Online Marketing refers to marketing of your product or service over the internet. Online Marketing allows you to promote your products and services online at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

Online Marketing involves creation of a strategy suitable to your websiste to promote your business online. It binds together creative and technical aspects of the internet including design, development, advertisement and sale.

Online Marketing involves different business models. One is direct selling to buyer, another by generating leads to websites and even a model called affiliate marketing in which product is developed by one person and sold by another with an arrangement for profit sharing.

Some of the methods of Online Marketing are:

• Banner placement
• Internet search engine placement
• Search engine optimization
• E-mail newsletters
• Link building
• Article submission
• Affiliate  Marketing
• Online direct selling
• Pay per click advertising
• Online Public Relations

Online Marketing is the buzz word today. It has many advantages.

• One to one approach-The targeted consumer is browsing alone so the promotional message reaches him personally. This is used in search engine  Marketing where  advertisements are based on search engine results.
• Cater to specific interests-Online Marketing and geo-marketing  is a  form of  Marketing that appeals to specific interests and  tastes rather than a broad demographic. Online marketers can cater to markets segmented according to age, gender, geography and other general factors by advertising in specific websites.
• Geo- marketing: One can deliver different content according to geographical location, IP address, ISP of the customer.
• Different content by choice- The consumer can exercise his or her choice of information
• Relatively inexpensive- Online Marketing  costs minimum compared to other media like print and TV. There is no need to spend on physical premises. It involves  a fraction of the traditional advertising budget.
• Global business- At the click of a mouse, reach out to a global audience
• Measuring statistics is easy-Nearly all aspects of online Marketing program can be traced, measured and tested. Advertisers can use  a variety of means like Pay per impression, Pay per click, pay per play or pay per action.
• Accountability- Online Marketing vests advertisers with a greater degree of accountability.

In spite of these advantages not all businesses are  online oriented because of the following disadvantages:

You could get involved in illegal or unethical practices like spamming. Another disadvantage is that sometime business is such that it requires a physical demonstration and needs to be tangible to the consumer. Or you might be targeting a consumer who is not computer savvy. Also, many customers will not be comfortable doing online transactions with their credit card.

But Online Marketing is a hot and happening idea. Most customers  browse the Internet to find what they need before they  visit a store. Out of all local business searches, 86% of users  follow up their search with a phone call or a visit to the store. Of those, 61% end up making a purchase. Hence the importance of Online Marketing.

Source by Fiona Livnat

CULTURAL & ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON CONSUMER

BEHAVIOUR

Introduction

Everybody in this world is a consumer. Everyday of our life we are buying and consuming an incredible variety of goods and services. However, we all have different tastes, likes and dislikes and adopt different behaviour patterns while making purchase decisions. Many factors affect how we, as individuals and as societies, live, buy, and consume. External influences such as culture, ethnicity, and social class influence how individual consumers buy and use products, and help explain how groups of consumers behave. The study of culture encompasses all aspects of a society such as its religion, knowledge, language, laws, customs, traditions, music, art, technology, work patterns, products, etc. Culture is an extremely critical and all pervasive influence in our life.

Objectives

• Define culture
• Identify the various influences on culture
• Describe sub-cultures and its influences

CULTURE – Meaning

For the purpose of studying consumer behaviour, culture can be defined as the sum total of learned beliefs, values and customs that serve to guide and direct the consumer behaviour of all members of that society. Howard and Sheth have defined culture as “A selective, manmade way of responding to experience, a set of behavioral pattern”. Thus, culture consists of traditional ideas and in particular the values, which are attached to these ideas. It includes knowledge, belief, art, morale, law, customs and all other habits acquired by man as a member of society. An accepted concept about culture is that includes a set of learned beliefs, values, attitudes, habits and forms of behaviour that are shared by a society and are transmitted from generation to generation within that society.

Culture is learned through the following three ways:

1. Formal learning: parents and elders teach children the proper way to behave. For instance, you have been taught that you need to study to be successful and happy in life. This learning may influence your response both as a student and individual towards education.

2. Informal learning: we learn by imitating the behaviour of our parents, friends, or by watching TV and film actors in action

3. Technical learning: instructions are given about the specific method by which certain things to done such as painting, dancing, singing etc.

Characteristics of Culture

?Culture is learned.

?Culture regulates society –Norms, standards of behaviour, rewards and punishments.

?Culture makes life more efficient

?All members follow same norms.

?Culture is adaptive.

?Culture is environmental.

?Multiple cultures are nested hierarchically.

Culture also determines what is acceptable with product advertising. Culture determines what people wear, eat, reside and travel. Cultural values in India are good health, education, respect for age and seniority. But in our culture today, time scarcity is a growing problem, which implies a change in meals. Some changes in our culture:

1. Convenience: as more and more women are joining the work force there is an increasing demand for products that help lighten and relieve the daily household chores, and make life more convenient. This is reflected in the soaring sale of Washing machines, microwaves, Pressure cookers, Mixergrinders, food processors, frozen food etc.

2. Education: People in our society today wish to acquire relevant education and skills that would help improve their career prospects. This is evident from the fact that so many professional, career oriented educational centers are coming up, and still they cannot seem to meet the demand. As a specific instance count the number of institutions offering courses and training in computers that has opened in your city.

3. Physical appearance: Today, physical fitness, good health and smart appearance are on premium today. Slimming centers and beauty parlours are mushrooming in all major cities of the country. Cosmetics for both women and men are being sold in increasing numbers. Even exclusive shops are retailing designer clothes.

4. Materialism: There is a very definite shift in the people’s cultural value from spiritualism towards materialism. We are spending more money than ever before on acquiring products such as air-conditioners, cars CD players etc, which adds to our physical comfort as well as status.

Types of Culture

? ?National culture

o The culture prevalent in a nation, common to everyone

??Popular culture

o The culture of the masses with norms of mass appeal

?? Subculture

o The culture of a group within the larger society

o Group identification based on nationality of origin, race, region, age, religion, gender,  etc.

?? Corporate culture

o The company’s values, rituals, customs, myths and heroes

Hofstede’s five Dimensions of Culture

Culture has a profound impact on the way consumers perceive themselves, products they  buy and use, purchasing processes, and the organizations from which they purchase. Marketers, however, are giving more attention, to understanding macro cultures and how they affect consumer behavior. Hofstede found five dimensions of culture that are common among 66 countries. These dimensions serve as a foundation for characterizing, comparing and contrasting specific national cultures, and they are helpful in identifying

environmentally sensitive segments of the market.

CULTURAL INFLUENCES

Culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by humans as members of society.

Culture influences the pattern of living, of consumption, of decision- making by individuals. Culture is acquired. It can be acquired from the family, from the region or from all that has been around us while we were growing up and learning the ways of the world. Culture forms a boundary within which an individual thinks and acts. When one thinks and acts beyond these boundaries, he is adopting a cross-cultural behaviour and there are cross-cultural influences as well.

The nature of cultural influences is such that we are seldom aware of them. One feels, behaves, and thinks like the other members of the same culture. It is all pervasive and is present everywhere. Material culture influences technology and how it brings cultural changes like use of telephones, mobile phones, clothing styles and fashions, gives the marketers a chance to improve the product, packing, etc. to meet the needs of the customers. Norms are the boundaries that culture sets on the behaviour. Norms are derived from cultural values, which are widely told beliefs that specify what is desirable

and what is not. Most individuals obey norms because it is natural to obey them. Culture outlines many business norms, family norms, behaviour norms, etc. How we greet people, how close one should stand to others while conducting business, the dress we wear and any other patterns of behaviour. Culture keeps changing slowly over time; and is not static. Changes take place due to rapid technologies. In case of emergency, war, or natural calamities, marketers and managers must understand the existing culture as well as the changing culture and culture of the country where the goods are to be marketed. Major companies have adapted themselves to international culture and are accepted globally. Coca Cola is sold allover the world. Procter & Gamble and other companies give cross-cultural training to their employees. By making cross-cultural mistakes, many companies have difficulty in pushing their products for example,

(i) Coca Cola had to withdraw its 2 litres bottle from Spain, because it did not fit in the local refrigerator; (ii) Many countries are very traditional and do not like women displayed on the products. This acts as a detriment to business in those countries.

SUBCULTURES AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Culture can be divided into subcultures. A subculture is an identifiable distinct, cultural group, which, while following the dominant cultural values of the overall society also has its own belief, values and customs that set them apart from other members of the same society.

 R.yuvarni
M.phil scholar,
Department of Commerce,
Periyar University, Salem-11

Source by R.Yuvarani

For owners of businesses, having a website makes it important to make use of SEO for the success of the online presence of the business. It could be that you have developed your website from the leading website designer, but without web traffic visiting your website, the whole effort falls flat on its face. And the mere presence of traffic makes little meaning unless it is targeted traffic that visits your website. However, getting quality Greenville SEO services ensure that relevant web traffic is available to your website consistently. This article discusses how to distinguish a good SEO provider from a bad one.

There are 6 important considerations that one should be aware of at the time of hiring an SEO provider. These are:

1) One should consider the process of hiring an SEO provider as an investment in their business. SEO services should be considered as a business strategy to enhance the online business presence effectively within the business domain. When hiring, consider the process as hiring an employee with a good understanding of your business and the objectives of your online presence.

2) Ranking on the first page of search engine results (especially, Google) is everything that matters. People hardly ever visit the second page of search ranking results. This means, it is the first page that should be aimed to achieve through SEO. And it is the top positions on the first page that really matters, getting the most clicks, and decreasing with downward progression.

3) If it is possible to be on the first page with smaller keywords, then it makes sense to try for these keywords, instead of targeting the bigger keywords and unable to be on the first page. It is only good SEO provider who will do research of the different keywords related to your business and comes up with few that could realistically come in the first page and also find keywords having sufficient search volume to help your business rank high in search results.

4) All activities on SEO are aimed to beat the competition. Simply following certain things is not a guarantee that your website will rank on the first page of Google. A good SEO provider will make a thorough research of your online competitors for all the individual keywords, and it is after that, they would implement strategies as required according to point three above.

5) On-page and Off-page SEO. SEO is a complex science and it would do well to understand two main types at the time of interviewing an SEO provider. These are On-page and Off-page SEO. On-page SEO includes factors that deal with SEO (like keywords, page headings, internal links, usability, outbound links, etc.). Off-page SEO considers items that are outside the ambit of the website, but which affect the rankings of the website, like citations, backlinks, social sharing, etc. Although on-page SEO needs to be dealt with by you, but the recommendations that the SEO provider provides need to be incorporated, and that includes getting your web designer do the required adjustments.

6) It must be noted that getting a good ranking on the first page of the search result does not relate to increase in potential traffic and sales. All that could be achieved through SEO is to get your website, Google Places, articles, blogs, videos, etc. to get higher rankings. The SEO provider cannot ensure that the traffic to your website will convert into sales. It is only with good marketing that you convert this extra traffic into sales and it falls in the business marketing consultant domain.

The main differences between a ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ SEO experts are:

Good SEO Providers

Any good Greenville SEO provider will try to build solid groundwork and should have proper SEO plan for the business website, and do extensive initial keyword research as well as research on the competitors. Even if the client does not find it worth going for, the SEO provider will insist upon it. The whole job of keyword research and selection is a lengthy process and includes a good amount of investigation. It is the responsible SEO methods that are the hallmark of Good SEO work. Items that they do include giving more attention to on-page SEO, improving citations, securing quality backlinks, provide a good user experience, aiding social sharing, etc.

Bad SEO Providers

Bad SEO providers are often found to take client’s money before starting their work. Instead of doing proper keyword research, they might ask such questions like, “Provide three keywords for your business needs and the URL that needs SEO work”. These bad SEO providers often use link farms, spam blog comments, and other means and get irrelevant back links all across the internet.

SEO and web design: Ensure that the website of your company reflects the ethics of your company and personifies the ethos as well. After all, it is your company’s website and you definitely want to put your product and services on display.  The better the quality of your SEO of your website, the smoother will be the user experience.

Source by palmettosoft

So as to traverse forward, measuring the success of an ongoing effort is very much critical. And, so is the case with digital marketing techniques too. Without measuring the performance, holding on to a digital marketing initiative is of no use. And, that too with pay per click advertising, businesses should be on feet with multiple measurement techniques so as to gauge the performance of varied pay per click advertising campaigns. With pay per click campaigns, it’s all about figuring out the Return on Investment (ROI) for the amount spent. Analyzing these metrics enable businesses to comprehend the success rate and gives them the room to identify the areas that need improvement and accordingly tweak the campaign objectives and certain critical parameters.

By associating with PPC advertising agencies, businesses can get to know the most vital metrics that forms the basis for a meticulous PPC performance analysis. Below are the metrics that offers crucial insights about the success of any PPC campaign. And, this can help you determine how green is your pay per click advertising.

• Click through Rate (CTR)

This is supposed to be the most important metric as far measuring the performance of PPC campaign is concerned. CTR gives an indication about the quality of ad copy, relevancy with the respect to keywords and the matching nature of corresponding ad copy that was displayed for keywords. Cost per click (CPC) comes down when the CTR is higher.

Poor CTR signals rework with respect to keywords and PPC ads.

• Quality Score

The Quality score gives an inference on the relevancy of keywords to ad campaigns. It is measured in a range of 1 to 10. Ads with good quality score will appear in increased position in search engine rankings. Perhaps, it’s the quality score that determines the amount to paid by businesses for each ad click.

Quality scores should be monitored on a steady basis. There are keywords with a high-quality score. Whereas, on the flip side, there would be keywords with the poor quality score too. In order to better the performance of PPC ads, campaign managers should have an eye on the quality score and optimize the keywords list as and when the quality score drops down.

• Cost per conversions

At last, this a metric that focusses on the Return on Investment (ROI). It gives you a clear estimate on the amount spent in acquiring a new customer. Campaign managers should analyze the figure against the amount of business being earned from a new client. If at all the campaign cost is extremely high, not worthy for the amount the business earns from a respective client, then optimizing the PPC campaign is a must. Efforts can be made to bring down the cost per conversion by making some tweaks to the PPC campaign. This metric also sheds light on the conversion that happened through the web as well through phone calls.

• Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate metric sets the tone for optimizing certain critical areas of your campaign. If the bounce rate is 100% then it is an indication that something is wrong with your landing page. While reading the bounce rate, also do verify the number of clicks. Bounce rate doesn’t make any sense if there happens to be only a handful of clicks.

• Search Impression share

Perhaps, many campaign managers are not aware of this metric. But in reality, this is a metric that is detrimental to the success of an overall campaign. Technically speaking, search impression sheds light on the total percentage of time the ad was served. A careful analysis of the metric will help campaign managers regain the lost opportunity due to stiff competition.

Impression share highlights the percentage of searches lost due to budget restrictions. High performing campaigns can be allotted increased budget as it can yield better conversion.

• Amount wasted

Amount wasted indicates the total amount incurred on people who clicked through the ad but didn’t get converted. Wasted spend can be brought down to a considerable extent by adding negative keywords to the ad campaign. This will lessen the chances of ad popping up to people who type that negative keyword in the search query.

Getting familiarized with PPC metrics is a must for campaign managers. Seeking the help of PPC experts associated Digital marketing companies will be of immense help.

Source by Wisoft Solutions

OB/GYN Marketing is very different than many other medical marketing disciplines, simply because the target audience is so specific and the topic can be a little bit delicate. You don’t want to overstep any subtle boundaries with your content and social media efforts, and yet you must compete in the world of medical marketing by growing your online brand. So, what do you do?

Authenticity in Brand Marketing

When it comes to the sensitive issues that OB/GYN’s and their patients face, the absolute greatest marketing strategy that you can employ is complete authenticity. A genuine conversation, blog, interview or video will do far more for your brand image than a hundred technical, informational articles.  These technical, informational marketing articles are incredibly important to establish your OB/GYN practice as the most knowledgeable in Arizona, but an honest and genuine presence will increase brand trust, and thus increase referrals.

How To Remain Genuine in OB/GYN Marketing

Many medical practices and Arizona marketing agencies make the vital mistake of creating a corporate brand message that is very professional and rigid. Professional is good, but stiff and rigid is not a key ingredient in marketing success. Without authenticity and an amicable quality, an OB/GYN practice is doomed to fail. The fact that obstetricians and gynecologists deal with such sensitive issues, the core of all practice management must be genuine.

Physicians should have their own social media outlets, where the profile picture is not a logo or brand image, but the actual doctor. Posts should include informational articles on OB/GYN medical issues, as well as lighter issues to ease the mood and create a platform for people to interact with you. Physicians should also create their own blog entries at least once a week, some informational, some light and casual.

Building Trust Builds Referrals

As you employ your authentic brand message your target audience will no doubt take notice of how genuine and ‘real’ your practice appears. That audience will be able to connect with the stories you tell and the information you post. As your marketing campaign grows so will the amount of trust. Consider having weekly Frequently Asked Question posts with the inquiries that you most often come across in the OB/GYN field.

Unfortunately, women rarely feel comfortable enough to ask their physician personal questions or share personal information with their OB/GYN, so creating trust through authentic marketing strategies will help patients open up about medical issues. This is incredibly important for keeping patients happy and healthy. Happy and healthy patients who have had great experiences at the doctor’s office will be more likely to refer you to other women.

Women and Word of Mouth

Everyone knows that when it comes to women’s health there is no one more trusted than a female’s circle of friends. If you can build trust through your brand message and marketing, you can build that word of mouth campaign as well. If a patient has received information about a certain condition over a social medium, they are very likely to share that information on that same social network with other friends.

OB/GYN marketing does involve a great deal of creativity and respect for certain delicate issues. However, when done properly with an authentic and genuine brand message, medical marketing can increase your web traffic, increase trust, increase word of mouth referrals, and thus increase your patient load.

For more information on OB/GYN Marketing, visit http://www.Quaintise.com.

Source by Kandice Linwright