What is Online Marketing?

Contrary to traditional marketing, internet marketing focuses on consumers and uses online media, like websites, to communicate with the them. An interactive agency that uses online marketing, knows that marketers and consumers are both important and active in the process of marketing. Because the level of implication and the accent on the consumer grew, very often the term “relationship marketing” can be an integrated part of internet marketing.

One thing that an interactive agency knows very well is that advertising shouldn’t communicate the same thing to everybody, that’s why data collecting and centralization are very important.

An interactive agency works to really understand the hidden reasons for clients to choose or to reject a product. Later, the agency uses this information to send personalized messages by email marketing, mobile marketing and podcast.

The key elements of internet marketing are: customizing and internet. Even though you create a company who specializes in internet marketing consultancy or you want to promote yourself in Social media, always try to collect data and information about every consumer.

The most obvious factor in online marketing is the use of mobile and computer to create internet traffic.

An interactive agency perpetuates the ideals of internet marketing by creating websites and other instruments that lead instantly to an interaction between consumers and marketers. In traditional marketing agencies, advertising is made through communication channels that don’t allow instant feedback from clients. An interactive agency can use the internet to receive feedback from clients right away and can adapt the marketing campaign in real time.

Also, the Internet offers comfort, which is perfect for the new consumption environment, where clients expect to get what they want, when they want it.

The Impact of Online Marketing

Online marketing had a major impact in the marketing industry. Today, downloading music from the Internet, corporate blogs, chats and internet banking services are are something very familiar. Websites like eBay have been connecting wares from all over the globe to one gigantic store, opened 24 hours a day. Online games create new ways for marketers to collect valuable information about their potential costumers and they also grow brand awareness and consumers loyalty.

Interactive agencies prove that online marketing is the key to success and it’s useful for marketers and also for consumers.

Combating Consumer Generated Media

What is CGM?

Blogs, chats, forums, websites reviews.

All these forms of online communication are channels where consumers express their opinion. Think about the last time you had to deal with a low quality service or a bad product from a company that doesn’t offer refunds? Did you wrote about it online?

Consumer-Generated Media or CGM refers to opinions, reviews and other methods of communication for a product or a service, written by the consumer on the internet. CGM is the equivalent of “word-of-mouth” marketing, except it happens online. Also, CGM can occur in personal websites or emails. In fact, CGM can be part of any form of communication. CGM, also known as “social media”, can take many forms and it can be negative or positive.

A long time ago, before the Internet, consumers were at the mercy of traders. They couldn’t send their feedback and were not protected against poor quality goods. Later, governments got involved in consumer protection.

The development of the Internet changed the power balance from companies to consumers. Now, clients can express their opinions, their preferences and inconveniences about a product or service. This is the most trusted form of expression in advertising.

If we think about day-to-day life, it does seem natural for us to ask a friend or a family member about a good restaurant or a good doctor.

Nowadays, consumers have the power to cause brand image issues. An unsatisfied consumer can post reviews that can go viral on the internet, destroying the positive image associated with the brand.

An interactive agency has the job to search these sources of information and to offer consumers alternatives and information about the brand. On its long way to brand success, the agency works to slow down this power exchange from mass media to mini-media.

CGM Metering

An interactive agency plays the role of a catalyst in controlling the negative effects that CGM can have on the Internet. Counting the negative opinions is the first thing to do. Those opinions can never be completely controlled because mini-media itself has control. If this fact is understood, an interactive agency has to always be aware of “social media” and to quickly react to catalyze the possible incidents and negative opinions.

The interactive agency has to understand these situations, to listen to consumer complaints and find out where they come from. Then, it has to create a strategy to solve that problem. An interactive agency can monitor people’s reactions even from competitors’ websites.

No doubt an interactive agency can take measures to improve the visibility of a client’s website in SERP (search engine results page), but it is very important to count/catalyze consumers’ negative opinions and to generate positive opinions.

Using CGM

Just as negative opinions about a product / service can spread throughout the web, positive opinions can also go “viral”. Think about the “domino” effect on the Internet. These positive opinions that go viral, can have an important effect in creating a good image for a company.

An interactive agency can generate positive reactions and massive shopping for a product/service by communicating throughout viral marketing. An interactive agency can earn, by those means, trust and respect for a company.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a popular technique used to promote products/services by email, often to encourage sales growth on existing consumers, to create brand awareness or to retain consumers and find new clients.

A lot of companies choose this technique because it’s easier to communicate and to track the results. The campaign can be monitored by click through rates, by positive or negative feedback and this way we can track the effect and the result of the campaign.

Although we consider ourselves to be experts in email marketing, we are aware of the fact that this technique is just a part of the customers’ experience, which must be integrated into a larger marketing and content strategy.