Introduction

e-Marketing is still quite a controversial subject to talk about, since no one succeeded to unify the various theories around it; however there is one thing upon which there is no doubt that e-Marketing first appeared under the form of various techniques deployed by pioneer companies selling their products via the internet in the early 90's. The frenzy around these new marketing techniques created by e-tailers and supported by the internet rapidly gave birth to a new dimension of what we knew as Marketing: the e-Marketing (electronic Marketing). There are many definitions to what e-Marketing is, the simplest and shortest one being formulated by Mark Sceats: e-Marketing is Marketing that uses the internet as manifestation media. A working definition is that coming from a group of CISCO specialists: e-Marketing is the sum of all activities a business conducts through the internet with the purpose of finding, attracting, winning and retaining customers. Email is a very versatile medium. Formats range from simple text to HTML & rich media. Content can be one-size-fits-all or highly customized. Frequency can consist of fixed, frequent intervals or sporadic intervals, with transmissions occurring only when something newsworthy comes along. Sophistication (and cost) can be very low or very high. Along with the power of email comes the abuse of email, commonly known as spam. Is spam email considered marketing? Technically, the answer is probably yes, but it is certainly not responsible email marketing. While some users fail to distinguish between permission marketing and email spam, spam is actually a major threat to legitimate email marketers, as a glut of messages could make the entire email medium less effective.

What is e-Marketing?

e-Marketing is a subset of e-Business that utilizes electronic medium to perform marketing activities and achieve desired marketing objectives for an organization. Internet Marketing, Interactive Marketing and Mobile Marketing for example, are all a form of e-Marketing.

Definition:
eMarketing, e-Marketing, or Electronic Marketing is the act of trying to achieve marketing objectives through electronic or digital means. Most eMarketing campaigns are performed through the use of Internet-based content, such as eNewsletters and emails. See also Internet Marketing.

E-marketing, Internet marketing and Digital marketing are defined in this article based on the introduction to my Internet marketing book.

eMarketing Concepts
A successful Internet business requires a focused marketing strategy. We apply concerted, individual marketing plans with useful options and consider online marketing always as a whole. A marketing campaign starts always with a detailed analysis of your Internet activities and a definition of goals. Based on that we create a concept for efficient online marketing for your individual Internet business case. A concerted interaction of various forms of online advertising options are the hallmarks of our eMarketing concepts. Some of the essential form of online advertising with whom we work successfully are mentioned below:
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Keyword Advertising E-Mail Marketing Search engine optimization Affiliate Marketing Shopping comparison sites Web controlling

Internet Marketing Services:

We offer nine primary services, from which you can pick and choose, to ensure the best possible results. These nine primary services are: Search Engine Marketing (SEM): We all know of the awesome potential available online, but this potential will go fulfilled if users simply cannot find your site. SEM is important to almost any online campaign. Comprised of balance between SEO and PPC tactics, SEM is an essential marketing tactic and arguably the biggest emerging marketing avenue established within the last decade.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): SEO is the process of getting a website to achieve top rankings for its chosen key phrases on the search engines without paying for these rankings. With daily search volumes in the hundreds of millions, and searchers in "goal mode", this is a tactic that cannot be ignored. Pay Per Click (PPC): Buying sponsored adverts on search engine results pages and content pages while only paying for those ads on a performance basis, i.e. when they are clicked on, has proven to be an exceptionally costeffective online marketing strategy because you only pay when it works!

Online Advertising: Its broad impact is unmatched and with a completely measurable ROI, the sales value can not be disregarded. Affiliate Marketing: Is like a combination of PPC and Online Advertising. In simple terms, it involves getting affiliated websites to display your adverts, with payment based only on performance (usually a commission on sales generated). Viral Marketing: Word of mouth in an electronic context. Using the connectedness of the Internet to build brand awareness and grow subscriber lists. WebPR: Allows online PR tactics to reach their full potential because the brand gets to travel to so many places, continuously linking back to your site.

Email Marketing: Allows you to build relationships with your target market as well as those who don't convert. This way you can communicate with them over time rather than losing them all together. Conversion Optimisation: Fundamental eMarketing, such as site development, SEO, emailing, PPC and WebPR effectively maintain your presence online. Our Conversion Optimisation service adds to and enhances these tactics through the process of traffic analysis and optimisation to turn more visitors into consumers. Social Media: In an age of Consumer Generated Media, Social Media has a powerful role to play when it comes to marketing your brand online. Online Reputation Management (ORM): A vital component to maintaining and growing any brand online, ORM empowers you to know exactly what is being said about your brand on the Internet so you can engage and protect your reputation. ORM is an essential ingredient in any PR campaign. These eMarketing tactics operate holistically and our satisfied clientsare a testament to the success of the eMarketing services we offer. At Quirk eMarketing, we will use all the knowledge and resources that we've acquired over the years, to craft an appropriate eMarketing strategy tomeet the goals that your business needs to achieve. If you are interested in employing any of these tactics and are intrigued by the positive impact they will have on your ROI, please contact us now

Advantages of e-Marketing
Following are some of the advantages of e-Marketing:

Reduction in costs through automation and use of electronic media Faster response to both marketers and the end user Increased ability to measure and collect data Opens the possibility to a market of one through personalisation Increased interactivity

Disadvantages of e-Marketing
Following are some disadvantages of e-Marketing: Lack of personal approach Dependability on technology Security, privacy issues Maintenance costs due to a constantly evolving environment Higher transparency of pricing and increased price competition Worldwide competition through globalisation

The 4 P's of e-marketing mix

{Product Price Promotion Positioning} Traditionally the marketing mix is co-ordinated so efficient product, price, promotion and place strategies are developed for products purchased over the counter. The internet is changing the way we sell our products and services. That's a fact. Consumers now use the internet to research and purchase products/services online. Organization now needs online strategies to attract and retain customers. The e-marketing mix considers the elements of presenting the marketing mix online. Online, this immediate tangibility disappears. But, is that a disadvantage? E-commerce sales are increasing at extremely high rates. Why? What does buying products online offer over one to one sales? Firstly there are clear online facts about the product you are purchasing. The buyer knows immediately about product features, the facts, not sales persons assumptions. Electrical store offers clear information on products and their specification, consumers know what they get if not there is a customer service number where they can find out more. The buying process is also customized for
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returning visitors, making repeat purchases easier. Organizations can also offer immediately ancillary products along with the main purchase. As mentioned in marketing mix section, pricing is always difficult to do and must take into account many considerations. Traditionally pricing was about finding about your costs, discovering how much consumers are willing to pay, taking account competition pricing then setting your price. The internet has made pricing very competitive. Many costs i.e. store costs, staff cost have disappeared for complete online stores, placing price pressures on traditional retailers. The internet gives consumers the power to shop around for the best deal at a click of a button. Such easy access to information helps to maintain prices within the online world. E-pricing can also easily reward loyal customers. Technology allows repeat visitors to be tracked, easily allowing loyalty incentives to be targeted towards them. Payment is also easy online credit cards use allows for easy payments. One of the biggest changes to the marketing mix is online purchasing. Consumers can purchase direct from manufacturers cutting out retailers totally. The challenge for online retailers is to insure that the product is delivered to the consumer within a reasonable time. Location is important within our place strategy. Online location can refer to where links are placed on other websites. Promoting products and service online is concerned with a number of issues. Having a recognizable domain name is first stage towards epromotion. Most organizations today have some form of webpage used in most if not all advertisements. Placing banner advertisements on other web pages is a common form of e-promotion. Banner ads must be placed where potential customers browse. Web public relations are another approach to promoting online. News worthy stories based on product or service launches can be
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placed on the company's webpage, or WPR articles sent to review sites for consumers to read. Hopefully this form of online promotion will pull the consumer in. Direct email is a popular and common form of epromotions, although slowly becoming the most hated my many consumers. Organizations can send e-leaflets to hundreds and thousands of respondents, hoping a small percentage will reply. To summaries e-promotion includes: Banner promotion, Web public relations (WPR), E-leaflets and having a domain name. The e-marketing mix must work together and support each other if the company is to have a successful online marketing strategy.

e-Marketing Strategy
The e-Marketing Strategy is normally based and built upon the principles that govern the traditional, offline Marketing the well-known 4 P's (Product Price Promotion Positioning) that form the classic Marketing mix. Add the extra 3 P's (People Processes Proof) and you got the whole extended Marketing mix. Until here, there are no much aspects to differentiate eMarketing from the traditional Marketing performed offline: the extended Marketing mix (4 + 3 P's) is built around the concept of "transactional" and its elements perform transactional functions defined by the exchange paradigm. What gives eMarketing its uniqueness is a series of specific functions, relational functions, that can be synthesized in the 2P + 2C+ 3S formula: Personalization, Privacy, Customer Service, Community, Site, Security, Sales Promotion.

These 7 functions of the e-Marketing stay at the base of any eMarketing strategy and they have a moderating character, unlike the classic Marketing mix that comprises situational functions only. Moderating functions of e-Marketing have the quality of moderate, operate upon all situational functions of the mix (the classic 4 P's) and upon each other. 1.Personalization The fundamental concept of personalization as a part of the eMarketing mix lies in the need of recognizing, identifying a certain customer in order to establish relations (establishing relations is a fundamental objective of Marketing). It is crucial to be able to identify our customers on individual level and gather all possible information about them, with the purpose of knowing our market and be able to develop customized, personalized products and services. For example, a cookie strategically placed on the website visitor's computer can let us know vital information concerning the access speed available: in consequence, if we know the visitor is using a slow connection (eg. dial-up) we will offer a lowvolume variation of our website, with reduced graphic content and no multimedia or flash applications. This will ease our customer's experience on our website and he will be prevented from leaving the website on the reason that it takes too long to load its pages. Personalization can be applied to any component of the Marketing mix; therefore, it is a moderating function. 2. Privacy Privacy is an element of the mix very much connected to the previous one personalization. When we gather and store information about our customers and potential customers (therefore, when we perform the personalization part of the eMarketing mix) a crucial issue arises: that of the way this information will be used, and by whom. A major task to do when implementing an e-Marketing strategy is that of creating and

developing a policy upon access procedures to the collected information. This is a duty and a must for any conscious marketer to consider all aspects of privacy, as long as data are collected and stored, data about individual persons. Privacy is even more important when establishing the eMarketing mix since there are many regulations and legal aspects to be considered regarding collection and usage of such information. 3. Customer Service Customer service is one of the necessary and required activities among the support functions needed in transactional situations. We will connect the apparition of the customer service processes to the inclusion of the "time" parameter in transactions. When switching from a situational perspective to a relational one, and e-Marketing is mostly based on a relational perspective, the marketer saw himself somehow forced into considering support and assistance on a non-temporal level, permanently, over time. For these reasons, we should consider the Customer Service function (in its fullest and largest definition) as an essential one within the e-Marketing mix. As we can easily figure out, the service (or assistance if you wish) can be performed upon any element from the classic 4 P's, hence its moderating character. 4. Community We can all agree that e-Marketing is conditioned by the existence of this impressive network that the internet is. The merely existence of such a network implies that individuals as well as groups will eventually interact. A group of entities that interact for a common purpose is what we call a "community"

and we will soon see why it is of absolute importance to participate, to be part of a community. The Metcalf law (named after Robert Metcalf) states that the value of a network is given by the number of its components, more exactly the value of a network equals the square of the number of components. We can apply this simple law to communities, since they are a network: we will then conclude that the value of a community rises with the number of its members. This is the power of communities; this is why we have to be a part of it. The customers / clients of a business can be seen as part of a community where they interact (either independent or influenced by the marketer) therefore developing a community is a task to be performed by any business, even though it is not always seen as essential. Interactions among members of such a community can address any of the other functions of e-Marketing, so it can be placed next to other moderating functions. 5. Site We have seen and agreed that e-Marketing interactions take place on a digital media the internet. But such interactions and relations also need a proper location, to be available at any moment and from any place a digital location for digital interactions. Such a location is what we call a "site", which is the most widespread name for it. It is now the time to mention that the "website" is merely a form of a "site" and should not be mistaken or seen as synonyms. The "site" can take other forms too, such as a Palm Pilot or any other handheld device, for example. This special location, accessible through all sort of digital technologies is moderating all other functions of the e-Marketing it is then a moderating function.

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6. Security The "security" function emerged as an essential function of eMarketing once transactions began to be performed through internet channels. What we need to keep in mind as marketers are the following two issues on security: security during transactions performed on our website, where we have to take all possible precautions that third parties will not be able to access any part of a developing transaction; security of data collected and stored, about our customers and visitors. A honest marketer will have to consider these possible causes of further trouble and has to co-operate with the company's IT department in order to be able to formulate convincing (and true, honest!) messages towards the customers that their personal details are protected from unauthorized eyes. 7. Sales Promotion At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume. This function counts on the marketer's ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan. On the other hand, the marketer needs to continuously keep up with the latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them.

The 7 Cs of E-Marketing

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The Internet allows for the entire sales cycle to be conducted on onemedium, nearly instantaneously. From making the consumer aware ofthe product to providing additional information to transacting the final purchase, the Internet can accomplish it all. The Internet is like onebig point-of-sales display, with easy access to products and the abilityfor impulse shopping. Impulse shoppers have found a true friend in theInternet. Within seconds from being made aware of a product,consumers can purchase it online. Further, with the targetingtechniques available to advertisers, consumers who turn down aproduct because of the price can be identified and served a specialoffer more likely to result in a purchase. In the right hands, with theright tools, the Internet really is an advertisers dream come true.As opposed to the 4 Ps of brick-and-mortar marketing, the changingoutlook in the area of e-marketing can be explained on the basis of 7Cs of e-marketing.

Contract:
The e-marketers first goal is to communicate a corepromise for a truly distinctive value proposition appealing to the targetcustomers.

Content:
refers to whatever appears on the website itself and on hotlinked websites. If chosen appropriately, it can increase both the ratesat which browsers are converted into buyers and their transactions.

Construction:
The promises made by e-marketers are not unique tothe Internet, but the mediums interactive capabilities make it easierfor them to deliver on their promises quickly, reliably, and rewardingly.In practice, this means that promises must be translated into specificinteractive functions and Web design features collectively givingconsumers a seamless experience. Such design features as one-clickordering and automated shopping help deliver the promise ofconvenience.

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 Community:
Through site-to-user and user-to-user forms ofinteractivity (such as chat rooms), e-marketers can develop a core ofdedicated customers who become avid marketers of the site too.

Concentration:
Targeting through online behavioral profiling.Advertisers have known for some time that behavioral targeting(a.k.a., profiling) is vastly superior to simple demographic targeting.Knowledge of a consumers past purchases interests, likes/dislikes,and behavior in general allows an advertiser to target anadvertisement much more effectively. Department stores have longkept track of consumers past purchases. They are thus able to projectwhat other types of products a consumer might be interested in andthen send an appropriate coupon or sale offer. Credit card companies are the ultimate gatherers of behavioral targeting information. Theymaintain vast databases of cardholders past transactions, and theysell lists of this data to advertisers. The same type of behavioral modelis forming on the Internet. Publishers and advertisement networksmonitor the items that a consumer has expressed interest in orpurchased on a site (or network of sites) in the past and targetadvertisements based on this information.

Convergence:
We will soon enter the next round of the E-marketingbattle as broadband reaches the masses. The Internet will becomemore ubiquitous and wireless; televisions will become moreinteractive; video/data/voice appliances will converge; brandadvertising and direct marketing practices will integrate; domesticbrands, commerce and marketing will become even more global; andbig marketing spenders will spend more money online. Manycompanies that are well positioned today will need to continue toevolve to take advantage of the opportunities. The

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success of Internetadvertising companies will largely be driven by how they maneuveramong the coming developments. Rich media, brought on bybroadband, will allow advertisers much greater creativity by bringing innew types of advertising to the Internet, as well as enhancing some ofthe more traditional forms. Broadband technology will allow theconvergence of television and the Internet. Dubbed interactive TV, in its simplest form, will consist of atelevision with some interactive capabilities. Basically, a user will see atelevision screen that is three-quarters traditional television, but with aframe that has Internet capabilities. This frame will allow users toaccess up-to-the-minute sports scores or news on the Web, forexample. More importantly for Emarketers, it would allow viewers toimmediately leap to the website of an advertiser whose ad was beingshown. The user could find out more information or order the productright there.

Commerce:
The last emerging fundamental of e-marketing iscommerce, whether it includes offering goods and services directly, ormarketing those of another company for a fee, thus helping to coverthe fixed costs of site operations and to offset customer acquisitioncosts. Difference between Marketing e-Business, e-Commerce and e-

e-Business is a very broad entity dealing with the entire complex system that comprises a business that uses electronic medium to perform or assist its overall or specialised business activities. e-Commerce is best described in a transactional context. So for example an electronic transaction of funds, information or entertainment falls under the category handled by principles of e-Commerce. Technically e-Commerce is a part of eBusiness.

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e-Marketing is also a part of e-Business that involves electronic medium to achieve marketing objectives. eMarketing is set on a strategic level in addition to traditional marketing and business strategy. Difference between Marketing e-Marketing and Interactive

e-Marketing is a broader term that describes any marketing activity performed via electronic medium. Interactive Marketing is generally a sub set of e-Marketing that involves a certain level of interaction.

To be successful on the Internet

To be successful on the Internet, e-marketers will have to do morethan reproduce their off-line business models on line because thesebusiness models work only at considerable scale. Interestingly, It is possible for online marketers to be profitable even at lower salesvolume if they exploit efficiencies in eEmarketing and synergies withthe off-line business, with examples as follows. Exploiting more than one channel to close the transaction: Although early winners on the web might belong to an exclusive clubof Internet start-up companies, established players in the off-lineindustry can catch them and even overtake them by offering a choiceof channels. Leveraging low customer acquisition costs: Traditional brick-and-mortar companies can bring their existing customers online at a muchlesser cost than Internet start-up companies who must lay out a heftyamount per head to acquire customers. Exploiting alternative revenue streams:
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An online presence offersan E-marketer a wider variety of sales opportunities. For web-basedretailers, acting as an agent on behalf of the customer can become arevenue source in the future. Purchasing scale at low volumes: E-marketers can cut down ontheir purchasing cost and shorten their procurement cycle by replacingEDI tools with Internet based ones that facilitate product comparison,streamline logistics, and help B2B vendors aggregate their retailersback office purchases. Reducing customer churn: Given the high cost of replacingestablished customers, losing them is expensive. A web presencesupplies the personalized attention that could keep customers loyal.

Maximizing the pricing potential: It has been reported byconsumer researchers that buyers shop online more for conveniencethan for cost. In view of this relative indifference to price, e-marketerscan capture some margin premium, at least in the early days of theirsites. Challenges in e-marketing: Every online fulfillment operation, largeor small, faces four main challenges: controlling customer data,integrating on- and offline orders, delivering the goods cost-effectively, and handling returns. Controlling customer data: As outsourcing arrangements proliferateand delivery services become more expert in using informationtechnology, emarketers risk losing their lock on consumer data. In an economy where knowledge is revenue as well as power, emarketersmust consider how to strike a balance between the

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efficiencies offeredby the out-sourcing of fulfillment and the confidentiality that keepingdata in-house preserves. Integrating on and off-line orders: When the volume of orders ishigh, companies must decide how much integration they need. In atotally integrated system, Internet orders would be automaticallytransmitted through a processing center and transferred to thesuppliers manifest. An integrated system with full ERP (enterpriseresource-planning) capabilities, for example, can ensure that surges indemand dont retard key fulfillment operations such as data entry,inventory, and packing.Although the problems of rapid growth are complex in themselves, thelack of a fully integrated order management system compounds them.In the future evolution of the Web, however, integration will becomeessential for building effective customer service and packagetrackingsystems.

Delivering the goods cost-effectively: At present, every singletransaction challenges e-marketers to deliver the goods quickly,cheaply, and conveniently. But this is largely a technical and logisticalproblem, and it will be possible (though perhaps expensive) to solve itby developing new sorting and scanning equipment and by deployinglarger delivery vehicles. Making contact with the recipient is a trickierproblem but one that must be resolved if the full potential of e-impulse orders is to be realized, for an impulse purchase loses itspower to gratify if the product or service takes too long to appear. Butsince each missed delivery adds as much as a full day to the fulfillmentprocess, spanning that final mile to the home can take longer thantraveling the rest of the fulfillment loop. Handling returns:

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E- marketers, with their emphasis on convenienceand customization, must match the high standard of service exhibitedby some physical marketers regarding returns. At present, they donot. To begin with, few ecommerce retailers (or mail order companies,for that matter) design their packaging for easy returns. Customersoften have to find new packing materials, call to arrange credits andrefunds, and physically take packages to delivery services. Each steprepresents an inconvenience that, however minor, can combine withothers to create negative feelings about the vendor. Even if aconvenient solution for returns were developed, e-marketers mightdiscover that impulse sales carry hidden costs. The implication is that fulfillment costs must be driven down to preserve profitability.

Conclusion
E-marketing must be defined to include the management of theconsumers online experience of the product, from first encounterthrough purchase to delivery and beyond. Digital marketers shouldcare about the consumers online experiences for the simple reasonthat all of them -- good, bad, or indifferent -- influence consumerperceptions of a product or a brand. The web offers companiesownership and control of all interactions with customers and thuscreates both the ability and the need to improve their overallexperience.There are two reasons for building the concept of e-marketing aroundconsumer experiences. First, this approach forces marketers to adoptthe consumers point of view. Second, it forces managers to payattention to all aspects of their digital brands interactions with theconsumer, from the design of the product or service to
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the marketingmessage, the sales and fulfillment processes, and the after-salescustomer service effort. Part of the situation assessment is often the analysis of the current e-Business tools and activities within the organisation. One of them is a website audit aimed at analysing and detecting any inefficiencies and setting the direction for strategic improvement. Once the organisation's environment is well understood, e-marketers then have an opportunity to present realistic objectives and provide a path for implementation and evaluation of the implementation process. Naturally another essential part of the plan is budgeting and budget allowance for a contingency plan should there be a need to re-evaluate certain aspects of the eMarketing plan implementation for unforeseen obstacles. A good e-Marketing plan will have a clear executive summary and unambiguous set of recommendations which can be understood by management and further implemented by technical staff. For this reason it is essential that e-Marketers are familiar with basic principles of the technology and tools that drive e-Marketing activities.

http://www.quirk.biz/ http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_emarketing.htm

http://www.brainwave-connection.com/emarketing-needs/emarketing-needs.cfm 5th edition of E-Marketing by JudyStrauss& Raymond Frost www.dti.gov.uk/industries/ecommunications www.google.com www.wikkipedia.com

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www.authorstreem.com www.internetworldstats.com

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