Online Marketing in India – An Analysis
Dr. Subroto Kumar Ghosh
Guest Faculty
Dept. of
Vocational & Management Studies
St. Xavier's
College
Dr. Camil
Bulcke Path, Ranchi.
Abstract
Internet
marketing has become more and more popular nowadays among businesses around the
world. After discovering the wide range benefits of internet marketing in
promoting products and services online, it has soon become the leading medium
for marketing all over the world.
Unlike
mass marketing, which effectively piques the interest of the local audience by
means of radio spots, newspapers and print media, internet marketing allows
companies to nurture a more personal relationship with their consumers from all
over the world. With internet marketing, businesses can deliver content to
their customers through personalized and cost-effective communication.
With
all the benefits that internet marketing can offer your business, developing a
professional internet marketing campaign can attract more customers to your
product or brand to grow your business more.
Online marketing is leveraging the unique capabilities of new interactive
media to create new form of interactions and transaction between consumers and
marketers. Also, it can be considered as innovative way of marketing in digital
marketplace which includes online advertising, online market research, online
promotions and online pricing models. To make it successful there are different
strategy such as Targeting, Product Strategy, Pricing strategy, Distribution
strategy and promotional strategy. This paper tries to identify and analyse the
advantages and disadvantages of online marketing over traditional marketing. It
also focuses to identify that how companies can be benefited with this. This
paper also tries to determine the impact of online marketing on traditional
market and society.
Keywords: Online marketing, Internet
marketing, E-commerce, E-strategy.
Introduction:
The time when only top-notch businesses
set sail on internet marketing has gone now. It is time to explore the
advantages of internet marketing.
Now, Internet Marketing is much more
cost-effective, all-inclusive and easy to handle. This enables it to do a great
part of the specialized work with just a click of the mouse. This provides huge
opportunities for both small- and large-scale businesses to enhance their sales
through online marketing in an efficacious fashion.
Internet Marketing is rapidly
developing its ubiquity and significance. Today, the internet has become the
center of attraction for the entire world. Individuals of any age, ethnic
background and societal position are very much connected to the web. This
connection is very much required to channelize their personal, professional or
business-related procedures.
In this era of
innovation, almost all the spheres of human life have been touched upon by the
applications of ever –growing technology. E-Business is a natural extension of
the internet. The concept refers to the transaction of business via an
electronic means, usually the internet or any of its mediums. E-business has
certain characteristics which include internet, information system for handling
its business process, an online selling platform, Business models that work to
compile data on various customer and market segments and then make this
information available to third parties for a fee and online financial exchange
facility.
E-marketing is a
subset of e-business. It is the means through which a business promotes the
products or services that it is offering on the internet. The practice of
running an enterprise on the internet and promoting its services or products
using e-marketing tools or resources presents enterprise with distinct
advantages.
Internet marketing
is the process of promoting a business or brand and its products or services
over the internet using tools email marketing, search marketing, social media
marketing, display advertising and mobile advertising that help drive traffic,
leads, and sales.
Internet marketing is the use of the
internet to advertise goods and services. Businesses can employ various tools
to market their products or services. These are social media marketing, pay per
click, blogging, direct marketing, content marketing and much more. Successful
online advertising translates to increased traffic to your website and
increases return on investment.
E-marketing must
be defined to include the management of the consumer’s online experience of the
product; from first encounter through purchase to delivery and beyond.
There are two
reasons for building the concept of e-marketing around consumer experiences-
1. This approach
forces marketers to adopt the consumer’s point of view.
2. It forces
managers to pay attention to all aspects of their digital brand’s interactions
with the consumer, from the design of the product or service to the marketing
message, the sales and fulfilment processes, and the after-sales customer
service effort.
Any business that
aims for development is linked to five basic marketing stages:
1. Market Research
2. Development of
the product
3. Distribution
4. Pricing
5. Promotion.
On the basis of
these five stages of marketing, in this paper we will be trying to discuss
various issues related to marketing strategy.
Objectives:
1. To identify and
analyse the advantages and disadvantages of online / internet marketing over
traditional marketing.
2. To identify how
the business can be benefited with online marketing (discuss different
strategic issues).
3.
To determine the impact of online marketing on society & Business.
Advantages of Online Marketing:
1. Convenience and Quick Service
The incredible convenience of marketing online is one of the biggest
advantages of internet marketing. The internet has extremely easy accessibility
with consumers using the internet and reaching markets anywhere in the world.
Because of this, purchasing goods from across borders now reduces the cost of
transportation.
For importers, this is a huge advantage as it means they can order
online right from the comforts of their home.
2. Low Cost for Operations
One of the main advantages of online marketing for businesses is its low
operating cost. We can advertise cheaper with internet marketing than with
traditional methods of advertisement such as ads in newspapers, on television
and on the radio. In online marketing, we can easily get a free listing in a
wide range of business directories.
3. Measure and Track Results
An aspect of internet marketing that is rarely available with
traditional marketing is the ability to measure and track results. With online
marketing, our business can utilize varying tools for tracking the results of
our advertising campaigns. Using these tools, not only can we measure and track
but also illustrate the progress of our marketing campaign in detailed
graphics. The ability to quantify our marketing efforts is the best possible
thing that can be there.
4. Demographic Targeting
Marketing our products and services online gives us the ability to
target audiences based on demography. This allows us to concentrate our efforts
on the audience that we truly want to offer our products or services. With
demographic targeting, we can better target our marketing efforts on specific
demographic regions.
5. Global Marketing
The ability to market our products and services globally is one of the
biggest advantages of global marketing for business. Within several months of
aggressive SEO, we can secure millions of viewers and reach huge audiences from
across the world.
6. Ability to Multitask
One of the core benefits of online marketing is its ability to
handling millions of customers at the same time. As long as a website’s
infrastructure is efficient, numerous transactions can easily take place
simultaneously.
7. 24/7 Marketing
Internet marketing reduces cost and runs around the clock. That means
that our marketing campaigns run for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Compared to
traditional marketing, internet marketing does not constrain with opening
hours. At the same time, we would not be worrying about overtime pay for our
staff.
8. Automated, Tech-Savvy Marketing
Compared to traditional offline marketing where marketers delegate
various tasks to the best hands and talents, internet marketing takes advantage
of a more tech-savvy method. With internet marketing, everything can go automated.
9. Data Collection for Personalization
Transactions through the internet allow us to collect data. Whenever a
customer purchases a product through a company’s website, the data is captured.
We can use this data in varying ways. Most businesses analyse the data to find
out what products and/or services sell frequently.
10. Diversified Marketing and Advertising
When targeting our audience, diversification plays an important role in
our marketing and advertising campaigns. Diversification means that we can use
a variety of tactics and strategies in order to reach our prospects. With
online marketing, diversification becomes a lot easier. In addition to that, it
is possible for us to run varying marketing techniques simultaneously to better
implement of our marketing campaign.
11. Easy Tweaking to our Marketing and Advertising Campaigns
It is inevitable in marketing and advertising that something needs to be
tweaked in order to optimize our campaigns. Compared to traditional marketing,
online advertising is much easier to tweak. Whenever the campaign needs to be
modified, online marketing allows the modification to happen without having to
worry about downtime, service interruption or even halting the entire system.
12. Instant Transaction Service
Executing transactions is easy and nearly instant online. We can do this
through a digital payment service so that there is no need for cash to go
between the marketer and the customer to buy and sell merchandise.
13. Better Sales Relationships
In traditional marketing, merchants often give their business cards or
pamphlets to their customers after a sale. However, the customers lose the
cards or misplace it. The only time the seller would remember about the card as
if they had the intention of visiting the seller again.
The marketer can use the email address to provide customers with
valuable information such as information about the purchased product, available
coupons on their products and services, special discounts and introducing new
products. Aside from email addresses, they can also use social media for
consistent interaction with customers.
14. Time-Effective Marketing
Unlike traditional marketing, online marketing is easy to start and
quick to implement. We can easily set up a marketing campaign at any time that
is convenient for us. In fact, we can set up email marketing for our business
within only a matter of hours.
15. Continued Marketing Campaign
The marketing campaign’s later effects are one of the greatest
advantages of internet marketing for business. For example, such as blogs, and
websites have the capacity to remain functional and promote our products and
services years after we started our marketing campaign. Almost every online
marketing technique has viral and long-term effects that can continually
improve our site’s traffic.
16. Online
Marketing Is Inexpensive
Marketing products
through a physical retail outlet is much more expensive than marketing them on
the Internet. For display in the store, we do not need to fill our shelves and
windows with stock. Consequently, we can keep our inventory costs low by
ordering stock in line with demand, instead of ordering it in anticipation of
demand.
17. Online
Marketing Helps us to take Advantage of Social Media
Social media is
growing in importance every day. Online marketing allows us to leverage this.
The link between online revenue growth and social networking was highlighted in
a recent study by the Harvard Business School’s Executive Education area.
18. Global
reach
Online
marketing provides businesses with a wide base of customers for their services
or products. With the internet, all types of businesses, from multinationals to
small and medium enterprises, have access to millions of prospective customers.
19. Low cost
In any
marketing campaign, cost is a key factor that must be considered as it affects
the company’s budget. Businesses can avoid the high cost of marketing that is
associated with traditional forms of advertising by embracing internet
marketing and blogging. Online marketing is way cheaper than television and
radio ads and creating and mounting billboards. Marketing though blog is one of
the ways of sell effectively online.
20. Social
Media
Social
media plays a crucial role in modern advertising. This is because customers
look at comments and reviews posted by other consumers online. Businesses can
easily incorporate social network tools in their advertising campaigns and make
profits from customers that rely heavily on social media.
21. Ease of personalization
Electronic
marketing enables businesses to tailor their advertising techniques to suit the
needs of their target audience. Businesses can also personalize communication
between them and their clients. This ensures that our service or product will
reach our prospects in a timely manner. Furthermore, it strengthens the brand
image and presence of the company.
22. Immediate
quantifiable results
Online marketing
delivers quantifiable results immediately. We can measure every action from
clicks, visits, sign-ups, and purchases.
23. Less business
overheads
As the business is
online, there are less overheads to deal with as compared to investing in
offline stores.
24. Faster Response
The business or a
company get the response through e-mail within three days, with maximum
responses on day one itself, while a direct mail campaign would take minimum
ten to twelve days to generate any response.
25. Improved conversion rates
If we
have a website, then our customers are only ever a few clicks away from
making a purchase. Unlike traditional media which require people to get up
and make a phone call, or go to a shop, digital marketing can be seamless and
immediate.
Disadvantages
of Online Marketing:
1.
Promotional Strategies Can Be Copied
One of the drawbacks of Digital Marketing is piracy. It hardly takes
some minutes to copy information from our Promotional Strategies campaigns.
Even they can misuse our promotional strategies.
2.
Facing High competition
After Globalization worldwide competition have been occurred. If we
think that we can reach global audience through Digital marketing, we have to
face global competition in online marketing.
3.
Security Issue
Online Marketing mostly depends on Internet. There are many hackers and
spammers present on internet who can breach our security and misuse our social
media accounts. So, in digital marketing it is necessary to be aware and alert.
4.
Complaints and feedback
As we know that customer complaint or feedback is visible in public in
our social media accounts. In respect of Online marketing, a single Negative
comment, tweet, feedback or post about our services and products can weak or
destroy our online reputation for a long time.
5.
Connectivity or Interest on the Internet
In this Technical World, there are some areas where the connectivity of
internet is not available or the internet connection is very poor. So, in those
remote areas, online marketing has no use and function. That’s why without
internet, online marketing is nothing.
6.
Anti-Brand Activities (Cybersquatting)
This is another disadvantage of online marketing. In this case, a man or
a group of men can affect the image of a reputed brand through
cybersquatting or Doppelganger. These are very well-known word in online
marketing.
7. Time consuming
Tasks such as optimising online advertising campaigns and creating
marketing content can take up a lot of time. It's important to measure your
results to ensure a return-on-investment.
8. Competition
One of the biggest downsides to online marketing is
the stiff competition. It can be very difficult to make your business and
information stand out with companies around the world competing.
9. Internet Fraud
We may experience unethical and fraudulent practices
in online marketing. Fake trademarks and logos can be used unchecked. This may
defame our reputation.
10. Customers
Ignore Ads
Consumers are
so used to seeing advertising on television, hearing radio commercials and
flipping through advertisements in magazines, they've developed an aversion to
all forms of advertising. This is also the case with online advertising, where
consumers can avoid clicking banner advertisements, bypass ads in online videos
they watch and close pop-up advertisements as soon as they come up on their
screens. Customers are in control of which advertising messages they want to
click and respond to.
Traditional
marketing VS Online Marketing:
1. Online
marketing is more measurable than traditional marketing. Internet marketing
allows organization to see exactly what and how much they are paying for.
2. Online
marketing makes strategic decision based on facts. Traditional organizations
will have a difficult time showing real data that leads to achieving the goals.
3. Online
marketing is better at reaching target audience.
4. Internet
marketing is a constant source as compare to traditional. If we catch an ad in
passing and we missed some information we cannot go back and review it in case
of traditional whereas online marketing provides a permanent address that can
visit anytime.
5. Online
marketing provides better word of mouth, feedback and review of the product and
services are the good example of it.
How the companies
can be benefited with online marketing –Various strategic issues
1. The
E-marketing planning process: The integration of e-marketing includes
specific objectives, strategies and activities. It can be a streamlining
process or reinventing process. In reinventing process, the existing one is
scrapped and a new one is created from scratch with a fresh look. It requires a
separate e-marketing plan. Set the objectives which integrate e-marketing
communications with traditional communications.
2. Organizing
and resourcing for e-marketing: As the importance of online channels
increase, the structure of the marketing organization and responsibilities may
need to change to maximize the opportunities available through new media. For
this whether to change the structure of the marketing organization or not,
should be decided first. After it the new responsibilities for e-marketing
should be identified. How to develop e-marketing specific skills within the
marketing team? Does the organization have the database marketing and
analytical skills to support E-CRM and e-mail marketing? Which e-marketing
activities do should be outsourced?
3. Defining the
Internet value proposition: To achieve increased customer usage of online
channels (web, e-mail, wireless), a distinct, detailed proposition must be
developed for these online channels and it must be clearly communicated online
and offline. How to vary the elements of the marketing mix online?
4. E-brand value:
How does the Internet contribute to and influence brands? How to extend the
brand online? Should brand variants be used? How effective is the emotional
connection of an online brand? How is the online brand experience perceived by
customers? How is online service delivery perceived by customers?
5. Setting the
e-communications mix: Defining the proportion of online spends on different
elements of the
communications
mix. One needs to identify Percent of communications budget allocated to
e-communications i.e., online spend Percentage on advertising, direct mail and
PR.
6. E-mail
marketing integration: It is the integration of different forms of
marketing e-mail, i.e. rented list, house list eblasts, service e-mails and
e-newsletters with traditional communications, i.e. direct mail, advertising,
etc to achieve maximum response. First business has to decide touch or contact
strategy defining minimum and maximum number of touches per customer in a
period?
7. E-CRM:
It is related to electronic-customer relationship management. Using online
channels to build and deepen relationships with customers is known as E-CRM.
Key issues related to E-CRM is to manage customer data and identifying the
methods through which targeting and personalizing messages for online customers
is done.
8. E-marketing
automation: E-marketing automation is developing personalized marketing
messages delivered by web and e-mail in response to customer events and behaviours.
For this business need to identify: How to support the sales process and
relationship-building through automated e-mail dialogue based on web-based
event triggers? How to build related-products personalization into the web
site? How to integrate personalization technology into the existing infrastructure?
Impact of online
marketing on society
Online
business has grown immensely. There are millions of websites on internet trying
to reach prospective customers. Internet has reached every corner of the world.
Nearly 80% of world population seek Internet for information. The market reach
has expanded. Number of e-commerce websites have risen in a short span. Online
shopping has become a trend. With online marketing, both business and buyers
are getting benefitted.
The
impact can be judged by rising numbers of tools and technologies to provide
assistance to customers and measure the results. Billion dollars are spent on
advertising on Internet. It shows the clear picture of effect of internet
marketing on business. The impact of business promotion is overt as millions of
marketers are making huge profits.
1. In this online
world, a simple banner advertisement can be both an advertisement and a direct
marketing service. The banner raises the passive consumer’s awareness of a
product. It also encourages the consumer to pursue action by clicking on it.
2. Online
marketers care about the consumer’s online experiences for the simple reason
that all of them - good, bad, or indifferent - influence consumer perceptions
of a product or a brand.
3. The web offers
companies’ ownership and control of all interactions with customers and thus
creates both the ability and the need to improve their overall experience.
The
social impact of Online Marketing can be measured by satisfaction and trust
through the following factors:
1. Greater
use of the Internet The fastest growing demographic segment includes students and
youth.
2. This
segment is the leading user of advanced applications and online technologies.
3. According
to a survey conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, the
number of Internet users in the country was 190 million at the end of June
2013.
4. With
more and more users on the web through telephony, it was expected that the
country reached 243 million in June 2014, representing a growth of 28% over the
previous year.
5. The
growth in the number of Internet users has also led to substantial growth in
other digital industries such as e-commerce, mobile commerce, and digital
advertising.
6. The
government of India has made efforts in the education system through the
implementation of computer tools and techniques, essential for all educational
levels, from primary education to the end of studies.
7. Students
from urban and rural areas were sensitized by supplying the personal computer,
Laptops, tablets or laptops with the use of the Internet and its advantages to
improve lifestyle and provide electronic books and e-books.
8. Entrepreneurs
are also attracted to advanced computer technologies and their usefulness for
electronic commerce.
9. The
development of educational standards at all levels has allowed a great demand
for electronic commerce and m-commerce in the market.
10. Changes
in online shopping habits The online shopping process is constantly being
worked on to make it easier, more understandable and easier to use.
11. As
online offers give some discounts and attractive prices.
12. This,
along with better offers, has brought changes in the buying habits of online
buyers
The Impact of
e-Business on Society
13. The
versatile shopping experience and the rapid development of transaction
facilities are further driving opportunities for the remaining market segments.
14. The
greatest advantage of e-commerce is the ability to provide secure purchase
transactions through the Internet and together with the almost instantaneous
verification and validation of credit card transactions.
15. This
significant impact has led to a greater number of customers to exploit various
fields of electronic commerce for their benefits.
16. There
is also a great national diversity in the adoption of electronic commerce,
particularly in marketing and subsequent sales.
17. Now
India is growing and now becoming the country with more amount of people with
literate people in the world of the Internet.
18. The
effect of increasing the transparency of E-commerce of the macro-level and
micro level with the highest productivity.
19. The
digital solutions that replaced traditional applications offer many
opportunities for businesses and individual consumers.
20. The
services are aimed at customers.
21. The
products are negotiated too quickly
22. The
number of errors reduced.
Conclusion
Today, there is an
increase in the number of consumers who buy products and services online. As a
result, more and more companies globally are now resorting to internet
marketing to connect with their customers and advertise their products and
services. This sets them apart from their competitors and it helps them to
increase their profit margins.
Online marketing
provides a suite of powerful tools to help grow your firm’s reach and
reputation – and ultimately, your firm itself. By fully leveraging the
advantages of online marketing through tools such as content marketing, social
media, email marketing, online video, and more, you can create a powerful
lead-generating machine that puts your firm on the path to greater profitability
and success.
Day by day,
technology is getting sophisticated and costs are crumbling, making the
internet easy and cheap to access. Eventually, even for buying a product from a
shop situated near to home, the customer may use the internet to place order,
and may get the product delivered immediately. The integration of electronic
commerce and marketing will bring a renaissance in marketing function. Using
the advantages of both Internet marketing and traditional marketing according
to the goals of the company, is considered to be the most effective way of
marketing. Comparing the two approaches, Internet seems to be a complementary
tool to traditional marketing. There are various marketing strategy issues,
which need to be answered before entering into online marketing for successful
beneficial marketing.
The world of online marketing
continues to evolve as advertisers, publishers, and technology vendors find
innovative ways to handle online advertising in a way that is beneficial to
viewers, advertisers, vendors, and publishers.
References:
1.
https://edkentmedia.com/top-15-advantages-internet-marketing-business
3.
https://clicktecs.com/6-benefits-of-internet-marketing
4.https://www.eggmarketingpr.com/blog/7-immense-benefits-of-internet-marketing-for-businesses
5.
https://www.digitalvidya.com/blog/advantages-of-internet-marketing
6.
https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-digital-marketing
7.
https://www.ecyberplanet.com/2019/11/top-disadvantages-of-digital-marketing.html
8.
https://www.eliteonlinemedia.com/blog/advantages-disadvantages-marketing
9.
https://www.absoluteweb.com/pros-and-cons-of-online-marketing
10.
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-direct-marketing-internet
12.
https://www.trekksoft.com/en/blog/tourism-online-marketing-challenges-and-solutions
13.
https://acowebs.com/impact-ecommerce-society
14.
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/online_marketing/impact_pros_and_cons
