The Rise of E-Commerce

Electronic Commerce, commonly known as E-Commerce consists of the buying and selling or products and services.

With the rise of e-commerce in the last five years, it has had a huge impact in the war of online retailing versus high street shops.  According to the Guardian, four out of ten shops will have to shut in the next five years as consumers turn their backs on traditional stores in favour of online shopping.  According to Creative Online Media (2012) the popularity of online shopping has increased ten-fold in the last few years, with the UK e-retail market growing 16% in 2011.

You would be hard-pressed to find a business in the 21st century without an online presence of some sort.  E-commerce allows for heightened customer relationships and referrals.  A company website is just a basic, must have marketing tool for anyone trying to run a successful business.

An example of E-Commerce, is the worlds leading safest online payment transaction process, PayPal.

PR and Digital Marketing. Hand-In-Hand?

Public relations for any business serves the function of establishing and maintaining a positive image and reputation to the general consumer.  Although originally carried out through the press etc, digital marketing has now become the dominant method, allowing the quickest and most direct communication between business and consumer.

This has seen to be true, in the recent viral video KONY 12, which has become an impressive use of digital marketing and public relations.  The video provided highly successful exposure for the work of 'Invisible Children', a US non-profit organisation, who achieved 74 million views in just one week, demonstrating the powers of social media and such viral videos.

Effective PR not only establishes initial interest and awareness, but is vital for maintaining this awareness and positive perception, especially when facing critics and public scrutiny.

Invisible Children have achieved this through using PR and social media hand-in-hand, responding to critics and negative feedback through social media sites such as twitter.  Here they are able to communicate directly to those with the questions and negative perspectives, while at the same time highlighting the influential figures who remain behind the movement, as seen in the support Bill Gates gives Invisible Children below.

What's your view on the Invisible Children movement?

Brand Placement- Important?

Everyone is aware of the increasing growth of digital communication amongst brands and organisations.  The big picture is that on average, digital communications are less prevalent but more influential than traditional forms of communication, (Freeman and Ford 2009).

Branding has gone viral and consumers are now constantly bombarded with brands via digital mediums such as social networks, blogs and websites.

Philip Kotler once famously said,

            "If you are not a brand, you are a commodity. Then price is everything and the low cost producer is the only winner." 

With digital marketing advancing, branding must be made commercially available through digital marketing forums such as social networks.  Brands essentially increase the value of products and services by differentiating them from the competition. 

Why is ‘Brand Marketing’ so important?

• It improves your business' lead generation, because it is easier to sell things when a trusted brand.
• Higher success rates from acquiring links naturally or through sending out requests to other webmasters or bloggers.
• Greater exposure

As already said traditional marketing is now overrated, digital marketing is the way forward. It seems necessary for organisations to use brand placement via digital media in order to compete.  When well executed brands increase sales and essentially give businesses a focus.

Online Questionaires: Whats the point of it all?

Online Surveys Versus Traditional Market Research

As already explained digital marketing is quickly overtaking the traditional methods of marketing.  Historically, email has always been the most important channel to solicit respondents to take online surveys.  However it is now becoming increasing difficult to engage with consumers, which is not surprising as Webmail Usage is on the decline.   

 Social Networks

As consumers continue to use Social Networks such as Facebook, businesses have now established and taken advantage of the high use of these social networks, using them as their primary online destination.  Businesses are looking for survey-taking opportunities directly within the social networks; gaining wider exposure and contact with their consumers during their leisure time.

The Browser Toolbar; Can do more than you think!

The web browser to this day still remains the most common window through which consumers view content via the internet. Businesses now have the use of 'ZoomPanel Toolbar', which acts like a Facebook application, providing survey invites and profile opportunities within the web browser, related to the search.

With businesses targeting their questionnaires through social network sites and internet toolbars, could this mean less email spamming but more online annoyance? 

Have your say..