The Importance of Digital Marketing for Businesses

The provided assignment discusses the importance of digital marketing in today's business landscape. It emphasizes that internet marketing is crucial for effective production and supplementation of goods. The report also touches upon various aspects of digital marketing, including its effects on organization's business operations and the influence of globalization on business activities. Furthermore, it delves into the significance of digital marketing outcomes in operating business activities effectively. The assignment includes references to relevant books and journals that support its arguments.

Internet Marketing

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1) Role of internet marketing within a modern marketing context...........................................1
P2) Use of internet marketing.....................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3) Benefits to customers of a business using internet marketing..............................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
P4) Benefits and opportunities of internet marketing within the marketing mix........................3
P5) Efficient, effectiveness of business by using internet marketing.........................................4
P6) Challenges of globalization when using the internet as a marketing tool............................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Internet marketing, or online marketing, refers to advertising and marketing efforts that
use the Web and email to drive direct sales via electronic commerce, in addition to sales leads
from Web sites or emails. Internet marketing and online advertising efforts are typically used in
conjunction with traditional types of advertising such as radio, television, newspapers and
magazines. Web marketing includes e-commerce Web sites, affiliate marketing Web sites,
promotional or informative Web sites, online advertising on search engines, and organic search
engine results via search engine optimization (SEO). Email marketing involves both advertising
and promotional marketing efforts via e-mail messages to current and prospective customers.
Social media marketing involves both advertising and marketing (including viral marketing)
efforts via social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg.
TASK 1
P1) Role of internet marketing within a modern marketing context
Many things nowadays are used to be done in the physical world are now done online
nowadays. For example, taking a loan from bank, searching property, shopping online, and even
nowadays people are finding their life partner online via dating app or website. Which allows
people to work at their own home and they don’t need to go out, which gives more facilities to
customers, Marketing is widely produced and developed online very much nowadays (Mooney
and Slobodian, 2016). The reason of this is that so many people are using internet now that it
would be a hugely missed opportunities if people didn’t uses the internet or marketing. Internet is
the fastest growing communications method and it’s currently available to over a million upon
millions of people around the worldwide. The internet is used with many ways example,
advertising banners, videos advertising, and even the pop ups are the common advertising
methods is being done through internet marketing. And the companies are using better ways to
advertise e.g. using most popular websites to advertise their service or product.
The internet marketing introduces the products and services online. Businesses that aim
for profit intend to market their products through the internet because it’s a helpful way of
increasing the business’s profit. sells and also increases the number of their customers.
Marketing in the business world is about finding out what customers want and expect from the
business, therefore it is important to provide the best and easiest way to operate the business.
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Internet is a quick way for the business to connect with its customers. Businesses tend to go
online because they can easily promote their business into the global level, which is an
inexpensive way (Leeflang and et.al., 2014). Internet marketing can also help the business
achieve its smart objectives, for example increase online sales by 15% by the end of 2010 or
increase customer maintenance by 20%. The SMART objectives are specific as it gives full
information on what the business needs to do in order to achieve its objectives. it is also
measurable to see whether the business is achieving the objective successfully or not. Smart
objectives can also be timely, realistic and achievable.
P2) Use of internet marketing
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business
rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own
marketing efforts. If you have your own products but aren’t great at sales, affiliate marketing is a
great way to get other people to do your selling for you without employing a single person. Take
a look at sites such as Click Bank, Commission Junction and Epic Advertising to see what other
people are selling as affiliate products, and get a sense of if there is a good market for your
product.
Pay per click (PPC), is an internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in
which advertisers pay when the ad is clicked. PPC is an excellent way to get your advert seen by
people, and because you only pay for those who actually click your link it means that you can be
reasonably sure that you are only paying for people who are interested in what you have. Tools
such as Google Adwords allow you to research relevant keywords to make sure that you are
choosing terms that people are searching (Staton, 2016).
Video is one of the fastest growing areas of online marketing. Not only is it popular with
people who prefer watching to reading, it allows you enormous flexibility to present your
business in a way that just isn’t possible through words alone (Bishop and Rowley, 2013).
YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google, and it’s free to host your videos
there as well as many other video sites. Facebook now also encourages videos to be uploaded
directly to your timeline there so that they play automatically in your followers’ news feeds.
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TASK 2
P3) Benefits to customers of a business using internet marketing
Internet marketing is important because it aligns with the way consumers make
purchasing decisions (Tuohy and et.al., 2013). Studies by analysts such as Garner indicate that
increasing numbers of consumers use social media and research on mobile Internet to carry out
preliminary product and price research before making final decisions.
Convenience
Internet marketing enables you to be open for business around the clock without
worrying about store opening hours or overtime payments for staff. Offering your products on
the Internet is also convenient for customers. They can browse your online store at any time and
place orders when it is convenient for them.
Cost
Marketing products on the Internet costs less than marketing them through a physical
retail outlet. You do not have the recurring costs of property rental and maintenance. You do not
have to purchase stock for display in a store. You can order stock in line with demand, keeping
your inventory costs low.
Personalization
Internet marketing enables you to personalize offers to customers by building a profile of
their purchasing history and preferences. By tracking the web pages and product information that
prospects visit, you can make targeted offers that reflect their interests (Caillaud, Rose and
Goepp, 2016). The information available from tracking website visits also provides data for
planning cross-selling campaigns so that you can increase the value of sales by customer.
TASK 3
P4) Benefits and opportunities of internet marketing within the marketing mix
Opportunities offered to businesses by Internet Marketing The Internet presents
businesses with great opportunities to improve their marketing effort and perhaps gain
competitive advantage. Internet marketing maximizes the value that comes with reaching
consumers through digital media (Hannigan and Lynch, 2013). As you engage more people, you
grow your brand awareness, and you draw more visitors to your website.
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A benefit of a customer shopping with a business who uses internet marketing is that they
can experience dynamic pricing. dynamic pricing is when a price of a product or service changes
due to certain actors such as changes in the economy, seasonal changes etc. This means
customers who shop online can save money on these circumstances. For example a clothes
retailer such as Topman would have a huge sale after Christmas (which is a seasonal event).
Some of these savings will only be valid online via their website. So customers can easily
purchase these cheaper products on the Topman website without having to go out and buying
them in store (this may be a hassle due to lots of people shopping in store because of the sale
(Kimergård, 2014). so the dynamic pricing from the internet website allows customers to save
money and time without having to shop at the store directly.
P5) Efficient, effectiveness of business by using internet marketing
Internet marketing has offered more efficiency, effectiveness and successful as with
internet marketing supply chain efficiencies have been offered as buying and selling has become
more smoother, faster and can substantially save on costs and get their product to the markets
more quickly.
Internet Marketing has allowed to procure online with this they can purchase the
materials instantly making the process of their production of finished goods quicker which offers
them the efficiency of time saving. Also internet marketing has offered customer power as they
have a wide range of choice in buying materials which has made them efficient in cost saving as
they can procure form cheaper suppliers and be in contact with new suppliers which they
wouldn’t have reached offline (Leff and et.al., 2014). These efficiencies have made effective as
they know produce goods quicker and effectively sell them online for private customers to buy.
Price is another efficiency provided by internet marketing for as with internet marketing
Nike are able to have more choice in price as the internet will have a variety of suppliers which
wouldn’t have been able to reach to offline. Procuring online has given disinter mediation which
has helped them reduce cost, this gives them effectiveness in buying as online processes are
much faster and suppliers would be able to deal with Nike quicker and therefore makes their
selling successfully (Leeflang and et.al., 2014).
Place efficiencies are offered as they use internet marketing to reach customers and
suppliers due to the internet having more reach by scale on national, international and global
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levels. With internet marketing are reaching customers globally and getting sales from all over
the world as is a recognized brand globally, this is also cost effective for them as they don’t have
to have a location in all the countries they can trade online and ship products to customers which
would save them premises and staff costs to operate several different locations (Karjaluoto,
Mustonen and Ulkuniemi, 2015). Promotion efficiencies from internet marketing are that they
are able to engage with service like SEO, or banner advertisements and also promoting on social
media.
P6) Challenges of globalization when using the internet as a marketing tool
While the internet offers benefits and opportunities in regards to marketing, it also throws
up many challenges generated by an increasingly global marketplace. These challenges,
businesses, have to be prepared for. Businesses such as Tesco must go through the challenge of
facing potential threats online on the internet. The first challenge that Tesco and any other
similar organisation will have is facing is that they can’t communicate with the customer
directly. Most of communication will be done through internet (Gorelick and et.al., 2013).
Technology is always changing or updating to work better or maybe to look better, to
attract more people etc. Nowadays technology is used nearly everywhere and has become very
popular. Computers are one technology that is used for many, many reasons by millions of
people throughout the world. The internet is very important and many functions within the
internet are used and updated/added to the internet to make ‘life easier’. Businesses that are
based online such as ASOS has a great advantage of using these functions but ASOS also are
faced with the changes being made (Stephen, 2016). Customers like to see things that are modern
and ‘in with the trend’.
Home pages for example are the first page people will see and it has to be importantly
eye catching and highlighted in the right way. If the technology used behind computers is
changed the employees will have to keep to the challenge and get trained to KNOW the changes
and use it within the website. This issue is a big one, as security online is important. There are
many unreliable sites that contain many viruses, hacker access etc. Online businesses are faced
with this concern all the time as it involves customer’s personal details and also the businesses
itself. Internet is not always trustworthy such as ‘others’ might be able to see or gain access to
the site and the payment system.
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CONCLUSION
The report is concluded that internet marketing is essential for modern era to producing
and supplementing goods effectively. However, different aspects of internet marketing is
presented that affects organization's business operations. Including this, globalization impact on
business activities is described through this assignment. In this regard, importance and different
outcomes of digital marketing is understood that is useful for operating business activities
effectively.
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REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Bishop, T. and Rowley, J., 2013. Digital marketing in independent libraries in the United
Kingdom. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. 45(4). pp. 323-334.
Caillaud, E., Rose, B. and Goepp, V., 2016. Research methodology for systems engineering:
some recommendations. IFAC-PapersOnLine. 46(12). pp. 1567-1572.
Gorelick, J.G. and et.al., 2013. Digital marketing applications for electronic cigarette users.
13(4). pp. 949-988.
Hannigan, A. and Lynch, C.D., 2013. Statistical methodology in oral and dental research: pitfalls
and recommendations. Journal of Dentistry. 41(5). pp. 385-392.
Karjaluoto, H., Mustonen, N. and Ulkuniemi, P., 2015. The role of digital channels in industrial
marketing communications. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. 30(6). pp. 703-
710.
Kimergård, A., 2014. Online marketing of synthetic peptide hormones: poor manufacturing, user
safety, and challenges to public health. Drug testing and analysis. 6(4). pp. 396-398.
Leeflang, P.S. and et.al., 2014. Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European
management journal. 32(1). pp. 1-12.
Leeflang, P.S. and et.al., 2014. Challenges and solutions for marketing in a digital era. European
management journal. 32(1). pp. 1-12.
Leff, A. and et.al., 2014. Online marketing, monitoring and control for merchants. 7(3). pp. 54-
86.
Mooney, M. and Slobodian, S., 2016. Seeing the wood for the trees: Fixing large undefined
problems in digital marketing. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing. 3(4). pp.
294-303.
Staton, M.G., 2016. Improving student job placement and assessment through the use of digital
marketing certification programs. Marketing Education Review. 26(1). pp. 20-24.
Stephen, A.T., 2016. The role of digital and social media marketing in consumer behavior.
Current Opinion in Psychology. 20(4). pp. 17-21.
Tuohy, D. and et.al., 2013. An overview of interpretive phenomenology as a research
methodology. Nurse Researcher. 20(6). pp. 17-20.
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