Website Software Developers & Designers: Every Business needs good e-marketing strategies

E-marketing adds a magic ingredient to the traditional marketing mix: track able, digital delivery.

Being able to trace distribution and responses right down to the individual recipient gives e-marketing campaigns immense value in relation to their cost.

They can be a highly-effective and surprisingly affordable way promoting products, building a brand and increasing customer retention.

The speed of delivery and feedback (days, or even hours) allows the sender to adjust content and format during the course of a campaign, at minimal additional cost.

Calls for action are more effective, as customers need to do little more than “click once” to respond.

Software application such as PACO Bulk Messaging Solutions (http://www.paco.co.za/), also make extensive communication relatively simple for one person to manage. In a nutshell-small business and e-marketing is a match made in heaven.

Digital delivery is around 70% to 90% cheaper than traditional methods, which require printing and postage.

The response time for email marketing campaigns averages three days, compared to an average three to six weeks for direct mail.

Types of e-marketing:

1. E-newsletters are widely used to build customer relations and loyalty.

They are sent out on a regular basis (e.g. weekly or monthly) and provide information that is of value to the customer.

They also encourage feedback by allowing customers to click through to forms or link on your business’s website.

However, an e-newsletter is only as good as your contact information.

Without a well-managed database your messages might reach the wrong people or no-one at all.

2. Viral marketing is the Internet’s equivalent to word-of-mouth advertising, and is one of the most effective and cost-efficient methods of building your email database.

These campaigns typically comprise of an email message with an incentive (often competition) to encourage recipients to forward the email to their friends and associates.

These friends are then encouraged to do the same.

To start a viral campaign you need to link your website to your database, you might also require some basic HTML programming skills.

In both cases, your Internet Service Provider and or Website Developer (http://www.chillies.co.za/) should be able to help.

3. Affiliate marketing is when someone promotes merchants products through their own website in return for a commission.

This can be worthwhile if the website is credible and trusted, and the commission rewarding.

4. Banner advertising usually refers to an advert that appears anywhere on a web page and which includes a click-through to your website.

They are usually charged for on a Cost per Impression (CPM) basis.

If your advert is shown I rotation with another, each appearance counts as one impression.

Costs vary, but should be balanced against the results you get.

For example, if 50 people visit your site via an advert that has been shown 1000 times, the click-through rate is 50 divided by 1000, multiplied by 100 = 5%. A 5% rate is a good average, 15% or higher is rare.

5. Credible Online Shopping Listings is a must for any e-trader.
Many internet service providers offer this to customers for free.

6. Business directory listings are also a good way of building awareness. For example http://www.bloemfonteininfo.co.za/ is a very comprehensive online directory for e.g. Bloemfontein business or companies wishing to do business in this area can also submit their business information on www.visitbloemfontein.co.za.

Ultimately all e-marketing initiatives drive visitors to your website, where you want them to be informed, enticed and persuaded to do business with you.

As with any other form of marketing, if your website, customer service and products don’t stand up to scrutiny, your campaigns won’t yield the results you hope for.

Have a nice week :-)

Nelio de Sa

nelio@chillies.co.za http://www.chillies.co.za/ +27 (0)861 777000