the internet. They suggest that businesses are likely to continue to need to analyse and understand the following factors. The industry in which the business competes, the unique skills are resources of a firm, the company’s product offerings, the buyers, the buying environment and the macro environment in which the firm operates. This essentially brings together the basic marketing principles of SWOT, PEST and the 4 P’s.

To define an organization's marketing strategy and its objectives, a thorough SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities. Threats) analysis should be done to give a complete understanding of what it is trying to be achieved and the environment in which the organization operates. The SWOT analysis of the organization's current position, forecasts, objectives and marketing strategies are a key part of the internet marketing plan.

Market research is an important part of any marketing plan and must be done to ensure the organization has knowledge of the potential market they are entering. As stated by Kotler (1994, p.175), market research is

“the systematic problem analysis, model building, and fact finding for the purpose of improved decision making and control in the marketing of goods and services.”

PEST is an external analysis of macroeconomic environment affecting the business using the variables of political, economic, social and technological. This is very useful in examining the external environment in which the business operates. In doing this analysis the information gleaned can help a business to make better decisions to maximize opportunities and minimize risk, Kotler (1994).

The exciting marketing opportunities of the new technology of the internet do not replace traditional, proven marketing theory and practice. Over 30 years ago, Theodore Levitt spoke about customers not buying products, but experiences. Revlon said "customers don't buy perfume, they buy dreams." Auto companies like Ford and General Motors have also known for years the value of thinking in terms of customer experiences.

This principle of appealing to worlds that customers want to belong to has not changed, and internet marketers need to work effectively to understand their consumers and to find innovative ways of engaging them. However, internet marketing does need to be creative as while it has theory to underpin it, it does not have precise precedents to follow. It needs new ways to implement Levitt's principle. And a key new element the internet brings to the marketing mix might be summed up as "Anyplace, anytime, any way shopping replaces place" – where "place" means the channel of distribution. New brands are created instantaneously and spread through word of mouth. Acknowledgement needs to be made of the different ways people communicate now, while still using marketing theory such as the 4Ps.

The marketing mix is one of the essential concepts in modern marketing. This refers to “the set of choices a firm makes to influence the buyers’ responses towards the company’s products or services”, Bickerton (2000, p.108). Decisions can be made to modify the marketing mix through four principals; Product, Price, Place and Promotion (Bickerton, 2000, p.109). There are specific considerations for each ‘P’ when using developing a marketing strategy. Decisions about Product, Price, Place and Promotion have been revolutionized by the internet.

Considering the ‘product’ aspect of the marketing mix in the internet context means that the greater personalization capacity of the internet can be utilized. For example, the Dell Computers website enables customers to configure the type of computer they want – a feature that would not be possible under traditional circumstances (Kalyanam & McIntyre, ,2002).

The internet can also change the rules of ‘price’. It can force prices down for three main reasons: it can make it easier for customers to choose between products; it can reduce overheads; and the scale of competition increases, customer choice increases all forcing prices to fall. Additionally, the internet can allow inventive and large-scale use of pricing mechanisms such as dynamic pricing and auction, as e-bay has done (Kalyanam & McIntyre, ,2002).

With regard to ‘place’, although the internet has no geographic location there is still a point of sale. Point of sale may be online but in actuality, where physical goods are purchased, but the product must still be packaged and delivered offline. So place, point of sale, is online however delivery channels remain offline, providing new challenges for logistics, but meaning that delivery of products and services can be cheaper for the provider, a process termed disintermediation.

‘Promotion’ online involves some different principles to other traditional media. In traditional media promotion is made up of advertising, sales, merchandising, PR and direct marketing. There are three main methods online: advertising; website direct email and more recently search engine optimization, with numerous sub-category methods. Success or failure of promotion can be tracked in real time, and in many cases, changes can be made in real time to obtain better results. Promotion is one of the elements of the marketing mix. In traditional media, the promotional methods are “one-to-many”, meaning the single message conveyed is seen by many potential customers. With new media marketing it is possible to tailor each message to the needs of the customers giving a more “one-to-one” approach (Bickerton, 2000; McDonald et al, 2002). The power of internet promotion cannot be overlooked, News Corporation recently promoted a new movie “Transporter 2” which did far better than expect after being heavily promoted on their recent acquisition, mySpace.com (Economist 21/01/06 p.69).

Internet marketing principles

The importance of the internet to modern business strategy is demonstrated by Michael Porter (2001):

“The key question is not whether to deploy internet technology – companies have no choice if they want to stay competitive – but how to deploy it.”

The internet holds a great deal of benefit and opportunities for both customers and organizations. Customers have access to a wider range of products, services and prices from more suppliers, whilst organisations benefit from lower barriers of entry, access to new markets and low cost marketing methods (http://www.marketingprofs.com/2/rules.asp). To take advantage of these benefits and to avoid an ad hoc approach in which activities are not coordinated for maximum impact, a company must have an internet marketing strategy. Having an internet marketing strategy gives a business a measurable and definitive way to target their market and position their business so that those looking for the product on offer can find it easily (Lake, 2005). As Sultan & Rohm (2004, p.7) point out,

“decisions regarding channel structure and strategy, particularly with respect to new technologies such as the internet, can be critical to firms’ success or failure”.

Yet there is still so much uncertainty surrounding the Internet and e-commerce. It is no wonder there is a thirst for new rules. Though the business world has recovered from the gloom of the dotcom crash, Internet companies are still collapsing, Boo.com and Toysmart.com are well-known examples. These debacles seem to fuel the idea that failure must be due to the managers not really knowing some mysterious new rules. These so-called new marketing rules are just repackaging some timeless and far more useful broad marketing ideas. However, there is a danger that simply following these ideas will merely deliver a lackluster marketing campaign. Before the internet, firms tended to market one way to customers, without listening to them as well, pushing products on them. The emergence of the internet has opened up a channel for customers, many of who use the internet to further research products they are interested in purchasing, though only for high-involvement purchase decisions. This means that much of the advertising on the internet is more about fulfilling needs rather than creating them.

Guidelines for developing an internet marketing plan are developing. Internet Marketing Strategy defines the approach by which internet marketing will support marketing and business objectives (http://www.marketingprofs.com/

2/rules.asp). One source suggests a strategy process model in order to provide a framework to act as a guide. This framework for developing an internet marketing strategy comprises four stages:

It should be clear, however, that these processes are still core marketing principles, regardless of whether they are being applied to the internet or not. A common perception of the internet is that it is simply another ‘place’ with a range of techniques attached to it and that the internet can be used to the advantage of all marketing functions (http://www.marketingprofs.com /2/rules.asp):

A well-known checklist for internet marketing is the three Cs: content, community and commerce. Attract customers through rich content, provide community facilities such as an online forum to keep users on the site, and commerce, to make sure they buy something whilst visiting, supported by McDonald et al (2002).

The new e-marketing mix is the set of six major variables which the marketer can manipulate online, in addition to marketing’s four Ps (McDonald et al, 2002, p.110). This means that traditional marketing principles still hold strong today but additional factors, the e-marketing mix, will complement these traditional methods to deliver online success. The extended marketing mix (4 + 3Ps) is built around the concept of “transactional” processes where interactions occur between elements of the mix. The extra 3Ps are people, processes and proof and provide the extended e-marketing mix. What gives E-marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions that can be synthesised in the 2P+2C+3S formula (personalisation, privacy, customer service, community, site, security and sales promotion) (see Figure 1).

Otlacan (2005) also discusses this e-marketing mix, pointing out that the elements have a moderating character, unlike the classic marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. The moderating functions of e-marketing operate upon all situational functions of the classic 4Ps and upon each other. Figure 1 illustrates how the e-marketing tools are classified into the functions of the e-marketing mix. E-marketing implies new dimensions be considered aside of those inherited from traditional marketing. These dimensions revolve around the concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e-marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.

The authors suggest that the e-marketing mix is a simplifying tool. The manager can work with a simplification that includes only eleven functions so it is less likely that the marketing plan will be unbalanced due to oversight of some important function.

As we learn more about how people use the internet it is becoming clear that core to a successful internet marketing plan is an understanding of internet consumer behavior. According to the study "Seize the Occasion," web usage patterns fall into different categories of online behavior. In some categories, consumers are more likely to buy, in others they are nearly immune to traditional online marketing, (http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/traffic_patterns/ article.php/731421). This shows that internet marketing involves more than simply transferring existing marketing strategies to an online format. The internet and the growing number of other digital media create new forms and models for information exchange.

“One of the key features of internet marketing is that the customer has to consciously decide to visit a particular site according to the particular information or experience they are seeking” (Hoffman & Novak, 1996).

This is the main reason why internet existing marketing rules cannot be blindly adhered to, and strategies and their implementation need to be innovative and service-oriented to be able to engage the market in a way that acknowledges that they are no longer passive recipients of “marketing strategies”. One of the most successful sites and now a global household name, Google has relied largely on public relations, business-to-business online advertising and direct mail to market itself. The company has avoided splashy traditional marketing efforts, even during the dot com boom during the late 1990s. Google is perhaps the best example of an internet venture that understands the new marketing climate of web 2.0.

In summary, this change is a revolution in communication for marketers. Put simply, the potential customer has more choice and control and this means that marketing principles have to be revised and “successful internet marketing involves developing a whole new collection of attitudes and words to accompany them”. Sophisticated internet marketing techniques have evolved that better make use of the interaction between the consumer, the product they are looking for and the marketer.

Taking into account these principles of internet marketing, there are then a number of specific strategies that can be employed to successfully market a product.

Identifying best practice in internet marketing

The initial aim of this dissertation was to review the literature to establish what marketing theory says about best practice in developing an internet marketing strategy. The emerging E-marketing mix that has been identified as a crucial extension to the original 4P framework. A variety of internet marketing techniques exist in addition to traditional marketing methods. However, the advantages and disadvantages of each technique need to be considered carefully in an internet culture where consumer behavior is different to the pre-internet era. Firms that have focused on reducing costs through moving online rather than simply using the internet as another stream of income generation seem to have reaped the benefits of e-commerce. Finally, strategies that create an interactive atmosphere between the customer and the service have been most successful (e.g. email marketing to site registrants).

Online Marketing Best Practice

Internet marketing, especially through a brand website, allows the presentation of large

volumes of information, and a more complete brand image than any other set of media.

Therefore in the communication of the marketing message online, one must consider the

Given that the eBrand and brand are separate entities, integration of online media should consider the promotion of each independently, as well as the ultimate impact on brand perceptions. Therefore a mix should be chosen which maximizes the impact of the website, in order to convey the images of the brand most effectively. Other online media should be used, balancing their roles of direct brand promotion and supporting the e-brand.

Integrated online marketing strategy involves two major elements – the presentation of brand messages directly through the website and the role of a number of online media functions to support that presentation. Hence this best practice

Key strategies in website design

Websites differ from most other marketing media in being largely consumer led as stated earlier by Hoffman & Novak (1996). Consumers choose to visit a website, they do not choose to view a TV advert or poster. Consumers are unlikely to choose to visit a website purely to receive marketing messages. Therefore in order to encourage consumers to visit sites, in order to receive marketing communications, manufacturers must provide incentives to consumers to visit and stay, this is supported by McDonald et al (2002).

These incentives are commonly given by the use of ‘secondary functions’ – gifts and

services provided to achieve greater attraction and magnetism. At a basic level this

includes providing content, competitions and downloads. It can also include more specific incentives like sponsorship news or free e-mail accounts. Whatever incentives are used it is important for the achievement of website objectives that ‘secondary functions’ should be compatible with the brand image of the site.

The interactive nature of the website means that it can perform a central role in a company' objectives in finding out about their consumer bases. The importance of

‘relationship’ marketing is reinforcing loyalty. This means that company’s need to be

well informed about their consumers, and have the ability to communicate with them

Websites provide an opportunity to collect personal data, and do so in a way that justifies future communication. This second point is essential, as it is necessary to justify direct communications such as email, in order not to appear intrusive. There is currently a high level of consumer awareness of privacy and acceptable use of consumer data. In this context, inappropriate communications can damage the perceived integrity of the brand.

The ways in which websites commonly achieve this is to be explicit about what the data will be used for. Consumers may sign up to receive sponsorship news or information on special offers. So long as they have left their personal data for the specific purpose, communications are relevant and justified. This is known broadly as ‘permission marketing’. (Godin, S. 1999)

Data collection by website membership, or other non-specific collection, can still be highly useful. This data provides clear indications as the profile of online consumers, allowing the continual redesign of the site to best target the online audience. With this data, relevant communication can also be justified, allowing companies to maintain share of mind presence and encourage consumers to re-visit the site.

In parallel with collecting data, information can be acquired in order to personalise the content of the website to each visitor. This can be achieved through the use of cookies, which will ‘remember’ settings and basic details. Personalisation can be used to allow visitors to set preferences, or go directly to the parts of the site they are most interested in. If websites are designed to ‘remember’ these preferences, greet visitors by name, and generally make the experience more personal, then they will be more effective at achieving identification, and developing relationships.

Major sites such as Amazon.co.uk have already set the precedent for this level of

personalisation. These developments are raising consumer expectations from websites. The ability for marketing websites to use new technology effectively has links with perceptions of the brand. High website quality implies high brand quality.

In the context of maintaining the link between marketing quality and perceived brand quality, websites must be regularly updated to ensure relevance and ‘newsworthiness’. The key reasons why regular website servicing is necessary are:

Consumers form their perceptions from all aspects of online presentation, and as perceptions of the e-brand and the brand itself are closely linked, neglecting the

The way consumers interact with online marketing is very different to other media, primarily from the high level of interaction consumers engage with online. Many

Online users view the Internet as a community. The way many use chat rooms and news groups and the emergence of community based sites such as myspace.com is evidence of this and is further maintained by McDonald et al (2002).

For marketers to encourage the maximum level of brand interaction, websites should

present communications in the spirit of a community, rather than an outside entity such

as a corporation presenting their own messages. This closely follows the need for

This is achieved through the tone of the marketing message – appreciating that visitors have chosen to visit the site and can leave at any time. Steps such as the inclusion of links and references to other related sites can be successful in tying a website into the online community. Affiliations and content sponsorship have a similar effect, by emphasizing the role of the website within the wider online community.

Chat rooms enable visitors to identify with the website audience, and hence the brand,

more closely, by meeting like-minded visitors who relate their experiences in a way that

commercial communications can also be exploited by the use of ‘viral marketing’

whereby key content can be downloaded, or directly sent by direct e-mail, for visitors to

send to their friends – conveying an implicit level of approval for the brand.

As the previous sections have detailed, it is imperative to identify the most effective forms of marketing online and understand the two key aspects;

Each form of marketing will encourage different user groups and will offer varying

degrees of sophistication. For example, search engines offer targeted and relevant

Websites need to be easily found. Attracting users and making them return is dependent

on the strength of the e-brand. However, in addition to providing magnetic content on

the site, further action can also be taken to maximize the reach of the website.

Many companies, have registered not only their corporate name but also the names of their brands as domain names. Proctor & Gamble famously registered not only the names of all of its products but also names of conditions it could help with, such as Diarrhoea.com. For alcoholic drinks manufacturers the domain name being the same as the brand name is vitally important as those looking for brand’s sites are unlikely to look under the manufacturers domain name.

As the way people use the web and search engines become more intelligent the value of

domain names may decline as browsers access sites through portals rather than directly

by typing in a URL. Also when browsers are not searching for a specific site, listings

with major search engines will generate a considerable volume of incidental traffic.

Metatagging is the practice of loading the source code underlying a web address with

particular names. While a user does not see these they are visible to search engines.

When a search engine produces a list of hits for a particular search item it ranks them by

the number of times the term appears in the field it searches. One of these fields is the

meta tag. It is thus a common practice to load meta tags with words which the site feels

potential visitors may search for. These may be category names, promotional straplines,

Stuffing is another practice designed to confuse search engines and involves particular

words on the website itself but in the same color as the background, so they are invisible

A relatively new practice is keyword targeted banner adverts. On most search engines

there is a banner advert. Several now change according to the search term the user puts

in so the banner is targeted to browsers searching for topics around the brand (e.g.

category name or competitor’s brand names) or the site’s secondary functions.

Although a large volume of traffic comes directly from portals, especially search

engines, the importance of links from other sites must not be underestimated. Links to a

site, from sites themed around related topics, such as beer links from football sites will

In addition to using online media such as banner advertising, links and direct e-mail to

drive traffic to sites, offline marketing media can also be used to increase awareness and

enthusiasm for websites. For example, use of posters to boost e-brand awareness.

Also, by including the website’s URL on promotional material, and other marketing communications, awareness of the website is not only raised but it is also easier for users to find. This integration also increases the effectiveness of conventional marketing by encouraging interaction with the brand.

Summary

As this chapter explored, online advertising strategies need to be planned with care in order to ensure maximum ‘share of attention’. In the online world, creativity counts in order to differentiate one online ad from another. However, whilst the Internet clearly does not signal the end for traditional media it does raise fresh opportunities for marketers to reach new markets. The Internet can perhaps best be viewed therefore as a tool that mixes tradition with technology in order to create a fresh approach.

Different strategies make use of the different tools available to the e-marketer. The following is a review of tools available to the e-marketer and a short description of the benefits and uses of each. A recent review identified more than 30 e-marketing tools (Kalyanam and McIntyre, 2002).

Short term marketing strategies on the internet are those that bring a temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very important to the over-all plan, because they are only deliver temporary traffic they must not be the only tactic adopted. Short term marketing strategies include purchasing advertising and search placement on search engines. Purchasing keywords from search engines such as Google is possible and allows the website advert to be shown to anyone searching for specific keywords relevant to the website. This method is effective as a targeted audience of people can be reached, who may be actively searching for the product.

Banner advertising is expensive and only successful when sites where advertising reaches the target audience (Bickerton, 2000, p.166). They allow graphics and multimedia advertisements to be shown, which are becoming increasingly advanced. They can be done on a CPM or CPC basis. If advertising space is bought on portals and other popular websites, visitors to those sites are obliged to see the advert because these sites are their window into the internet. But of course they can exercise choice by deciding whether to click on the advert to find out more.

The problem of encouraging site visitors is compounded by the sheer proliferation of web sites. It is estimated there are more than 8 billion web pages (http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/press/facts.html), amongst which a company is competing for the attention of customers. It follows that promoting the location of the website is critical for companies. A good investment is to make necessary changes to the website in order to achieve higher placing in the results pages of different search engines. This can be done through various methods such as selecting suitable keywords and placing these keywords in website copy, and encouraging other sites to link to the target site.

No matter how good the website is, if it is not receiving quality, targeted traffic, it will be not be achieving its objectives. The website may receive hundreds of visitors each day. However, if they aren't interested in the products or services being offered, the web traffic will not increase productivity. It is necessary to drive a continuous stream of targeted traffic to the website. The best way to achieve this is through targeted and successful search engine marketing, a longer term strategy.

Long term marketing strategies are those that bring a steady stream of targeted traffic over time. These strategies will continue to produce results even years in the future. Long term marketing strategies include use of cookies, email marketing and customer tracking. The ethics of using these techniques need to be considered carefully in deciding whether they will form part of the marketing plan.

In order to identify the end user so that they may be targeted with specific information it is necessary to invade the user’s privacy by planting an electronic tag, a cookie, on the end users computer. This is a key technique used in personalization, one of the largest benefits of internet marketing.

Email marketing with a current and active email list is cheap, produces good results and can be a real asset in any marketing program. Emails can be formatted to deliver a graphical page including branding and interactive links. Despite its potential, use of email for direct marketing has negative connotations due to the proliferation of SPAM, which is unsolicited email (http://www.clickz. com/ experts/em_mkt/em_mkt/article.php/1492521). Care must be taken to send emails to only opt-in email lists to remain compliant with the law, though the proliferation of SPAM does not mean email marketing cannot be used as a successful tool. Users of the website must agree to receive email, usually through a legal disclaimer and agreement checkbox.

Ethics are an increasingly important issue in internet marketing. A poor grasp of ethics may damage a brand being marketed. The main ethical issue for marketers on the internet is privacy. Privacy is the moral right of individuals to avoid intrusion into their personal affairs. However, as a marketer, a better understanding of individuals’ personal affairs can offer greater marketing opportunities and through collecting such information it will also be possible to use more targeted communications. However it should be collected within privacy laws. (http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/advertising/article.php/3084181).

The website does not only need to be marketed on the internet, however. Marketing in traditional media such as newspaper can be wasteful as not all viewers will be internet users or interested in the product or service. One of the greatest challenges for internet marketers is to be able to successfully assess which new technological innovations can be applied to give competitive advantage. Press releases are cost effective and quick to distribute. If written in an interesting way they can be picked up by different news agencies, magazines, news papers and newswires resulting in a large amount of exposure for minimal cost.

Each of these promotional tools raises different issues. Customers who have visited the website through choice to may have a more positive attitude than those driven to the site. This can have an impact on the effectiveness of the online campaign.

Application of Best Practice to SiliconFenBusiness.com

To apply best practice to SiliconFenBusiness.com, best practice theory and survey results data were combined to formulate more specific best practice to the new website. Each factor of the aforementioned best practices will be applied step-by-step in this section.

Best practices theory states that using online marketing creates an eBrand which differs from the traditional offline Brand. In the case of SiliconFenBusiness.com the eBrand uses the well-know term Silicon Fen which relates to the cluster of high tech companies located in the Cambridge area. Thus the eBrand of SiliconFenBusiness.com establishes itself as dealing with businesses within the silicon fen area, as the name implies. There is no offline brand for the site at this stage as there are not enough financial resources.

SiliconFenBusiness Design Strategies

As visitors to the site have done so voluntarily, as supported by Bickerton (2000) and McDonald et al (2002), it is important to have a well designed website to draw the eye and provide the level of interest required to keep the users’ attention. To meet this criteria the site was designed in three columns to allow it to incorporate as many features as possible which will be examined in more detail further on. These features provide incentives for the user to stay on the site. These features can be seen in Appendix 2.

The incentive features of SiliconFenBusiness.com include a ‘grapevine’, a company directory and proprietary share index of companies based in the Silicon Fen area of Cambridge. The ‘grapevine’ provides snippets of business gossip, single line pieces of recent important information which may draw the users to read further. The ‘grapevine’ adds an interactive feature to the site as registered users may post their own snippets of information which may be chosen to be displayed. The company directory provides a summary, live stock prices and other data on every high tech company within the Silicon Fen area. The survey shows that the site has a predominantly UK audience with 70% of respondents stating they were in the UK therefore the site content will be relevant.

To collect data on users and discover user trends and popular news items it is important to collect personalised data on site users in line with best practice. The site includes a registration feature and login and password area which has been incorporated into the site design. Once a user is registered, the movements of that user are stored in a database for analysis allowing the site manager to establish what features are most popular and drive the site further in that direction to give users more of what they want and thereby make the site more popular.

SiliconFenBusiness.com was designed to achieve a image of professionalism which helps to build the eBrand. Another contributor to this is having a regularly updated site. Not only does this give an image of a modern dynamic brand but it gives users a reason to re-visit the site on a regular basis and keep the site up to date and newsworthy. With 42% of visitors using the internet on a daily basis to find news keeping news fresh is an important consideration. These factors tie in with best practice in the previous best practice chapter.

Best practice demonstrates the need for marketers to view the internet as a community and SiliconFenBusiness has not neglected this. By providing a directory of businesses including information and outbound links to respective sites, the site delivers a good message tone in acknowledging users can leave at any time. Content partnerships have also been made with Google to syndicate the sites original content, delivering the advantages of being affiliated with the Google brand as well as drawing users from Google News. This fits with the site survey which demonstrated site users’ favourite news sources were BBC Online and Google News.

Once these features were decided upon and included into the design to have an attractive and magnetic site appealing to users the next stage was to start attracting traffic to the site through various internet marketing techniques.

SiliconFenBusiness Traffic Strategies

Internet marketing best practice states that websites need to be easily found to attract users and encourage them to return through recognition of the eBrand and various additional features and incentives on the site. However, additional steps can be taken outside of this field which help to build traffic to the site.

The initial step is to purchase a domain name. As internet users commonly view the default domain name extension as .com and .co.uk both of these domains were purchased, SiliconFenBusiness.com and SiliconFenBusiness.co.uk. The later can also promote the site as being UK specific.

Unless a site visitor has prior knowledge of a site and types the specific domain name into their internet browser they must find the site through either a link from another site or a search from one of the many search engines.

To ensure that SiliconFenBusiness.com can be found it is imperative, as stated in best practices, to have the site listed within search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo and others so visitors may find the site which can generate large amounts of traffic without any advertising costs. There are a myriad of methods to help to achieve this, some of which follow.

Adding meta tags is one method which enables a marketer to essentially tag the site with keywords which are deemed to be relevant. This method has proved extremely effective for SiliconFenBusiness.com, searches for specific article titles through Google show SiliconFenBusiness.com as the #1 result, this can be seen in Appendix 4. In fact, #1 placing on Google has been managed for more than 100 of the sites articles.

Stuffing is another method stated in best practices but was not used as the site owner felt this method may damage the brand and was not needed as the previous method had been so successful.

To complement the search strategy, as stated in best practice, it is important to have inbound links from other sites. SiliconFenBusiness.com achieved this by sending articles on companies directly to those companies and requesting they place the article within their press release or news sections of their respective websites. This proved very effective and most articles were place on sites resulting in many inbound links from many different websites, which delivered more traffic.

Best practice included the use of offline marketing methods to complement online marketing, however due to budget limitations it was thought that this step should wait until a later stage.

Conclusion

“The electronic highway is not merely open for business; it is relocating, restructuring and literally re-defining business” (Cronin,1995).

The internet is going to become more and more competitive as there has been a dramatic rise in the number of internet users (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=8) but the rate of business investment on the net has grown even faster. The fact that television, books, music, articles, radio, news and pictures can be encoded and transmitted digitally means that the boundaries between some firms are being broken down.

The traditional methods and strategies continue to apply to internet marketing. However, it is argued in this paper that they need to be applied with particular creativity in internet marketing because the medium offers opportunities for consumers to interact in ways that traditional media has not allowed or enabled.

The internet is still a relatively new technology, it has only become widespread in the past five or six years. Thus marketers are still learning how to use it. At the most basic level this can be seen in how the better adverts on the Internet have change in the past two years. Static, newspaper like adverts are being replaced by dynamic, moving images, and by adverts that respond when a user's mouse is passed over them. Marketers are getting better at driving traffic to their sites, as a inconspicuous way of marketing. As Cronin (1995) states “the electronic highway is not merely open for business; it is relocating, restructuring and literally re-defining business”.

Recommendations

This study used two methods (in addition to a review of the literature) to establish best practice in internet marketing. While the case study methodology was most appropriate given the constraints of the study, future research may take other approaches to collect more data on a wider range of companies. Semi-structured interviews carried out with marketing executives from different industries and who have had differing levels of success may provide further insights into what works and what does not. This study also collected primary data on site users which helped to further target the marketing plan. Future marketing research for this website could carry out in-depth interviews with key users of the site.

Discussion

The aim of this dissertation was to identify current best practice in internet marketing and to apply this to a new website. This was achieved by firstly reviewing the literature to identify current theory on best practice in internet marketing. The review of the literature identified that attention still needs to be paid to working to a sound business plan (focusing on the cost reduction potential of the internet) and developing a marketing plan through traditional analysis: the marketing mix has now been extended to the e-marketing mix. Finally, communication strategies that make use of the interaction between business and consumer and between consumers can be more successful than simply using the internet to advertise.

It should be recognized that creativity in marketing is also needed, and internet marketing strategy cannot always replace good ideas of ways of communicating with customers. It would be interesting to study how innovations occur. Google, for example, gives staff 20% of their week to work on their own ideas and this management technique clearly works for them.

Best practice in internet marketing has been identified. The traditional methods and strategies involved in marketing apply to internet marketing but must be extended (Kalyanam & McIntyre, 2002). A sound business plan is still paramount. And finally, internet-specific techniques need to be tailored to the business to be most effective. Combine these principles with a good sense of how people use the internet and an internet marketing plan will be much more likely to create a successful business.

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IDENTIFYING BEST PRACTICE IN INTERNET MARKETING AND APPLYING IT TO A NEW WEBSITE