eMarketing
By Sharon Lyon, Lion's Share Marketing Group, Inc.
As marketers, we intuitively know that the importance of electronic communications is growing. According to a recent survey1, a whopping 73% of American adults now use the internet. Another survey2 revealed that more than 40% of American consumers research their purchases online before buying. And there is evidence to suggest that consumers now prefer email to direct mail by more than 3 to 1.
As bank marketers, how can we do a better job of leveraging these growing communication channels to deliver our messages?
1 Pew Internet & American Life Project Survey, February 15 - April 6, 2006
2 Internet Research Pro, July 6, 2006
What is eMarketing?
For the purpose of this article, let's define eMarketing as the pursuit of marketing objectives through the use of digital technologies. This includes websites, email marketing, banner ads, pay-per-click ads, affiliate marketing, interactive advertising, search engine marketing (including search engine optimization), mobile marketing, blogs and blog marketing.
Benefits of eMarketing
Of the numerous benefits of eMarketing, four stand out:
- Targeted
eMarketing allows marketers to segment and target communications according to the customers' likes and dislikes. Also, unlike traditional mass media, eMarketing facilitates a two-way dialog with customers. As more interactions with a given customer or segment of customers occur, you can continually refine your messages.
- Immediate
eMarketing campaigns are quicker to develop and execute than other marketing methods. The response mechanisms are equally quick. You can observe customer reactions in real time as they occur, allowing you to continually refine your campaigns to improve results.
- Measurable
Marketing by website, email or banner advertising makes it easier to determine how effective your campaign has been. You can obtain detailed tracking information about site visitors, responses, requests for information, click-throughs, purchases and more. This allows you to analyze the results of the campaign and calculate your return on investment (ROI).
- Cost Effective
Across the board, digital technologies have lowered the cost of marketing. For example:
- Email costs just pennies per message, compared to $2-$5 for traditional direct mail.
- The average cost per lead on a search engine is $0.29 versus $9.94 for direct mail inserts, according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).
Because execution costs are comparatively low, the ROI from eMarketing can exceed that of traditional marketing strategies.
Examples of eMarketing
eMarketing encompasses an expanding array of opportunities for bank marketers. The following list is not intended to be comprehensive. However, it discusses some basic eMarketing functions as well as some of the innovative approaches currently being explored:
Website
Email
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
RSS
Social Networking
In summary...
The scope, usefulness and variety of eMarketing continue to grow. But most bank marketers have yet to fully leverage the opportunities afforded by electronic communication channels. We'll continue to add new information to BankMarkHQ that discusses how bank marketers can capitalize on eMarketing capabilities. In the meantime, we want to share some additional sources of information that we've found helpful. The following organizations provide tips, trends and statistics on their websites.
Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
http://www.the-dma.org/
MarketingSherpa
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/
eMarketer
http://www.emarketer.com/
Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO)
http://www.sempo.org/
