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... E-MAIL MARKETING E-mail is a strategic tool for driving web site traffic, facilitating transactions, attracting new customers and retaining existing ones (Digital River. com, 2001). Digital River helps with the development and execution of the e-mail marketing campaign. They help analyze buyer information, and help develop specific offers to those buyers. They handle the deployment of the e-mail campaigns and then analyze the response rates to these offers via their Enterprise Campaign Management (ECM) system.
ENTERPRISE CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT (ECM) With ECM, Digital River helps a company target the best performing segments of their market. A Web based interface allows the client to define, create, and submit their campaigns entirely on their own time. The client can target the best offers to their high performance segments and then sample the effectiveness of this campaign. The ECM service tracks e-mail delivery statistics such as bounced messages, gross circulation and buy and no buy responses.
Follow up campaigns can be automatically launched based on pre-defined consumer action. All this allows a company to have tremendous flexibility when designing and executing an online marketing program. AFFILIATE MARKETING With affiliate marketing, Digital River enables a companies Web link, such as banners and text, to be added to a select group of sites. Visitors to those sites can then click through to access specific areas on the companys site. Digital River currently has an affiliate network of over 500, 000 sites in which to link a web address. This gives the companies products and services greater marketing exposure to a larger buying audience.
Jupiter Communications predicts that by 2002, 24 % of all E-commerce revenues will be derived from affiliate programs such as Digital Rivers (Digital River. com). CROSS-SELLING AND UP-SELLING Salespeople are trained to maximize revenue by suggesting complimentary or enhanced versions of products that customers may not otherwise request or purchase. Online, the absence of a salesperson might result in wasted sales opportunities. Digital Rivers proprietary, rules-based cross sell and up sell solutions help maximize sales by automatically presenting customers with applicable complimentary or upgraded products. Digital River even gives companies the option to extend cross sell and up sell products beyond there own inventory.
This service enables companies to not miss revenue growing opportunities. PERSONALIZATION One characteristic of online selling is that face-to-face customer interaction is missing. This interaction is critical in relationship marketing. To accomplish this customer interaction, individualized communication must be performed. Digital River achieves this by using customer purchase histories and cross-selling opportunities to communicate special promotions to the customers that want them. This lets the customer know that a company values their business, understands their needs and that the companys products can meet the needs.
This practice of relationship marketing helps develop loyal customers, which leads to increased revenue. Even with all the success of these E-Marketing programs, CSPs still face pitfalls when it comes to privacy issues associated with online marketing. ONLINE PRIVACY ISSUES Companies that perform marketing activities over the Internet have come under fire recently for a practice called profiling. This practice is the tracking of Web users as they move from site to site to determine individual interests (Roberts, 2000). Many shoppers appreciate the personalization marketing they receive when they visit e-commerce sites but are disturbed that marketers are documenting their every move online.
The concern is what happens to this personal data after it is captured. Is it sold to unscrupulous marketers who will inundate their e-mailbox with spam (Roberts, 2000)? How companies handle the publics concerns is key to making Internet shopping a positive experience. SPAM The term spam is bandied about a lot when it comes to e-mail direct marketing. Spam is the indiscriminate sending of e-mails to a large amount of people for the purposes of advertising.
Few people like spam because it wastes their time if the message is of no concern to them. E-mail marketing doesnt have to be spam if the message is not intrusive. Many list brokers use opt-in lists. Consumers only receive ad e-mail if they request it.
Response rates for e-mail direct marketing messages are higher than those sent by snail mail (Harris, 2001). Currently, a number of bills concerning unsolicited e-mail and privacy bills related to e-mail marketing and e-commerce are being considered in Congress (Goldstein, 2000). Digital River has adopted an e-mail marketing policy that I feel will not infringe on public and congressional concerns and will remain an effective marketing tool. DIGITAL RIVERS PRIVACY POLICY Digital River stresses permission-based data capture on each of the Web sites it maintains. Visitors give permission for Web sites to monitor them and send them e-mail through opt-ins or opt-outs. Opt-ins are when the customer elects to receive marketing information and opt-outs is when the customer elects to have their name removed from marketing lists (Roberts, 2000).
Other Digital River maintained sites employ double verifications. This is when the customer says yes and then Digital River sends them e-mail asking them to verify the decision. Companies that do not adopt these types of policies will soon be out of business, as angry consumers will not return. Digital River is taking this reality to heart. SUMMARY In order for companies to succeed in online selling, a solid Internet infrastructure must be used and a core competency in online management must be achieved. Old economy companies who do not have the resources to accomplish this have a choice.
They can outsource their online activities to Commerce Service Providers. I have presented the justification for choosing one particular CSP called Digital River that I feel is the best. By offering digital and product fulfillment and E-Marketing services, Digital River helps companies grow their online businesses to maximize revenues while eliminated risks that non-outsourcing companies assume. As more and more business is being performed over the Internet, companies who are aware of and then utilize Digital Rivers services will survive. REFERENCES: Digital Rivers E-Marketing Services Get Results for Industry Leading Companies. February 22, 2001.
web E-Marketing Services. April 2001. web Enos, Lori. March 29, 2001. Report: No Slowdown for Online Spending. E-Commerce Times.
Goldstein, Deb. 2000. Establishing e-trust. Folio: the Magazine for Magazine Management. 178 Gosselin, Paul. February 12, 2001.
Marketing to Your Broadband. web Harris, Elana. 2001. Direct customers to your site. Sales & Marketing Management. 153 (1): 76 He, Christopher & Murphy, Chris. 2001. The results are in. Informationweek. 822: 22 - 24 Jarvis, Steve. 2001.
Building the right corporate Web site means the right people, patience, and above all, it isnt cheap. Marketing News. 35 (4): 1, 11 Less, Scott. 2000. Think before you link. Industry Week. 249 (8): 22 - 30 Mahoney, Michael. March 2, 2001. Running Lean and Mean to Survive in E-Business.
E-Commerce Times. Nelson, Matthew. 2000. E-Commerce companies get help with returns. Informationweek. 722: 101 Nesdore, Paul. 2001. Is CSP head for the acronym graveyard? E-Commerce Times.
Roberts, Lee. June 30, 2000. Using Web to get personal data begins to take on higher profile. The Business Journal Kansas City. Schoen, John. Old Economy Reaps Perks of the Web. 2001.
web Wilson, Rebecca. February 22, 2001. The Myth of Owning Online Customers. Harvard Review. 35
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Research essay sample on E Commerce Times E Mail
