e-business marketing - Marketing-led business

The value of the Internet lies in its ability to provide immediate access to information and as the infrastructure to store, retrieve, sort, filter and distribute information. These capabilities greatly enhance the value of the information itself by making it practically useful in business

The Internet is on the one hand the infrastructure providing a delivery mechanism or packaging for many products and services (as a bottle is to wine), and it is also powerful in reducing costs or increasing the value of the product or service.

eBusiness in the marketing-led business
Marketing managers and strategists have for years used the ‘Four P’s’ model to define their business strategy for product specification, delivery and promotion.

These four most important ‘P’s are generally accepted to be: Price, Product (specification and branding), Promotion and Place (or Placement, the mode of delivery, or Distribution). These headings are still useful in considering e-business, but there are a number of specific additions that are important to consider.

The Marketspace Model (de Meyer et al 20021, Amoni et al 20002) is a useful generic model that identifies three key features of e-business that are enabled through technology, as an extension of the traditional ‘4 P’s’ marketing model. ‘Customer relationships’ is rightly placed at the centre, because in many forms of e-business, the customer is uniquely identified and this gives the possibility of automatically offering a personalised service.

B2B

Search Engine Marketing. What good is a Web site if no one can find it? SEM is growing at a rapid pace - much faster than traditional advertising. Utilizing Search Engine Optimization tactics and paid placement, we can promote your site by increasing its visibility in search engines.

Business to business. These days, virtually every business does business with other businesses. And that means that one must approach communications with other businesses very strategically. We have built a strong b-2-b team, crawling with success stories. And we can help you – from good neighbor PR to major marketing campaigns directed at businesses – build your relationships on the corporate level.

Media Planning. With the cost of advertising running rampant, how you spend your media dollars is every bit as important as your media. As we’ve said before, we’re not going to ram a year-long, print-heavy media budget down your marketing throats. We’re going to work with you to determine what media really work best for your company and your particular goals.

All-media advertising. No matter the media – be it print, television, radio, web, outdoor, environmental – we’ve done it. And we can do it for you. Our only hope is that you let us help you bring it all together – executing a stronger, more cohesive program that will help you get to your marketing goals. This is truly our specialty: fusion.

Business Marketing vs. Consumer Marketing

Business marketing vs. consumer marketing

Although on the surface the differences between business and consumer marketing may seem obvious, there are more subtle distinctions between the two with substantial ramifications. Dwyer and Tanner (2006) note that business marketing generally entails shorter and more direct channels of distribution.

While consumer marketing is aimed at large demographic groups through mass media and retailers, the negotiation process between the buyer and seller is more personal in business marketing. According to Hutt and Speh (2004), most business marketers commit only a small part of their promotional budgets to advertising, and that is usually through direct mail efforts and trade journals. While that advertising is limited, it often helps the business marketer set up successful sales calls.

Marketing to a business trying to make a profit (Business-to-Business marketing) as opposed to an individual for personal use (Business-to-Consumer, or B2C marketing) is similar in terms of the fundamental principals of marketing. In B2C, B2B and B2G marketing situations, the marketer must always:

* successfully match the product/service strengths with the needs of a definable target market;
* position and price to align the product/service with its market, often an intricate balance; and
* communicate and sell it in the fashion that demonstrates its value effectively to the target market.

Small Business Consulting and Marketing Consulting

Doug Williams and Associates is a small business consulting firm specializing in helping owners to grow their businesses and their bottom line. From Vancouver, Washington, DWA works with businesses in Portland, OR and nationwide. Our specialty is working with companies from startup to 100 employees and up to $100 million in sales.

We coach business owners and senior management staff, design business plans, develop marketing strategies and create marketing plans. By providing a full range of Internet services such as web design, hosting, search engine optimization and blog marketing. DWA is your internet marketing solution. We specialize in business consulting for both small business startups as well as mature companies. Schedule monthly operations / budget reviews to keep your business on track.

Our focus is providing the support and infrastructure to companies that do not yet have or want a large internal staff.

CLARITAS Business Targeting Solutions

Outmaneuver the competition to reach business customers

Stay on top of your best business prospects and outmaneuver the competition with our business market research and our comprehensive suite of segmentation systems, software and data solutions.

Nielsen Claritas understands the challenges associated with attracting new business prospects. Customer intelligence is key to understanding your customers and prospects and building a successful business marketing strategy including:

• Where they are located
• The size of the business
• Number of employees
• Annual revenue
• Ownership status
• Potential within specific industry segments
• Market potential

Our business targeting solutions can help you discover, plan, evaluate and execute your B2B efforts.

E-Business

E-Business

Large-scale, complex eBusiness solutions from strategy and architecture through implementation. Becoming a successful E-business requires an organization to achieve excellence in knowledge management, internal processes and external relationships (customers, suppliers and partners). E-Business is the vision of transforming the Internet into a powerful platform for business. Business is fast moving towards the Internet media to take advantage of its vast interconnected services. With business being a very important process of life, Internet becomes the greatest media of today to reach the people. The vision to develop solutions that will deliver results to the customer s and also provide an easy to use facility is all that is needed to establish successful E-Business.

E Business Consulting

Our full-service approach, extensive knowledge of the technology marketplace and experienced staff allows us to respond to your special needs and requirements promptly.

B2B Marketing Strategies

B2B Marketing Strategies



B2B Branding is different from B2C in some crucial ways, including the need to closely align corporate brands, divisional brands and product/service brands and to apply your brand standards to material often considered “informal” such as email and other electronic correspondence.



Because business customers are focused on creating shareholder value for themselves, the cost-saving or revenue-producing benefits of products and services are important to factor in throughout the product development and marketing cycles.

People (Target Market)

Quite often, the target market for a business product or service is smaller and has more specialized needs reflective of a specific industry or niche.[3] Regardless of the size of the target market, the business customer is making an organizational purchase decision and the dynamics of this, both procedurally and in terms of how they value what they are buying from you, differ dramatically from the consumer market. There may be multiple influencers on the purchase decision, which may also have to be marketed to, though they may not be members of the decision making unit.[4]

Pricing

The business market can be convinced to pay premium prices more often than the consumer market if you know how to structure your pricing and payment terms well. This price premium is particularly achievable if you support it with a strong brand.[5]

Promotion

Promotion planning is relatively easy when you know the media, information seeking and decision making habits of your customer base, not to mention the vocabulary unique to their segment. Specific trade shows, analysts, publications, blogs and retail/wholesale outlets tend to be fairly common to each industry/product area. What this means is that once you figure it out for your industry/product, the promotion plan almost writes itself (depending on your budget) but figuring it out can be a special skill and it takes time to build up experience in your specific field. Promotion techniques rely heavily on marketing communications strategies (see below).

(Sales and Distribution)

The importance of a knowledgeable, experienced and effective direct (inside or outside) sales force is often critical in the business market. If you sell through distribution channels also, the number and type of sales forces can vary tremendously and your success as a marketer is highly dependent on their success.

Marketing Communications Methodologies

The purpose of B2B marketing communications is to support the organizations' sales effort and improve company profitability. B2B marketing communications tactics generally include advertising, public relations, direct mail, trade show support, sales collateral, branding, and interactive services such as website design and search engine optimization. The Business Marketing Association[1] is the trade organization that serves B2B marketing professionals. It was founded in 1922 and offers certification programs, research services, conferences, industry awards and training programs.

Statement

An important first step in business to business marketing is the development of your positioning statement. This is a statement of what you do and how you do it differently and better and more efficiently than your competitors.

Developing your messages

The next step is to develop your messages. There is usually a primary message that conveys more strongly to your customers what you do and the benefit it offers to them, supported by a number of secondary messages, each of which may have a number of supporting arguments, facts and figures.

Building a campaign plan

Whatever form your B2B marketing campaign will take, build a comprehensive plan up front to target resources where you believe they will deliver the best return on investment, and make sure you have all the infrastructure in place to support each stage of the marketing process - and that doesn't just include developing the lead - make sure the entire organization is geared up to handle the inquiries appropriately.

Briefing an agency

A standard briefing document is usually a good idea for briefing an agency. As well as focusing the agency on what's important to you and your campaign, it serves as a checklist of all the important things to consider as part of your brief. Typical elements to an agency brief are: Your objectives, target market, target audience, product, campaign description, your product positioning, graphical considerations, corporate guidelines, and any other supporting material and distribution.

Measuring results

The real value in results measurement is in tying the marketing campaign back to business results. After all, you’re not in the business of developing marketing campaigns for marketing sake. So always put metrics in place to measure your campaigns, and if at all possible, measure your impact upon your desired objectives, be it Cost Per Acquisition, Cost per Lead or tangible changes in customer perception.