INBOUND MARKETING: AN EMERGING DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY

Ms. Sneha DESAI, Sinhgad Business School Prof. Jaideep Vasant SOLANKI, Sinhgad Institute of Management

Abstract:

India is one of the top retailing markets in the world and among the fastest growing. Business and marketing activities are affected by Internet technologies and it is revolutionizing commerce, marketing, retailing, and advertising activities. There are attractive attributes of Internet to companies on time and money saving, convenience, selection from a wide range of alternatives, and availability of information and marketing activities. E-commerce and e-marketing are the two important terms in the new Internet-based business domain. E-commerce is a way of conducting business through electronic transactions. E-marketing is the promotion of products or services through Internet whereas; e-tailing is selling products and services by using Internet. Keywords: E-commerce, marketing strategies, E-tailing, E-marketing, Inbound marketing

Introduction

The number of Internet users worldwide reached 7.1 billion in 2013, almost exactly twice what it was in 5 years ago, 1.15 billion. We all know the Internet is big, but this kind of growth really puts things into perspective. The Internet population has been swelling rapidly since the arrival of the World Wide Web (which rests firmly on top of the foundation provided by the Internet). Its human nature to get used to changes, so most of us have a tendency to forget how rapidly the world has changed, and keeps changing. And as the Internet population grows, so does the potential size of online services. Internet marketing involves the usage of the internet to market and sell goods and services. .The Internet has drastically altered the way in which information is shared, and has had a profound impact on marketing. Since 2010 there has been an increase by 162.73% of internet users and the numbers are still increasing. One example of this extreme evolution is Facebook. Last year we noted that Facebook now has more users than the entire Internet had back in 2004, the year the social network was founded.

Essentially, Internet marketing is using the Internet to do one or more of the following:

• Communicate a company's message about itself, its products, or its services online. • Conduct research as to the nature (demographics, preferences, and needs) of existing and

potential customers. • Sell goods, services, or advertising space over the Internet.

Internet marketing uses the Internet to deliver promotional marketing messages to consumers. The various strategies used by marketers is email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising (including web banner advertising), and mobile advertising. Online advertising is widely used across virtually all industry sectors.

Literature review

Marketing strategies have been changing since the development of the internet and some elements of the marketing mix are affected and evolving with the new technologies, particularly the promotional element. It is important to understand the evolution of marketing and what has changed in terms of strategies thanks to the internet and the new communication tools it offers.

• Internet Marketing: as Susan Ward, business writer, says, “Internet marketing refers to the strategies that are used to market a product or service online, marketing strategies that include search engine optimization and search engine submission, copywriting that encourages site visitors to take action, web site design strategies, online promotions, reciprocal linking, and email marketing – and that’s just hitting the highlights.” (About.com, 2012).

• Margaret Rouse, writer and manager of the website WhatIs.com, TechTarget’s IT encyclopedia and learning center, defines social media marketing as “a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool” in order to “produce content that users will share with their social network to help increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach”. (WhatIs.com, March 2011).

• Internet marketing (IM) is also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, or e-marketing. As the name states, it is the advertising of products or services over the Internet. However, it also implies marketing through the wireless media and through e-mail. Electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also categorized under Internet marketing. IM can be creative, as well as, technical through its design, development, advertising, and sales over the Internet. This paper is a secondary research regarding how E-commerce gradually forms part of our daily lives. It concerns different aspect of advertising in terms of electronic commerce (2011 International Conference on Software and Computer Applications IPCSIT vol.9 (2011)© (2011)IACSIT Press, Singapore).

• Smith and Chaffey (2005) gave a short and basic definition of Internet marketing as “Achieving marketing objectives through use of electronic communication technology”.

• According to Hoge (1993), Internet marketing is the transfer of goods or services from seller to buyer that involves one or more electronic methods or media.

• Strauss and Ansary (2006) defined Internet marketing in their latest book as the use of information technology in the process of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers, and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stake holders.

• Internet marketing is defined as the application of the Internet and related digital technologies in conjunction with traditional communications to achieve marketing objectives (Chaffey, D., Ellis-Chadwick, F., Johnston, K. and Mayer, R. 2006, 8).

• Internet Advertising: It is a form of advertising that uses the Internet to attract customers by delivering messages through websites or advertising banners on other popular websites

which leads online users to a company site. The company website must be well-organized, well-designed and user-friendly in order to attract more target customers (Rowley, 2001).

The Indian E-Commerce

India's Internet base, already the third largest in the world after China and the US, is growing by 40 per cent a year. Online shopping revenue of India was $14 billion in 2012 and the number of online shopping users was 19.2 million (2012). Online shopping would reach $38 million by 2015, at CAGR 39.5 percent. According to a recent TechnoPak report, e-tailing has the potential to grow more than hundred-fold in the next 9 years, to reach $76 billion by 2021. This growth will be driven by the country's growing Internet-habituated consumer base, which will comprise 180 million broadband users by 2020, and a burgeoning class of mobile Internet users. Travel is the biggest e-commerce category online. It is a myth that Indians don't want to use their cards online as many urban Indians are getting good deals and buying from e-commerce sites.

Key drivers to e-commerce:

• Increasing broadband Internet (growing at 20% MoM) and 3G penetration. • Rising standards of living and a burgeoning, upwardly mobile middle class with high disposable

incomes • Availability of much wider product range (including long tail and Direct Imports) compared to

what is available at brick and mortar retailers. • Busy lifestyles, urban traffic congestion and lack of time for offline shopping • Lower prices compared to brick and mortar retail driven by disintermediation and reduced

inventory and real estate costs • Increased usage of online classified sites, with consumers buying/selling second-hand goods • Evolution of the online marketplace model with sites like eBay, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Infibeam,

qnetindia.in and Tradus. The evolution of ecommerce has come a full circle with marketplace models taking center stage again.

The challenges to ecommerce industry

Enablers of Growth - Technology, Infrastructure, Payment Solutions etc. New Business Models for Retailers. Shift from Web to Mobile. Back-End Systems.

The challenges will lead us to solutions and hence this is a critical phase in the evolution of the e-commerce industry in India. In the era of globalization, companies are using the Internet technologies to reach out to valued customers and to provide a point of contact 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Wang (2002) has provided a broad definition of e-tailing by defining it as the selling of goods and services to the consumer market via the internet.

According to Turban et al. (2006), e-tailing is defined as retailing conducted online, over the internet. In general, the activities of e-tailing encompass three main activities. They are:

a product search facility (often referred as a product evaluation or information gathering facility),

an on-line purchase function and a product delivery capability

The New Mantra for Digital Marketing - Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is the new age fundamental marketing model which is all about discovery by the customers, based on the customer's interest in a product or service. Instead of the old

outbound marketing methods of buying ads, buying email lists, and praying for leads, inbound

marketing focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be. By aligning the content you publish with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then convert, close, and delight over time. By 2016, it is estimated that inbound marketing will represent around 26% of all advertising budgets put together. Moreover, inbound marketing is highly interactive and comes with a promise of added value to target customers.

Major themes:

• Content Creation- Creating targeted content that answers your customer's basic questions and

needs, and you share that content far and wide.

• Lifecycle Marketing- Recognizing that people go through stages as they interact with your

company, and that each stage requires different marketing actions.

• Personalization- Better personalized messages to specific needs.

• Multi-channel- Inbound marketing is multi-channel by nature because it approaches people

where they are, in the channel where they want to interact with you.

• Integration- publishing and analytics tools all work together like a well-oiled machine, allowing

you to focus on publishing the right content in the right place at the right time.

The Four Marketing Actions

1. Attract

We don’t want just any traffic to our site, we want the right traffic. We want the people who are

most likely to become leads, and, ultimately, happy customers. Who are the “right” people? Our

ideal customers, also known as our buyer personas. Buyer personas are holistic ideals of what

your customers are really like, inside and out. Your personas are the people around whom your

whole business is built.

Some of the most important tools to attract the right users to your site are:

• Blogging- Inbound marketing starts with blogging. A blog is the single best way to attract

new visitors to your website. In order to get found by the right prospective customers, you

must create educational content that speaks to them and answers their questions.

• Social Media- Sharing remarkable content and valuable information on the social web,

engage with your prospects, and put a human face on your brand. Interact on the networks

where your ideal buyers spend their time.

• Keywords- Customers begin their buying process online, usually by using a search engine

to find something they have questions about. So making sure of appearing prominently

when they search. To get there, one needs to be careful, analytically pick keywords,

optimize pages, create content, and build links around the terms your ideal buyers are

searching for.

• Pages- Optimize your website to appeal to and speak with your ideal buyers. Transform

your website into a beacon of helpful content to entice the right strangers to visit your

pages.

2. Convert

Once visitors come to your site, the next step is to convert those visitors into leads by gathering

their contact information. At the very least, one needs their email addresses. Contact information

is the most valuable currency there is to the online marketer. In order for visitors to offer up that

currency willingly, one needs to offer them something in return. That “payment” comes in the

form of content, like eBooks, whitepapers, or tip sheets -- whatever information would be

interesting and valuable to each of your personas.

Some of the most important tools in converting visitors to leads include:

• Calls-to-Action- Calls-to-action are buttons or links that encourage visitors to take action,

like “Download a Whitepaper” or “Attend a Webinar.” If one doesn’t have enough calls-to-

action or your calls-to-action aren’t enticing enough, one won’t generate any leads.

• Landing Pages- When a website visitor clicks on a call-to-action, they should then be sent

to a landing page. A landing page is where the offer in the call-to-action is fulfilled, and

where the prospect submits information that your sales team can use to begin a

conversation with them. When website visitors fill out forms on landing pages, they

typically become leads.

• Forms- In order for visitors to become leads, they must fill out a form and submit their

information. Optimize your form to make this step of the conversion process as easy as

possible.

• Contacts- Keep track of the leads you're converting in a centralized marketing database.

Having all data in one place helps you make sense out of every interaction you’ve had with

your contacts -- be it through email, a landing page, social media, or otherwise -- and how

to optimize your future interactions to more effectively attract, convert, close, and delight

the buyer personas.

3. Close

Once you’ve attracted the right visitors and converted the right leads, but now you need to

transform those leads into customers. How can you most effectively accomplish this feat? Certain

marketing tools can be used at this stage to make sure you’re closing the right leads at the right

times.

Closing tools include:

• Lead Scoring- You’ve got contacts in your system, but how do you know which ones are

ready to speak to your sales team? Using a numerical representation of the sales-readiness

of a lead takes the guesswork out of the process.

• Email- What do you do if a visitor clicks on your call to action, fills out a landing page, or

downloads your whitepaper, but still isn’t ready to become a customer? A series of emails

focused on useful, relevant content can build trust with a prospect and help them become

more ready to buy.

• Marketing Automation- This process involves creating email marketing and lead nurturing

tailored to the needs and lifecycle stage of each lead. For example, if a visitor downloaded

a whitepaper on a certain topic from you in the past, you might want to send that lead a

series of related emails. But if they follow you on Twitter and visited certain pages on your

website, you might want to change the messaging to reflect those different interests.

• Closed-loop Reporting- How do you know which marketing efforts are bringing in the best

leads? Is your sales team effectively closing those best leads into customers? Integration

with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system allows you to analyze just

how well your marketing and sales teams are playing together.

4. Delight

The Inbound way is all about providing remarkable content to our users, whether they be visitors,

leads, or existing customers. Inbound marketers continue to engage with, delight, and (hopefully)

upsell their current customer base into happy promoters of the companies & products they love.

Tools used to delight customers include:

• Smart Calls-to-Action- These present different users with offers that change based on

buyer persona and lifecycle stage.

• Social Media- Using various social platforms gives you the opportunity to provide real-time

customer service.

• Email and Marketing Automation- Providing your existing customers with remarkable

content can help them achieve their own goals, as well as introduce new products and

features that might be of interest to them.

A New Methodology

The new Inbound Marketing Methodology covers each and every step taken, tool used, and

lifecycle stage traveled through on the road from stranger to customer. It empowers marketers to

attract visitors, convert leads, close customers, and delight promoters. The new methodology

acknowledges that inbound marketing doesn’t just happen, you do it. And you do it using tools

and applications that help you create and deliver content that will appeal to precisely the right

people (your buyer personas) in the right places (channels) at just the right times (lifecycle stages).

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