Online marketing is a set of tools and methodologies used for promoting products and services through the internet. Online marketing includes a wider range of marketing elements than traditional business marketing due to the extra channels and marketing mechanisms available on the internet.
Analytics for web or mobile app experiences can help determine the following:
- Which online marketing channels are the most cost-effective at acquiring customers, based on the conversion rate of visitors to customers, and the cost of those visitors.
- Which channels are effective at acquiring and driving higher lifetime value for customers — such as email marketing, which drives repeat purchases to prior customers.
- Which cohorts of customers exhibit strong engagement behavior and high potential for upsells — such as software or mobile apps, which expect to sell more products to customers with high engagement.
Online Marketing Tools
There are a number of tools that can be used to build and maintain a robust online marketing program:
- Email Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Display Advertising
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Events & Webinars
- A/B Testing & Website Optimization
- Content Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Marketing Analytics
- Marketing Automation
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Content Management System (CMS)
Examples of Online Marketing
Some examples of online marketing campaigns include:
- Canon advertises for search keywords related to “photography” on Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines to market their cameras to a relevant audience.
- Whole Foods collects email addresses on their website to advertise new products, sales, and events in their stores.
Online marketing mistakes to look out for.
1. You are not engaging customers
Though part of online marketing but activities like social media marketing via social networking sites need special mention as these activities help in creating buzz around the startup in the short term and help to build brand value when done effectively in the long term.
2. You are targeting the wrong audiences
With advanced web analytic tools now freely available it is possible to target your audiences once you know your customer as in step one. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) are ways by which you can target your audiences.
3. Your pricing is all wrong
Pricing is a huge factor online. People can compare your pricing in seconds, instead of having to trudge around multiple physical stores. If you are too low, customers may think your products are low quality. If you are too high, they’ll feel like you’re trying to rip them off.
Pricing is the process whereby a business sets the price at which it will sell its products and services, and may be part of the business’s marketing plan.
A business can use a variety of pricing strategies when selling a product or service. The price can be set to maximize profitability for each unit sold or from the market overall. It can be used to defend an existing market from new entrants, to increase market share within a market or to enter a new market.
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Know the market. You need to find out how much customers will pay, as well as how much competitors charge. You can then decide whether to match or beat them. Simply matching a price is dangerous, though – you need to be sure all your costs – both direct and indirect – are covered.
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Choose the best pricing technique. Cost-plus pricing involves adding a markup percentage to costs; this will vary between products, businesses, and sectors. Value-based pricing is determined by how much value your customers attach to your product. Release price is used to tempt customers to try your product when used for a short period of time. Sometimes to capture market share startup may continue to charge low price till sufficient market share has been achieved.
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Work out your costs. Include all direct costs, including money spent developing a product or service. Then calculate your variable costs (for materials, packaging and so on); the more you make or sell, the higher these will be. Work out what percentage of your fixed costs (overheads such as rent, rates, and wages) the product needs to cover. Add all of these costs together and divide by volume to produce a unit break-even figure.
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Consider cost-plus pricing. You will need to add a margin or markup to your break-even point. This is usually expressed as a percentage of break-even. Industry norms, experience or market knowledge will help you decide the level of markup. If the price looks too high, trim your costs and reduce the price accordingly. Be aware of the limitations of cost-plus pricing, because it works on the assumption you will sell all units. If you don’t, your profit is lower.
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Set a value-based price. You’ll need to know your market well to set a value-based price. For example, the cost to bring a hairdryer to market might be £ But you might be able to charge customers £25 if this is the market value.
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Think about other factors. How will charging GST have an impact on price? Can you keep margins modest on some products in order to achieve higher margin sales on others? You might need to calculate different prices for different territories, markets or sales you make online.
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Stay on your toes. Prices can seldom be fixed for long. Your costs, customers, and competitors can change, so you will have to shift your prices to keep up with the market. Keep an eye on what’s going on and talk to your customers regularly to make sure your prices remain optimal.