Topic 9

Topic X Ecommerce
9 Marketing
Communications
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Identify the major forms of e-commerce marketing communications;
2. Describe the major advertising methods used on the web; and
3. Discuss the ways in which a website can be used as a marketing
communications tool.
X INTRODUCTION
Have you come across an advertisement in online? What makes you to buy a
product or service advertised in the advertisement?
In this topic, you will learn on brands as a set of expectations that consumers
have about products offered for sale. It elaborates on marketing activities that
companies engage in order to create those expectations. This topic will focus on
understanding online marketing communications - all the methods that online
firms use to communicate to the consumer and create strong brand expectations.
All these below questions will be answered as we go through this topic.

(a) What are the best methods for attracting people to a site and converting
them into customers?
(b) How does the design of a website affect sales?
TOPIC 9 E - C O M M E R C E MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS W 285
9.1 ONLINE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Have you ever heard of online marketing communications? If yes, name two
types of online marketing communications that you know.
Marketing communications have a dual purpose:
(a) Branding
One purpose of marketing communications is to develop and strengthen a
firms brands by informing consumers about the differentiating features of
the firms products and services.
(b) Sales
In addition, marketing communications are used to promote sales directly
by encouraging the consumer to buy the products.
The distinction between the branding and sales purposes of marketing

communications is subtle but important because both are different in terms of:
(a) Branding communications rarely encourage consumers to buy now, but

instead focus on extolling the differentiable benefits of consuming the
product or service.
(b) Promotional sales communications almost always suggest that the consumer
buy now, and they make offers to encourage immediate purchase.
There are many different forms of online marketing communications, including

online advertising, e-mail marketing, and public relations. Even the website itself
can be viewed as a marketing communications tool. In the following sections, we
will look in detail into all these components.
9.1.1 Online Advertising

Advertising is the most common and familiar marketing communications tool.
Advertising is an attempt to disseminate information in order to affect buyer-seller
transactions. In traditional marketing, advertising was impersonal, one-way mass
communication that was paid for by sponsors. Online advertising has grown over
200% in the past five years as advertisers are increasing their online spending by
reducing the amount spent on the traditional advertising. Even though online
advertising is growing rapidly, it still remains a small part of total advertising
spending. It is expected to reach only 15% of total advertising in 2012 (source: e-
Marketer 2008).
286 X TOPIC 9 E - C O M M E R C E MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Online advertising (defined as a paid message on a website, online service, or

other interactive medium such as instant messaging) has both advantages and
disadvantages when compared to advertising in traditional media, such as
television, radio, and print (magazines and newspapers).
The biggest advantages of online advertising are the ability to target

advertisements to narrow segments and track performance of advertisements in
real time. Online advertisements also provide greater opportunities for two-way
interactive communication between advertisers and the potential customer.
EXERCISE 9.1
Do you think online advertisement is cheaper and more effective
than general advertisement? Discuss.
Let us look at Table 9.1 which summarises on the other reasons of why online
advertising is growing rapidly.
Table 9.1: Rapid Growth in Online Advertising
Reason Description
Cost Online advertisements are sometimes cheaper than those in
other media. In addition, advertisements can be updated at any
time with minimal cost.
Richness of format Web advertisements can effectively use the convergence of text,
audio, graphics and animation. In addition, games,
entertainment and promotions can easily be combined in
online advertisements.
Timeliness Internet advertisements can be fresh and up-dated regularly.
Participation The web is a participatory tool. Many people can communicate
with each other in the context of an online community.
Location-basis Using wireless technology, web advertising can be location
based; Internet advertisements can be sent to consumers
wherever they are in a specific location.
The following are the disadvantages of online advertising:

(a) Its cost versus its benefits;
(b) No adequate measurement to view its results;
(c) No clear standard or language of measurement; and

(d) Difficulty in measuring the size of market, therefore it is difficult to
estimate rating, share, or reach and frequency.
Currently, the heaviest online advertisers are computer hardware and

media companies, followed closely by financial services companies. The
Internets ability to deliver information-rich messages lends itself well to high
consideration, information-intensive products (i.e., products that consumers
typically research before purchasing).
Packaged goods (which buyers typically purchase based on brand rather than
research) are expected to have smaller shares of online advertising until
significant broadband and alternative advertisement platforms are widespread
enough to allow rich media advertising.
There are a number of different forms of online advertisement:

(a) Display advertisements (Banners and pop-ups);
(b) Rich media / Video advertisements;
(c) Paid search engine inclusion and placement;
(d) Sponsorships; and
(e) Referrals (Affiliate relationships marketing).
Let us look at the explanation provided for each form of online advertisement.
(a) Display Advertisements (Banners and Pop-ups)

Display advertisements are the first Internet advertisements. A banner
advertisement, as shown in Figure 9.1, displays a promotional message in a
rectangular box at the top or bottom of a computer screen. A banner
advertisement is similar to a traditional advertisement in a printed
publication, but has some added advantages. If clicked on, it can bring a
potential customer directly to the advertisers website. It also is much more
dynamic than a printed advertisement as it can present multiple images or
able to change its appearance.
Figure 9.1: Banner advertisement

Source: http://www.rosetta.com/WhatWeDo/InteractiveMarketing/
AcquisitionMarketer/Pages/Display101.aspx
Banner advertisements typically feature Flash video, animations, or

animated Graphics Interchange Formats (GIF), which display different
images in relatively quick succession, creating an animated effect. The
Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), an industry organisation, has
established voluntary industry guidelines for banner advertisements. A full
banner, which is the most common, is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high
with a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi ) and a maximum file size of 13K.
The IABs original guidelines listed specifications for three types of buttons
(a button is essentially a permanent banner advertisement) and four types
of banner advertisements:
(i) Full;
(ii) Half;
(iii) Vertical; and
(iv) Micro bar.
In February 2001, the IAB added specifications for a variety of new types of
advertisements:
(i) Skyscrapers is a tall, narrow banner advertisement almost three times
the height of the traditional vertical banner advertisement;
(ii) Rectangles of various sizes; and
(iii) A square pop-up (refer below) which opens in a separate window.
Pop-up advertisements (refer to Figure 9.2) are those banners and buttons
that appear on the screen without user calling for them. One type of it is
the pop-under advertisement that opens underneath a users active
browser window and does not appear until the user closes the active
window. The advertisement remains visible until the user takes action to
close it. Pop-ups can appear prior to display of the consumers target page,
during, or after the display on leaving.
Figure 9.2: Various pop-up advertisements

Source: http://cbsfilings.com/site/Pop-up_ad.html
These new types of advertisement allow marketers to develop

advertisements featuring enhanced interactivity as well as expanded
creativity. These advertisements are designed to help advertisers to break
through the noise and clutter created by the growing number of banner
advertisement impressions that a typical user is exposed to within a given
day.
(b) Rich Media/Video Advertisements

While traditional banner advertisements will undoubtedly remain the
dominant form for some time to come, the use of rich media/video
advertisements (advertisements employing Flash, DHTML, and Java, and
streaming audio and/or video) is the fastest growing form of online
advertising, even though its current total revenue is only a fifth of that of
search engine advertising.
Rich media/video advertisements are interactive, seeking to involve users

to interact with the advertisement in some fashion, i.e., clicking on the
object. Rich media/video advertisements tend to focus more on branding
rather than sales.
Interstitial advertisements are considered a type of rich media

advertisements. What is an interstitial advertisement? If you do not know
what it is, refer below to equip yourself with the definition provided for it.
An interstitial advertisement (interstitial means in between) is a way of

placing a full-page message between the current destination pages of a
user. Interstitials are usually inserted within a single site, and
displayed as the user moves from one page to the next. The interstitial
typically moves automatically to the page the user requested, after
allowing enough time for the advertisement to be read. Interstitials can
also be deployed over an advertising network and appear as users move
among sites.
Since the web is such a busy place, people have to find ways to cope with
over-stimulation. One means of coping is known as sensory input filtering.
This means that people learn to filter out the vast majority of the messages
coming at them. Internet users quickly learn at some level to recognise
banner advertisements or anything that looks like a banner advertisement
and to filter out most of the advertisements that are not exceptionally
relevant.
Interstitial messages, just like TV commercials, attempt to make viewers

captive to the message. Typical interstitials last ten seconds or less and force
the user to look at the advertisement for that specific time period. To avoid
the users from becoming boring, interstitials typically use animated
graphics and music to entertain and inform them.
A good interstitial will also have a sskip through or stop option for
users who have no interest in the message. One disadvantage of interstitials
is that users may not understand that the advertisement they see on their
screen while they are waiting for a page to load is using d dead time;
meaning the advertisement is not taking any extra time period. Instead,
they may think the interstitial is slowing the arrival of the page they have
requested and thus, become annoyed.
Well, we have learned on interstitials, now let us move on superstitial.

A superstitial (also called as Viewpoint or Unicast Transitional with Flash)

is a rich media advertisement that can be any screen display size up to full
screen 900 x 500, and with a file size of up to 600 KB.
Superstitials, which were created by Unicast Communications, differ from

interstitials in that they are pre-loaded into a browsers cache and do not
play until fully-loaded. When the file has finished downloading, like an
interstitial, it waits until the user clicks to another page before popping up
in a separate window. However, video advertisements are slowly
displacing superstitials.
Regardless of the type of online advertising, most large advertisers have

intermediaries such as advertising networks (i.e., DoubleClick) or
advertising agencies who act as brokers between advertisers and
publishers, placing the advertisements and tracking all activity related to
the advertisement.
Other options include the following:

(i) Banner Swapping
Banner swapping is an arrangement among firms who allow each
firm to have its banners displayed on another affiliate site at no cost.
(ii) Advertising Exchange
While advertising exchanges arrange for banner swapping among
firms, usually small firms cannot afford expensive advertisement
networks. Thus, small firms have the alternative to place their banner
advertisements using Yahoo Advertising, Google Advertising and
Microsofts Digital Advertising Solution, which are inexpensive.
SELF-CHECK 9.1
What are the differences between an interstitial advertisement and a

superstitial advertisement? Which one is more effective?
(c) Paid Search Engine Inclusion and Placement

This form of marketing communication has been one of the fastest growing,
in which revenue generation has grown from 1% of total online advertising
spending in 2000 to over 40% in 2008. The audience for search engine sites
is huge, almost equal to that of email user population. Today, there are
many search engines, but 95% of total searches are concentrated on the top
20 sites, with Google, Yahoo! and MSN being the top three search engines.
Search engine sites originally performed unbiased searches (called as

organic search) of the webs huge collection of web pages and derived
most of their revenue from the banner advertisements. Since 1998, search
engine sites have slowly been transforming themselves into digital yellow
pages, where firms pay for inclusion in the search engine index (which was
formerly free and based on objective criteria) and/or pay for specific
location-placement or rank in the results of searches.
There are three types of search engine marketing:
(i) Keyword Paid Inclusion or Rank

Most search engines include paid inclusion programmes which, for a
fee, guarantee a website inclusion in its search results, more frequent
visits and suggestions for improving the organic search results. Some
search engines do not have a paid inclusion programme but instead
charge for placing small text advertisements in sponsored link areas.
For instance, Google allows two to three sponsor links at the very
topof their search result pages as clearly illustrated in Figure 9.3.
Figure 9.3: Googles sponsored links

Source:http://www.small-biz-marketing-tips.com/advertising-
with-google-adwords.html
(ii) Advertising Keywords

Keyword advertising (refer to Figure 9.4) is where merchant purchase
keywords through a bidding process at search sites. The merchants
advertisement will show up somewhere on the page whenever a
consumer searches for the word. The more the merchant pays, the
higher the rank and the greater the visibility of the advertisement on
the page. For instance, the following keyword advertisings such as
Googles AdWords, Yahoo!s PrecisionMatch and Microsofts
asCenter.
Figure 9.4: Keyword advertising

Source: http://marketingestremo.com/Keyword-Advertising.php
(iii) Advertising Networks

Network keyword advertising (also called as context advertising) is
introduced by Google in 2002. It differs from ordinary keyword
advertising. It consists of network of publishers who accepts the
advertisements placed by Google on their websites and receives a fee
for any click-throughs from those advertisements. Google called this
advertising as AdSense. Both AdSense and AdWords generate about
the same amount of revenue of advertising for Google.
(d) Sponsorships
You may wonder what is meant by the term sponsorship. Let us look
below to find out its meaning.
A sponsorship is a paid effort to tie an advertiser s name to a

particular information, an event, or a venue in a way that reinforces its
brand in a positive, yet not overtly commercial manner. Sponsorships
typically are more about branding than immediate sales.
A common form of sponsorship is an advertorial (in which editorial content

is combined with an advertisement message to make the message more
valuable and attractive to its intended audience), such as Crayolas
sponsorship of an arts and crafts column on a parenting site. According to
eMarketer, sponsorship accounted for about $535 million in online
advertising revenue in 2007.
(e) Referrals (Affiliate Relationship Marketing)

What is an affiliate relationship? Refer below to find out its meaning.
An affiliate relationship permits a firm to put its logo or banner

advertisement on another firms website from which users of that site can
click through to the affiliates site. Affiliate relationships are essentially
strategic partnerships in which the interests of both parties are advanced
and there is no direct exchange of money.
Such relationships are often called as tenancy deals because they allow a
firm to become a tenant on another site without charge. In 2008, referrals
generated about $2.1 million revenue in the US.
Several types of affiliate relationships are common. In some cases, the firms
share a single corporate parent or investor group that is seeking to optimise
the performance of all its sites by creating links among its children sites.
In other cases, two sites may sell complementary products and the firms
may strike an affiliate relationship to make it easier for their customers to
find the products they are looking for.
Perhaps the largest and best-known affiliate relationship involves Amazon

and Toys R Us as shown.
Amazon, seeking to become a general merchandiser, recognised that it did

not have the expertise to purchase, warehouse, and fulfil orders for toys,
which is one of the fastest growing product categories on the web. While,
Toys R Us at that time was in a pitched battle with eToys.com and
recognised that it did not have the web presence to compete with eToys.
Thus, Amazon and Toys R Us struck an affiliate deal. The Toys R Us logo
and front-end ordering machinery is available as a button on the Amazon
site. Toys R Us accepts and fulfils orders for toys, and performs all the
back-end purchasing and warehousing. While, Amazon receives a
commission on sales. Both firms gain the benefits from their relationship,
as do their customers.
ACTIVITY 9.2
Among the five online advertising methods, which has been

discussed by marketing communication tool on the web? Why do
you say so?
ACTIVITY 9.3
E-mail advertisement is very popular. What are the benefits of using

e-mail to advertise?
9.1.2 Direct E-mail Marketing

E-mail marketing messages sent directly to interested users (direct e-mail
marketing) have proven to be one of the most effective forms of marketing
communications. The key to effective direct e-mail marketing is iinterested
users. Direct e-mail marketing is not spam, which involves sending unsolicited
e-mail to a mass audience of Internet users who have expressed no interest in the
product. Instead, direct e-mail marketing messages are sent to an o opt in
audience of Internet users who have expressed at one time or another, interest
in receiving messages from the advertiser.
By sending e-mail to an opt-in audience, advertisers are targeting interested

consumers. E-mail messages may be combined with brief audio or video clips
promoting a product and with on-screen links that users can click on to make a
purchase. Response rates to e-mail campaigns range from 3% to 10%, depending
on the targeting. E-mail also is an interactive medium, and it can combine
advertising and customer service. Because of the comparatively high response
rates and low cost, direct e-mail marketing is the fastest growing form of online
marketing.
The primary cost of e-mail marketing is for the purchase of the list of names to
which the e-mail will be sent. Usually, sending the e-mail is virtually cost-free.
Due to the cost-savings possibility, the short time to market, and high response
rates, companies are expected to increasingly use e-mail to communicate directly
with consumers. The downside of this growth is that e-mail response rates are
expected to decline as competition for consumer attention becomes fiercer, and as
users become annoyed by their bulging in-boxes e-mail. Users can employ
software filter programmes to eliminate those unwanted e-mail messages.
ACTIVITY 9.4
Is spamming ethical? State your reasons.
9.1.3 Online Catalogues

Online catalogues are the equivalent of a paper-based catalogue. The basic
function of a catalogue is to display the merchants wares. The electronic-version
catalogue typically contains a coloured image of each available product, a
description of the item, as well as its size, colour, material composition and
pricing information.
While simple catalogues are technically, hard-coded HTML pages and graphics
displaying wares, most sites with more than 15-20 products generate catalogue
pages from a product and price database that can be easily changed. Simply by
clicking on an order button at the site, customers can make a purchase
instantaneously. For more detail information, refer to online catalogues from
Amazon.com and ParksonOnline.com.
ACTIVITY 9.5
Online catalogues are more dynamic than print catalogues. Do you

agree with this statement? Discuss.
9.1.4 Social Marketing: Blogs, Social Networks and

Games
With the creation of Web 2.0 technology, user-generated content and the use of
the Internet for socialising and sharing have undergone tremendous growth.
According to eMarketer, 57.5% of Internet users, or 127 million people in the US

will visit a social networking site at least once a month in 2010. Microsofts
interest in Facebook and Googles purchase of YouTube indicate the potential of
social networking site as marketing communication tools for businesses and
advertisers. In 2009, all forms of social marketing were expected to generate $2.8
billion in revenues, and it is expected to reach $4 billion in 2012.
Social networking advertisements adopt many kinds of approach using the

Internet technologies to spread messages far, wide and quickly as compared to
the traditional viral marketing or word-of-mouth marketing.
There are three main types of social networking marketing:
(a) Blog Advertising

In 2009, blog advertising generated about $549 million of revenues and is
expected to grow to $746 million by 2012. Blogs are typically difficult to
produce revenue as very few blogs attract large audience and the central
theme of most blogs is highly personal. Nevertheless, blog creators and
audience are ideal targets of many products and services as they are more
educated, have higher income, and are opinionated individuals.
(b) Social Network Advertising

In 2009, social network advertising generated $2 billion in revenue although
it is still in its infancy stage. However, most of the advertising activities
focus on the leading sites such as MySpace ($850 million), Facebook ($305
million), and Youtube ($130 million). All these revenues accounted for 94%
of total social network advertising. Social networking sites offer advertisers
all sort of advertising format, including banner advertisements and
sponsorship. For instance, Adidas, Burger King, General Electric have

profile pages on MySpace.
Let us look at the advertisement placed on Facebook, a very famous social

networking site, as shown in Figure 9.5.
Figure 9.5: Advertisement on Facebook

Source: http://mashable.com/2008/06/24/facebook-and-visa-team-
up-to-target-small-businesses/
Even though search engine sites have audience which is twice the size of
social networking site, it is expected that the audience size will equal
between the two types of site in the next five years. Therefore, advertisers
should not underestimate the potential of social networking sites as an
effective marketing communication tool.
(c) Game Advertising

In 2009, video in-game advertising generated $510 million in the US, and is
expected to reach $650 million in 2012. Most games are played in social
environments with multiple gamers in the same room or over the Internet.
Over 800 million games were downloaded in 2008. Coca Cola, Burger King
and Taco Bell have used adver-games (a combination of advertisements
and games) to promote brands as shown in Figure 9.6.
Figure 9.6: Games combined with advertisement

Source: http://jasonlog.supersized.org/plugin/tag/advertising
The limitations of game advertising are the game content which tend to be
attractive to younger generation by additional aspects such as violence, mayhem,
and war-like scenarios, or sexual content. The advertisers do not want to be
linked to such aspects which commonly appear in games.
9.1.5 Mixing Offline and Online Marketing

Communications
The most successful marketing communications campaigns have incorporated
both online and offline tactics, rather than relying too heavily on one or the other.
Thus, it managed to drive a heavy traffic to a website. The objective is to draw
the attention of people who are already online and persuade them to visit a new
site, as well as to attract the attention of people who will be potentially going
online in the near future in order to suggest them visit the new site as well.
Several research studies have shown that the most effective online
advertisements were those that used consistent imagery with campaigns running
in other media at the same time. Offline mass media such as television and radio
have nearly a 100% market penetration into the 140 million households in the
United States. More than 35 million adults read a newspaper everyday. It would
be foolish not to use these more popular media to drive traffic to the online world
of commerce.
In the early days of e-commerce, the Internet audience was quite different from
the general population, and perhaps was best reached by using online marketing
alone. This is no longer true as the Internet population becomes much more like
the general population. Many online ventures have used offline marketing
techniques to drive traffic to their websites, to increase awareness and to
build brand equity.
For instance, Martha Stewart includes advertisements in her magazine, Martha

Stewart Living (refer to Figure 9.7), directing readers to the Martha Stewart
website. A picture in the magazine may show a recently redesigned kitchen with
a listing of the manufacturers of the kitchens appliances. For more detailed
information and web links to the manufacturers, readers are directed to
www.marthastewart.com. Such tie-ins between a print product and its website
have proven to be very successful in driving web traffic.
Figure 9.7: Martha Stewart Living magazine

Source: http://designinspiration.typepad.com/design_inspiration_
planet/2008/08/martha-does-stencilling.html
Another example of the online/offline marketing connection is the use of print

catalogues by the online ventures. Some online ventures have created paper
catalogues and mailed them to their customers to improve their relationship with
that particular group. Amazon has one, and so does Unilever, a consumer
product company.
In 2000, Unilever took its database of customer addresses, which had been
collected online, and mailed a paper magazine filled with cooking and cleaning
tips to that list. Although an electronic magazine would have been less costly,
Unilever believed a paper publication to be better suited for providing the

information.
ACTIVITY 9.6
What kinds of products are most suitable to be advertised online?
EXERCISE 9.1
1. Explain the differences between branding communication and

sales/promotional communications.
2. How is the interstitial advertisement different from the
superstitial advertisement?
3. Explain how e-mail is used for advertising.
You can visit the following websites to get more information on:
(a) Online advertising:

x https://www.google.com/adsense
x https://adwords.google.com
(b) Example of an interstitial advertisement:
x http://marketingsolutions.com/interstitial.htm
(c) Tips for improving a sites listing:
x http://www.searchenginewatch.com
9.2 THE WEBSITE AS MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS TOOL
One of the strongest online marketing communications tool is a functional
website that customers can easily find. In some ways, a website can be viewed as
an extended online advertisement. An appropriate domain name, search engine
optimisation, and proper website design are integral parts of a coordinated
marketing communications strategy and ultimately, necessary conditions for e-

commerce success.
9.2.1 Appropriate Domain Names

One of the first communications an e-commerce site has with a prospective
customer is via its URL. Domain names play an important role in reinforcing an
existing brand and/or developing a new brand. There are a number of
considerations to take into account in choosing a domain name.
Ideally, a domain name should be short, memorable, not easily confused with
others, and difficult to misspell. If possible, the name should also reflect the
nature of the companys business. Companies that choose a name unrelated to
their business must be willing to spend extra time, effort, and money to establish
the name as brand. Dot.com domain names are still considered the most
preferable, especially in the United States.
Today, however, it may be difficult to find a domain name that satisfies all of the
above criteria. Many of the good dot.com domain names have already been
taken.
9.2.2 Search Engine Optimisation

Despite the fact that major search engines are moving toward a p pay for
inclusion/ranking model, it is still advisable to take the steps needed to
objectively improve a sites visibility to search engine. The major search engines
still accept non-paying sites, and still send crawler programmes around the Web
to index and include pages in their databases free of charge.
There are hundreds of search engines in the world, most of which do not charge
for inclusion or placement. Also, given that 42% of shoppers find a vendor
entering the name of a product into a search engine, optimising the firms
ranking in search engines becomes an important element in a website marketing
campaign.
Search engines produce lists of h

hits, sometimes hundreds of them. Refer below
to find out the meaning of hit.
A hit is the result of a search engines investigation of its database of

indexed web pages.
Websites appearing at the top of these lists, especially on the first page, are more
likely to be visited than those further down the list because they are assumed to
be more relevant to the searcher. Consumers may never become aware of sites
that are listed later in a search engine report. Only 7% of consumers look any
further than the first three pages of results.
So, how to make your websites to appear in the first few pages rather than at the
last few pages? The following steps will help you in your quest to make sure
your websites gain the prominence of the search engine:
(a) Register with Many Search Engines

In order to improve a firms search engine ranking, the firm should register
with as many search engines as possible, so that a user looking for similar
sites has a chance of coming across that particular site.
(b) Ensure your Keywords Match the Prospective Customers Keywords

Ensure the keywords used in the website description match with the
keywords likely to be used as search terms by the prospective customers.
Using a keyword of lamps, for example, will not help your search engine
ranking if most prospective customers are searching for lights. Search
engines differ, but most search engines read homepage title tags, metatags,
and other text on the homepage in order to understand and index the
content of the page.
Keywords are contained in a sites metatag (refer below).
Metatag is an HTML tag containing a list of words describing the site.

Metatags are heavily used by search engines to determine the relevance of
sites to search terms used frequently by users. The title tag provides a brief
description of the sites content. The words in both the metatags and the
title tags should match words on the homepage.
(c) Link the Website to Many other Websites

Link the website to as many other websites as possible. Some search
engines, such as Google.com, rank sites based on the number of links from
other websites. The Internet is a highly-interconnected series of sites,
surrounded by a set of isolated sites that are not well-connected. Search
engines such as Google are guessing that when you enter a query for a
product, chances are good that the product is located at one of the highly-
connected websites.
The assumption is the more links there are to a site, the more useful the site
must be. How can a firm increase links to its site? Placing advertising is one
way: banner advertisements, buttons, interstitials, and superstitials are all
links to a firms site. Entering into affiliate relationships with other sites is
another method.
While the three mentioned steps are a beginning, increasing a firms

ranking is still a bit of an art form and usually requires a full-time
professional effort to tweak metatags, keywords, and network links before
solid results are obtained. The task often requires several months and is
complicated by the fact that each search engine uses slightly different
indexing methods. Search engines fail to find millions of web pages, and
are biased toward large firms that place advertising on other sites.
A recent survey by CyberAtlas Research found that over half of the firms
polled work on search engine optimisation monthly. Many commercial
sites rely on ranking specialists who, for a fee, will create metatags and
descriptions that will push a sites ranking toward the top. Some specialists
even guarantee a top position, although how near the top is the key
question. Being in the top 100 is not as valuable as being in the top 10, or
even top 25.
9.2.3 Website Functionality

Attracting users to a companys site is the objective of marketing, but once a
consumer is at a site, the sales process begins. This means that whatever brought
the individuals to the site becomes much less relevant, and what they find at the
site will ultimately determine whether they will make a purchase or return.
These seven basic design features, that were necessary from a business point of
view, help to attract and retain the customers:
(a) Make it as an informative site;
(b) Employ simple navigation (ease of use);
(c) Use redundant navigation;
(d) Make it easy for customers to purchase;
(e) Feature multi-browser functionality;
(f) Apply simple graphics; and
(g) Use legible text.
Researchers have also found a number of other design factors that marketing
managers should be aware of:
(a) Compelling Experiences

Sites that offer a compelling experience, in the sense of providing
entertainment with commerce or interactivity or human interest or that is
perceived as fun to use, are more successful in attracting and keeping the
visitors.
(b) Fast Download Times

Long download times frustrate consumers and lead to high rates of
abandonment, although this can be mitigated with online amusement to
distract the consumer.
(c) Easy Product List Navigation

The most important factor in predicting monthly sales is product list
navigation and choice features that save consumers time.
(d) Few Clicks to Purchase

Amazons one click purchase capability is a powerful tool for increasing
sales.
(e) Customer Choice Agents

Increasingly, sites are using interactive consumer decision aids to help the
consumer to make choices. Recommendation agents (also called as
configurators) help the consumer to make quick and correct choices. Dell
Computer uses an online configuration to help consumers to decide on
what computer to order.
Refer below to know more on recommendation agents.
Recommendation agents are programmes that can recommend a product

based on either a consumers completed survey or a review of a
consumers profile.
(f) Responsiveness
Responsiveness to consumer inquiries through automated customer
response systems has been found to affect return visits and purchases.
No matter how successful the offline and online marketing campaign is, a
website that fails to deliver information and customer convenience spells
disaster. Attention given to site design features will also help to ensure success.
ACTIVITY 9.2
In your own words, list and describe some website design features
that give an impact on online purchasing.
EXERCISE 9.2
1. Explain the ways in which a website can be used as a marketing

communications tool.
2. What are the key attributes of a good domain name?
You can visit these websites to get more information on:
(a) Service personalisation:

x http://www.ecommerceandmarketing.com
x http://www.personalizationmall.com
(b) Promotion ideas for the web:
x http://www.selfpromotion.com
(c) Enhancing the popularity of a websites link:
x http://www.marketleap.com
x Marketing communications include promotional sales communications that

encourage immediate purchases and branding communications that focus on
extolling the differentiable benefits of consuming a product or service.
x There are many different forms of marketing communications:
(i) Banners;
(ii) Rich media/video advertisements;
(iii) Interstitial advertisements;
(iv) Paid search engine inclusion and placement;

(v) Sponsorships;
(vi) Affiliate relationships;
(vii) Direct e-mail marketing;
(viii) Online catalogues;
(ix) Social network advertisements; and
(x) Offline and online marketing communications.
x A functional website that customers can find is one of the strongest online
communication tools.
x The integral parts of a coordinated marketing communications strategy are:
(i) Appropriate domain name;
(ii) Search engine optimisation; and
(iii) Website functionality.
Affiliate relationship Rich media/video

Banner Search engine
Blog Social network
Game Sponsorship
Interstitial Superstitial
Pop-up customer retention costs

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All these below questions will be answered as we go through this topic.

9.1 ONLINE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Marketing communications have a dual purpose:

The distinction between the branding and sales purposes of marketing

(a) Branding communications rarely encourage consumers to buy now, but

There are many different forms of online marketing communications, including

9.1.1 Online Advertising

Online advertising (defined as a paid message on a website, online service, or

The biggest advantages of online advertising are the ability to target

Table 9.1: Rapid Growth in Online Advertising

The following are the disadvantages of online advertising:

(c) No clear standard or language of measurement; and

Currently, the heaviest online advertisers are computer hardware and

There are a number of different forms of online advertisement:

(a) Display Advertisements (Banners and Pop-ups)

Figure 9.1: Banner advertisement

Banner advertisements typically feature Flash video, animations, or

Figure 9.2: Various pop-up advertisements

These new types of advertisement allow marketers to develop

(b) Rich Media/Video Advertisements

Rich media/video advertisements are interactive, seeking to involve users

Interstitial advertisements are considered a type of rich media

An interstitial advertisement (interstitial means in between) is a way of

Interstitial messages, just like TV commercials, attempt to make viewers

Well, we have learned on interstitials, now let us move on superstitial.

A superstitial (also called as Viewpoint or Unicast Transitional with Flash)

Superstitials, which were created by Unicast Communications, differ from

Regardless of the type of online advertising, most large advertisers have

Other options include the following:

What are the differences between an interstitial advertisement and a

(c) Paid Search Engine Inclusion and Placement

Search engine sites originally performed unbiased searches (called as

There are three types of search engine marketing:

(i) Keyword Paid Inclusion or Rank

Figure 9.3: Googles sponsored links

(ii) Advertising Keywords

Figure 9.4: Keyword advertising

(iii) Advertising Networks

A sponsorship is a paid effort to tie an advertiser s name to a

A common form of sponsorship is an advertorial (in which editorial content

(e) Referrals (Affiliate Relationship Marketing)

An affiliate relationship permits a firm to put its logo or banner

Perhaps the largest and best-known affiliate relationship involves Amazon

Amazon, seeking to become a general merchandiser, recognised that it did

Among the five online advertising methods, which has been

E-mail advertisement is very popular. What are the benefits of using

9.1.2 Direct E-mail Marketing

By sending e-mail to an opt-in audience, advertisers are targeting interested

Is spamming ethical? State your reasons.

9.1.3 Online Catalogues

Online catalogues are more dynamic than print catalogues. Do you

9.1.4 Social Marketing: Blogs, Social Networks and

According to eMarketer, 57.5% of Internet users, or 127 million people in the US

Social networking advertisements adopt many kinds of approach using the

There are three main types of social networking marketing:

(a) Blog Advertising

(b) Social Network Advertising

sponsorship. For instance, Adidas, Burger King, General Electric have

Let us look at the advertisement placed on Facebook, a very famous social

Figure 9.5: Advertisement on Facebook

(c) Game Advertising

Figure 9.6: Games combined with advertisement

9.1.5 Mixing Offline and Online Marketing