Thesis On New Trends in Internet Marketing - 299522304 PDF
Thesis On New Trends in Internet Marketing - 299522304 PDF
Thesis On New Trends in Internet Marketing - 299522304 PDF
Supervisor:
Bc. Tomáš Opravil
Ing. František Dařena, Ph.D.
Brno 2011
I would like to thank very much to my supervisor of this Bachelor Thesis,
Ing. František Dařena, Ph.D. for his professional guidance, advices and suggestions.
I really appreciate his valuable help and patience during my creation of this work.
I hereby declare I have worked up my Diploma Thesis “New Trends in Internet
Marketing” independently, using only the sources cited in the list of references.
Abstract
This Diploma thesis is dealing with Internet Marketing trends. The theoretical
part comprises some history, current new trends and types of Internet Marketing.
The practical part is devoted to prospect of realization of marketing propagation
for specific marketing project, by using internet marketing tools and it’s consequent
evaluation.
Abstrakt
Contents
1 Introduction 8
3 Current situation 11
3.1 General information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.2 Specificity and strategies of Internet Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.1 Marketing Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.2 Strategic Advantages of Internet Marketing . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.3 Website . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3.1 Domain name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3.2 Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3.3 Copywriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.3.4 Microsites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4 Online Direct Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.4.1 E-mail Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.4.2 Newsletter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.4.3 Viral Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.5 Online Public Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.6 Online Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6.1 Banner Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.6.2 Contextual Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.7 Search Engine Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.7.1 SEM - Revenue Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.7.2 Google AdWords introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.8 Search Engine Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.9 Analytical Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.10 New Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
CONTENTS 6
11 References 54
Appendix 57
CONTENTS 7
A Hotstyle.cz Logo 58
1 Introduction
When speaking about the term ”Internet Marketing”, at first we should clearly
explain both words this term consists of.
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. It is a
network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business,
and government networks. “Internet works thanks to combination of a range of
technologies and it is the biggest source of information mankind has ever had for
it’s disposal. Internet also laid the foundations of more information channels than
people has created until the 20th century.” (Phillips, 2003).
The term Marketing has many definitions. One of the most well known definition
says that “Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain
what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with
others.” (Kotler, Keller, 2007).
By connecting these two fields “We can apply marketing principles within the
internet area. This can be done mainly by creating a web pages, internet adverti-
sing, and also marketing research on the internet, electronic commerce etc. However
internet marketing demands a little bit different approach in certain aspects than
traditional marketing.” (Blažková, 2005).
To make a more specific explanation of internet marketing, let us have a look
at one of it’s definition that according to my opinion works very well. “Marketing on
the internet represents the utilization of internet services for executing or supporting
of marketing activities of the company.” (Stuchlík, Dvořáček, 2000).
Having goods and services marketed on the internet seems entirely natural to us
nowadays, but actually internet marketing is a relatively new phenomenon. Internet
itself is a very young medium that allowed us to do things that might never have
been imagined before. Internet developed from purely scientific use as a data and
information exchange tool to public use as a publishing and marketing medium.
When the early public internet first started in the late 1980s, and more of the public
began to access it, many companies began to realize that they could utilize the
internet to provide information to potential customers. The first examples of internet
marketing were simply text web sites. These web sites were very basic and simple
with no pictures nor graphics. As the internet started to develop in 1990s, more and
1 INTRODUCTION 9
more companies realized that they had a global audience of potential customers.
Websites were becoming more complex. They contained pictures of products and
graphics with intention to keep the customer interested.
Compared to our standards today, these first web sites might seem archaic.
However, they served their purpose as people began to turn to the internet for in-
formation about companies and what they had to offer. If customer wanted to buy
something, they would call the company on a phone number provided by the website.
During the 1990s, with the spread of faster internet connections, image availability,
and then video availability, the marketing strategies evolved into more than just sel-
ling information products. Also the technology developed, so that companies could
sell their products right from their website. E-commerce began to grow very quickly
since the time when methods to securely provide credit card numbers became avai-
lable. Consumers could now order products right from their home without a need
to going anywhere.
There was also an increased use of the internet as a tool of advertising. Com-
panies began to place ads on other web sites to promote their products. Nowadays
from pay per click (PPC) advertisements benefit both the company which has go-
ods/services to sell and also webmasters of the websites. Affiliate programs also
started to be very popular. They allow webmasters to advertise products on their
website, and if a customer purchases the item, then the webmaster gets certain
percentage of the sale. (Aranda, 2007).
There are people selling domain names, advertising space, software applications,
web solutions, and many other products and services. “Companies like Google, Ya-
hoo and MSN emerged and then evolved into providing advertising that any size of
website could take advantage of and make money from.” (Internet Marketing Guide,
2009). Companies could reach customers all over the world. Some companies also
use internet as a primary source of advertising. Companies have developed innova-
tive advertising programs, sometimes referred to as viral marketing. Viral marketing
tries to market the product or services through word of mouth. Some viral marketing
plans even use computer games in order to promote a particular product in funny
way.
2 OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY 10
2.1 Objectives
The aim of this work is to create a marketing project for a company with application
of modern internet marketing tools. Theoretical part will deal with evaluation, deve-
lopment of internet marketing, and advertising in general, describing different tools
of internet marketing. The practical part will deal with selecting internet marketing
tools for the real marketing project, application of these tools and techniques for a
real project, and it’s consequent evaluation.
2.2 Methodology
Methods used for elaboration this thesis will be specified in theoretical and practical
parts of this thesis, mainly in chapter 5. In the theoretical part, I will focus mainly
to an analysis of internet marketing trends in general, evaluation of nowadays ap-
proaches to internet marketing and current internet marketing tools. Further we
will discuss different internet marketing tools and approaches in detail, and choose
a structure of internet marketing tools for the project.
The practical part will deal with application of certain selected internet mar-
keting tools on a real marketing project - e-shop.
For analysis of results Google Analytics analytical tool was used, because it has
deep statistics including demographics data, user friendly user interface, can also
track sales, which is very important for electronic store and last but not least is
offered completely free of charge.
3 CURRENT SITUATION 11
3 Current situation
Simply speaking internet marketing, also referred to as online-marketing, web-
marketing, e-marketing, or i-marketing, is the marketing of products or services
over the Internet.
In fact, internet marketing includes the use of a company web site in conjunction
with online promotional techniques, such as banner advertising, search engines, PPC
advertising, e-mail and links or services from other web sites to acquire new custo-
mers.
Many people can think, that internet marketing is just a website with it’s con-
tent, but it is much more complex. Internet marketing is interconnection among the
site portal, search engines, partners sites, blogs, other site linkings, B2B partners,
customers, outsource partners and much more. Simplified process of first time visitor
to the business website is showed on this picture:
Pic. 1: E-Marketing is more than just your website (CPC Computer Consultants, 2008)
Tab. 1: World internet usage and population statistics (Internet World Stats, 2010)
World Regions Population Internet Users Internet Users Penetration % Growth Users %
2010 Est. Dec. 31, 2000 Latest Data Population 2000-2010 of Table
Africa 1,013,779,050 4,514,400 110,931,700 10.9 % 2,357 % 5.6 %
Asia 3,834,792,852 114,304,000 825,094,396 21.5 % 621.8 % 42.0 %
Europe 813,319,511 105,096,093 475,069,448 58.4 % 352.0 % 24.2 %
Middle East 212,336,924 3,284,800 63,240,946 29.8 % 1,825.3 % 3.2 %
North America 344,124,450 108,096,800 266,224,500 77.4 % 146.3 % 13.5 %
Lat. America/Caribbean 592,556,972 18,068,919 204,689,836 34.5 % 1,032.8 % 10.4 %
Oceania/Australia 34,700,201 7,620,480 21,263,990 61.3 % 179.0 % 1.1 %
WORLD TOTAL 6,845,609,960 360,985,492 1,966,514,816 28.7 % 444.8 % 100.0 %
From this statistics of global internet usage, we can see that the amount of
internet users increased more than five times since the last decade (from 361 mil. in
2000 to more than 1.9 billions in 2010).
The highest penetration of internet users in population has North America
(77.4%), followed by Australia (61.3% and Europe (58.4%).
It is also interesting to see the total world’s growth of internet users from 2000
to 2010 which is 444.8%. This trend is likely to continue in future.
All these data shows great potential in internet as a media, and as a tool for
marketing strategies and tactics.
We can see from the Tab. 2, that spending for advertisement in all media was
growing in past four years, however in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, cinema
and outdoor, the growth is not as significant as compared to the internet. Spending
for advertisement on the internet more than doubled in past four years. Internet
advertising overtook radio and also magazines advertising by it’s 11.5% share in
2010 and the trend is still rising.
Tab. 2: Global Spending and Share of Ad Send by Medium 2006-2010 (in Millions
of USD) (Marketingcharts, 2010)
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Newspapers 123.031 124.047 127.366 130.955 134.829
29.0% 27.8% 26.8% 26.1% 25.4%
Magazines 52.959 54.393 56.427 58.518 60.588
12.5% 12.2% 11.9% 11.7% 11.4%
TV 160.356 168.359 180.335 189.110 198.894
37.8% 37.7% 37.9% 37.7% 37.5%
Radio 35.347 36.472 37.782 39.437 41.032
8.3% 8.2% 7.9% 7.9% 7.7%
Cinema 1.870 1.984 2.180 2.414 2.691
0.4% 0.4% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5%
Outdoor 23.516 25.126 27.145 29.099 31.249
5.5% 5.6% 5.7% 5.8% 5.9%
Internet 27.185 35.999 44.583 51.963 60.888
6.4% 8.1% 9.4% 10.4% 11.5%
munication media such as questionnaires, leaflets, post, telephone, mass media etc.
Internet offers all the possibilities of communication like traditional media, but often
much more effectively. By using internet you can not only address a person, but you
can address thousands of people with the same interest at one time and communicate
with them. Modern and successful marketing has to be familiar with the internet,
calculate with it, and use the possibilities it offers. “Internet can get along without
marketing - modern marketing can not get along without the internet.” (Stuchlík,
Dvořáček, 2000).
We will discuss specific current internet marketing tools more in details later in
this section.
3.2 Specificity and strategies of Internet Marketing 14
Marketing mix constitutes all the activities a firm takes to affect its’ products de-
mand. By one of the most well known definitions: “Marketing mix is a set of mar-
keting tools, that firm uses to reach the marketing goals on the specified market.”
(Kotler, Keller, 2007).
Marketing mix consists of 4Ps (sometimes also used 5Ps or 6Ps) which are:
• Product - a tangible object or an intangible service, that is mass produced or
manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units.
• Price - is the amount a customer pays for the product. The business may increase
or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
• Place - represents the location, where a product can be purchased. It is often
referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store, as well
as virtual stores on the Internet.
• Promotion - represents all of the communications that a marketer may use
in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements: advertising, public
relations, personal selling and sales promotion.
Many elements of traditional marketing easily reflects on Internet marketing.
We can show this reflection on marketing mix of 4Ps. For example in terms of
“promotion” we can show these reflections: (Mohammed et al., 2003).
Kotler also came with the theory, that the marketing mix should be rather
expressed from the point of view of the customer, and named it 4Cs (also extended
3.2 Specificity and strategies of Internet Marketing 15
to 7Cs). The concept of looking at the marketing mix from the viewpoint of customer
also suits better for our internet marketing characteristics.
• Consumer Wants and Needs – instead of products first, we need to find what
the customer wants and then create the product, service, or solution.
• Cost to Satisfy – instead of price, we should rather think like the customer does.
Customers ask the question, “What will it cost me to be satisfied and get what
I need.” The customer will pay a fair price for a fair deal.
• Convenience to Buy – instead of place, the more important question is, how and
where does the customer want to purchase? This question is getting tougher
to answer with increasingly segmented consumer markets, the worldwide web,
and the global economy.
• Communication – instead of promotion, we need to ask the customer questions
and listen.
Internet changed the way and speed we communicate and brought the greatest stra-
tegic advantage of internet marketing, compared to traditional forms of marketing.
As I mention already in the previous section, it is very important for the company
nowadays to ask questions and listen to the customers.
This picture shows the movement from traditional marketing to marketing over
the internet, when customer is more integrated into the communication process, and
there is a better space for feedbacks.
Another strategic advantages of internet marketing:
• Create new sources of competitive advantage.
• More direct distribution model.
• Modify the supply chain.
• Invent new business models.
• Target underserved segments.
• Lower price barrier.
• New delivery methods to reduce capital expenditure and pricing.
• Create more efficient marketplace.
Traditional industry supply chain usually consists of:
• Production.
• Service provider.
• Various resellers.
• End user.
The first item accompains the production value based in creation of the product
by transforming inputs into outputs. The rest two items before reaching the end
consumer of the product are just commerce based value increasers, where every
intermediary in this chain adds some incremental value to the product.
With the usage of internet marketing it is far easier to remove some inefficiencies
and intermediaries from the value chain. For example production factory can have
it’s own online shop used for marketing it’s products to the end users. By omitting
some intermediaries, the producer can benefit from higher income and consumer
from lower price.
Old 4Ps had almost no feedback loop, higher risk of innovation and guessing
market. By integrating internet marketing tools, we get innovative 4Ps that capture
customer interactions, create huge value and reduce risk.
3.3 Website 17
3.3 Website
Nowadays, we can find the link of a corporate web site presentation more often than
a telephone contact or regular address. It can be seen on billboards, TV advertise-
ments, e-mails or discussion forums. Web presentation is thus an indivisible part of
every firm’s marketing activities.
A website (sometimes written as web site) can be perceived as collection of
related web pages, texts, images, videos, and other digital media that can be found
on a specific defined Uniform Resource Locator (URL). This website is hosted on
a webserver, accessible via global network internet, or at least private Local Area
Network (LAN) and showed to guests via so called web browsers. Website is mainly
used for providing information, marketing communication, advertising products and
services, or the company itself.
Website is usually perceived as the main tool of internet marketing. All the
other tools usually try to promote the website and bring more visitors to the web
presentation. That is why the website should contain all the necessary information
for the visitors to convert into customers.
3.3.2 Keywords
Keywords are the words people type into a search box, when they are looking for
something online. Search engines use these typed keywords to decide which web
pages to deliver in the results pages. That is why the selection of right keywords is
essential part of internet marketing strategy, and building of a web presentation.
If we use the keywords people are searching for within the web presentation,
page titles, descriptions and links, then we will score well in search engine results
and more people will find our site. “The language you use will be appropriate to
your audience. And as any seasoned direct marketer will tell you, speak to people
3.3 Website 18
in their own language and they will be more likely to buy from you.” (McGaffin,
2010).
3.3.3 Copywriting
Term copywriting refers to content writing on websites with main objective of the
achievement of higher rankings in search engines. This practice involves the strategic
placement and right repetition of pre selected keywords, and keyword phrases on
web pages for search engine optimization (SEO), but still writing in a manner that
human readers consider normal and well readable.
Key points of good copywriting according to (McGaffin, 2010):
• From the keyword lists you have chosen for your site, pick a primary and a
secondary keyword that you will want to rank well for with the article.
• Write the title of the article making sure that you include the primary keyword
in the title.
• Write the description tag using both the primary and secondary keywords.
• Write the first paragraph which should be a summary of the overall article and
should include both primary and secondary keywords.
• Map out the structure of the article, writing headings and subheading that each
contain keywords.
• Think about the internal and external links that you might point people to.
The linking text should be keyword rich.
3.3.4 Microsites
(beyond increasing product sales), may include providing editorial content and key-
words allowing for greater chances of higher search engine results by search engine
optimization.
Because of that narrower focus, these small web sites can be used as hubs for a
specific marketing campaign. They are more easily optimized for search engines, and
if their content is good enough, can drive word-of-mouth or viral marketing through
linking and pass-along. (Quinton, 2007)
and also the fact, that even if the message is not a spam, some e-mail servers can
analyze the message as spam and filter it.
List of rules that is good to follow to avoid being called a SPAMer (B2B Lead,
2010):
• Make sure your entire physical address is at the bottom of your marketing
emails.
• Make sure you offer your recipients a way to unsubscribe from your mailing list.
• Ensure HTML content complies with standards.
• Stagger your mailings.
• Choose subject lines carefully.
• Carefully track unsubscribes, bouncebacks and opt-ins.
• Make it easy for the recipient to get in touch with you.
• Use email service provider for more automation.
• Make sure you are not using a spam buzz words.
• Use Capitalization sparingly.
• Minimize use of “click here” or “click below”.
• Watch your punctuation.
• Use simple HTML, No Javascript.
• Use web-safe colors only.
• Reduce use of large fonts and characters.
• Avoid “remove” in unsubscribe language.
• Keep file size under 70K.
3.4.2 Newsletter
• Lobbying - making influences and lobbying for support or reduction of legal and
regulatory restrictions.
Within the internet environment can be held mainly first three activities, lobby-
ing will still remain mostly for personal contact. Online PR has advantage over the
traditional PR in the possibility of great and fast two way communication on the
internet.
Companies running an online business can develop online public relations
through publishing PR articles in online PR catalogues, press releases in online
media, by sharing videos or music containing commercial message or advertisement,
or by participating in various discussion forums concerning the related topic or pro-
ducts.
Banner advertising was the first type of advertising ever on the Internet. A banner
can promote a product, service or special offer similar way as a regular billboard. The
advantage of a banner is that after clicking on it, the customer is redirected directly
to the landing page of that product, service or offer where more detail information
is provided, or where the customer can directly make a purchase.
content. This type of advertising is very popular due to the possibility to target
according to customers interests.
There are four most common ways how online advertising (regardless of it’s type)
is purchased (Alexandrou, 2007):
• CPI (Cost Per Impression) is when advertisers pay for exposure of their message
to a specific audience.
• CPM (Cost Per Mile) also referred to as Cost Per Thousand (CPT). This means
that the advertisers pay for a thousand impressions.
• CPC (Cost Per Click) is also well known as Pay Per Click (PPC). Advertisers
pay each time a user clicks on their listing, and is redirected to their website.
They do not actually pay for the listing itself, but only when the listing is clicked
on. Under the Pay per click pricing system, advertisers pay for the right to be
listed under a series of target key words, that direct relevant traffic to their
website, and pay only when someone clicks on their listing, which links directly
to the landing page of the project/product/service or special offer. CPC differs
from CPI and CPM that the advertisers pay only when the user clicks on the
advertisement.
• CPA (Cost Per Action) sometimes also called Cost Per Lead (CPL). CPA defines
how much revenue a publisher of advertising receives when a user clicks an
advertisement on his website and then completes a certain action. For example,
a publisher may place a banner or text link from an advertiser on his website.
When a user clicks the link, is then directed to the advertiser’s website. The user
might then be asked to fill out a form or take a survey. If he completes the form
or survey, the action has been completed, and the advertiser pays the publisher
a certain amount based on the CPA. The cost-per-action (CPA) model is at
the other end of the spectrum from the cost per impressions models (CPM),
with the cost per click (CPC) model somewhere in the middle. In a CPA model,
the publisher is taking most of the advertising risk, as their commissions are
dependent on good conversion rates from the advertiser’s creative units and
website.
3.8 Search Engine Optimization 25
Google AdWords is and automated auction system using the Pay Per Click (PPC)
revenue model, which was described above. Basically you write an Ad and cho-
ose relevant keywords to this ad. These keywords will then be triggered by people
searching these keywords in the Google’s search engine.
All these searches of all people to the relevant keyword and all the ads with this
related keyword or phrase are put into an auction. The order of ads on the search
results page is then calculated according to the quality of the ad, and also on the
maximum amount you are willing to spend for a potential customer’s single click on
this ad. After clicking on the ad, the interested customer is then redirected to the
landing page.
Creating a campaign in AdWords system is pretty easy task, but creating a
successful campaign requires a lot of experimentation, no matter if you are an ex-
perienced marketer or a marketing novice (Google, 2009).
the desired website or information. Thus the optimization should not be tweaked
only for search engines’ robots without thinking of the visitors. (Google, 2010).
SEO can be divided to two basic parts:
• On-page SEO concentrates on page content and a structure of the website (e. g.
menu or navigation). It accompains for example content writing, title tags,
META tags, headlines, sitemap, alt image attributes and keywords placement.
• Off-page SEO focuses more on the site’s relationship with other sites. The focus
of off-page optimization lies in link building. This can be done through directory
submissions, articles writing, direct link exchanges, PR articles etc.
Both on-page and off-page SEO techniques are essential for successful SEO and
achieving a better rank in search engines. When speaking about search engines, in
the Czech environment number 1 is Seznam.cz, number 2 belongs to Google.com
search engine.
subscription program, Webstats PRO, that will give you a full history and more
extensive tools.
• Google Analytics is arguably the most popular analytics package available for
individual site owners. Google Analytics (or plain old “GA”) allows you to
dig down deep into your stats to see breakdowns of individual regions, sta-
tes/provinces, cities and numerous other items to better identify your site vi-
sitors. The wealth of data available is admirably balanced by a well-executed
user interface, but it can still be overwhelming. The package integrates with
AdWords and has ecommerce-specific tools to track sales.
• ShinyStat was initially designed to monitor visits to Italian web sites. Now it is
available to sites all over the world, and offers software packages for the indivi-
dual user, the professional user who needs to track marketing, and a business
owner who needs to monitor sales and ROI. There is also a level of service for
ISPs to install and include with their hosting accounts.
• SiteMeter has a free version for smaller bloggers with up to 100,000 monthly
visitors that offers all of the usual tools a webmaster can expect such as tracking
referrals, visit durations and so on. If you are launching a larger site and need
more tools, there is a paid version based on your volume of visitors.
• StatCounter might have a rather plain interface, but it deftly handles multi-
author blogs, allowing you to easily assign unique codes to each author. While
it is free and does work, you have to click on a link to see each analytic result
on a separate page. Despite its unpolished looks, the site does offer you clearly
readable stats on things such as keywords, traffic sources, and other useful
information.
• W3Counter comes in a free and paid version. With a free W3Counter account,
you can track up to 5,000 page views a day across 10 websites and see all of
the usual stats. In addition, you get a bonus that you can share your stats with
anyone you like via widgets for your blog or an API that lets you build new
tools. For sites with higher traffic, you can go for the Pro account that allows
you to track up to 1 million views a month.
• W3Perl differs from other analytics packages in that it does not just measure
web traffic, but also can parse the log files of email and RSS to measure just
3.10 New Trends 28
about anything you choose. You can set up the administration interface for web
access and gain real-time stats from there.
• Webalizer is written in C, which means that it is extremely fast and portable,
and is a favorite choice of people who host their own servers. Many web hosts
have this analytics package pre-installed for your use inside of their control
panel. Webalizer does not allow you to dive terribly in-depth into your data
like some other packages, but it provides an excellent overview.
• Woopra is currently in a closed beta test, but it offers you a wealth of data for
those who can get in. Real-time data are streamed from your site that appear on
a map letting you graphically see where readers are coming from, what keywords
brought them in, and referring sites. Woopra offers you a unique ability to open
up a chat window with visitors of your choice as they browse your site. An
unusual feature of this service is that the data is presented to you in a desktop
application. WordPress users can install a plugin that lets them see this data
in the dashboard of their blog.
The first and most important internet marketing tool is a website, in our case an
electronic shop. Without this tool, it would not be possible to realize this marketing
project at all, thus the use of a website is inevitable. When I was creating a website,
the most important factors for me were:
• User friendliness
• Interesting quality content
• Appearance
Although a website itself belongs also among internet marketing tools, I will
focus in this paper primarily on the consequent internet marketing tools used to
promote this web project (e-shop).
First of all search engine optimization was used, because compared to the other
forms of marketing it is widely considered as most efficient tool. This view is suppor-
ted also by multi-business owner James Boulay in his article “All In One SEO: An
Efficient Internet Marketing Tool for Your On-Page SEO Strategy and SEO Blog”
(Boulay, 2011). The effectiveness lies in the fact that creating content respecting
SEO techniques does not cost relatively anything, the user is usually searching for
5 CHOOSING THE STRUCTURE OF INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS FOR THE PROJECT 31
a specific keyword of a product and last but not least that SEO works in the long
term.
In the first phase of the project after the whole e-shop is prepared and design
created, it needs to be filled by it’s content. Already during this phase it is good
to remember basic SEO techniques that are used for on-page search engine optimi-
zation. These techniques are described in details in following practical part of this
paper.
When the structure and content of electronic store is added and the on-page
SEO factors are successfully used, is the right time to start with off-page optimization
which together with on-page optimization helps us to get better positions in search
results. Catalogue registrations and link exchanges were used, because these are the
simplest and most efficient techniques for building back links.
Many marketers also believe, that the quality of a content of the website itself
together with the appropriate keywords used is the most significant criteria for search
engines to be able to deliver your content to the users who search for it.
It is also good to remember, that SEO is a long term work and you never
precisely know when you see the results.
After finishing basic on-page and off-page optimization, it would be great to
use a marketing tool that can be applied rather quickly and works immediately. For
this reason we have several options:
• Banner advertising
• Context advertising
• Search engine marketing
Banner advertising is one of the oldest types of internet advertising. Compared
to the other possibilities, it is in majority cases more expensive, offers less targeting
options and nowadays is rather substituted by newer forms of advertising. For our
reasons is much more suitable to use both context advertising and search engine
marketing which can be both targeted to relevant keywords, it’s performance can be
exactly measured and PPC model is used, so we pay only for visitors really coming,
not only for impressions.
That is why I suggested to use a targeted campaign in Google Adwords ad-
vertising systems which comprises both SEM and context advertising to start being
5 CHOOSING THE STRUCTURE OF INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS FOR THE PROJECT 32
visible in search engines immediately, already before the SEO starts to show it’s full
results.
In today’s global world linked by social networks, it is worth to use it’s viral
strength to promote the e-shop products basically for free via it’s network. There is
not only Facebook, but also Twitter, Myspace and another platforms, but Facebook
has the highest number of users among all these servers globally and also in the
Czech Republic. Current number of Czech users as well as age statistics can be seen
on the picture below.
When there is a content that attracts attention and encourages readers to share
it with their social networks, which I am sure there is on the shop, the message
about our products can be easily shared by people who like it among their friends.
A corporate message spreads from user to user, and most probably even resonates
because it is coming from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company
itself.
5 CHOOSING THE STRUCTURE OF INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS FOR THE PROJECT 33
Social Media Marketing is also known as Social Media Optimization (SMO) and
benefits by providing an additional channel for customer awareness of our products
and reputation online. Key factors that ensure its success are its relevance to the
customer, the value it provides them with and the strength of the foundation on
which it is built. Often i.e. “like” button and a Facebook Page is used for SMO.
Because it is quite time demanding to regularly update a facebook page and
current information are always on the website of e-shop. I decided to use like button
and like box, which both provide viral marketing strength by offering our customers
the chance to share our content on their facebook profiles.
Microsite, also sometimes referred to as Minisite is made as a supplementary
internet marketing tool with the aim to promote the main site of the e-shop. The
reason why microsite was chosen for promoting the main page is, that there is no
other simple tool, that can provide optimized page for a specific topic, that cannot
be covered by the main e-shop page.
The next supplementary internet marketing tool used to promote the project
is Online Video Marketing. This marketing tools belong to the relatively recently
introduced modern approaches and starts to be used more and more for commercial
videos and product promotion. It can be used for increasing awareness of a particular
product, as well as of the whole brand itself. It is said that a picture is worth thousand
words. Video must be then worth even much more words. For the products that I
try to promote by the internet marketing, this tool fits very well, because customers
want to see interactive content, which online video provides in comparison to online
text.
Last marketing tool used for this project is called Mobile Marketing. However
mobile marketing does not belong particularly to internet marketing tools portfolio,
it is very close to it and nowadays, when the spread of smart phones among people
rises, many companies start to invest to be visible on mobile devices. According to
my opinion, the significance of mobile marketing will rise in future several years
many times, thus it is convenient to have the website prepared.
So the final structure of internet marketing tools used for the project is:
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Social Media Marketing (Viral Marketing)
5 CHOOSING THE STRUCTURE OF INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS FOR THE PROJECT 34
• Microsites
• Online Video Marketing
• Mobile Marketing
From variety of analytical tools described in previous chapter, I tested all of
them and chose Google Analytics, because it has all the data statistics that is needed
for the project, very simple and most user friendly interface from all tested tools
according to my opinion, has special analytical tools for tracking sales which is very
useful for e-shops, and what is also important it is completely free. There is no
wonder Google Analytics is the most popular analytical tool worldwide.
6 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION 35
The <title> tag should be placed within the head part of the HTML document.
Optimally it should be created for each page of the project websites. The title must
be written in a way that effectively displays the topic of the content of the page.
This title tag displays both users and search engines’ robots what is the topic of
particular page and what they can expect. The title content will usually show in the
first line in search results page, thus it is very important. For a main landing page
with product of hair extensions of 70cm length, the page title will look like:
<title>Clip hair extensions 70cm</title>
As well as the <title> tag, also meta tag was placed within the head part of the
HTML document. Ideal situation is again, when we create a meta tag description
for each web page of the project. This description gives search engines a summary
of what the page is about. As a title tag we used only few most relevant words or a
phrase, but for a description it is good to use a whole sentence, or a short paragraph
6.1 On-page Search Engine Optimization 36
of text. The page description should be written in a way that informs, and also
makes users interested when they see this description in the search engine results
page. A good practice is also to use unique meta description of every single page.
<meta name=”description=” content=”Clip hair extension is an easy and fast
way how to extend your hair style. We offer a variety of colors for a discount
price.”>
Heading tags have six sizes based on their hierarchical order. Text that is within tags
<h1>heading1</h1> is the most important text, which is also usually depicted by
highest size within the visible website while text within tags <h6>heading6</h6>
has least importance from all six headings. These multiple headings are used to
create a natural hierarchical structure of the website content, and again makes it
easier for the visitors to navigate through the webpage content.
The most important information using the relevant keywords should be tagged
within <h1> for getting the best result for SEO. We should avoid swapping from
one heading tag size to another in the wrong hierarchical order. It will be better
shown on an example how the hierarchical structure of heading was used within the
scope of the project.
<h1>Hair extensions</h1>
<h2>Length 50cm</h2>
<h3>Light colors</h3>
<h3>Dark colors</h3>
Creating descriptive categories and product pages can not only help keeping the
website better organized, but can also result in better ranking of the website by
search engines robots. It is much better to use friendly URLs than strange looking
URLs, that show unrecognizable parameters that a visitor nor search engine robot
can provide better insight, what the specific website is about. If the URL contains
relevant words, it provides users and search engines with more relevant information
about the page. URLs are also displayed as a part of search result in most of search
engines.
6.2 Off-page Search Engine Optimization 37
http://www.hotstyle.cz/slozka3/102548/45/m/zikddk.html =⇒
http://www.hotstyle.cz/kartac-na-prodlouzene-vlasy/
The navigation on the website was done as naturally flowing hierarchy. That makes
it easier for users to go from general content and topics to more specific content and
topics they want to find on the website. For navigation rather text should be used,
because text is easier for search engines to index than a Flash or JavaScript drop
down menus, animations or pictures would be.
Here is an example of simple navigation structure following the natural hierar-
chy of websites:
http://www.hotstyle.cz/clip-in-ofiny-100-lidske-vlasy/ =⇒
http://www.hotstyle.cz/clip-in-ofina-100-lidske-vlasy/svetle-odstiny/
To optimize the use of images within the project it a good to use descriptive filename
and alt attribute of each image. The alt attribute allows us to define alternative text
if the image cannot be displayed for any reason. Optimizing filenames of images
makes it easier for image search project like Google Image Search or Seznam Image
Search, to better understand and classify these images.
particular product will click on the ad that is directly related to this product. The
customers choose just according to the text in the ad on which they click, and thus
which website they visit, so there should be paid an extra emphasis to the text of
the ad.
When creating an ad, it is sometimes convenient to create several versions
and test which version is more successful and choose this version for the ongoing
campaign. The most successful campaign can be found in campaign’s statistics by
the value of Clickthrough Rate (CTR). It is a ration of number of clicks over all the
impressions. Basically the higher the better.
Components of an ad are:
• Headline - The first line on the ad, which works as a link to the website.
• Lines of text - These lines are used for description of the product, service or
benefits of the offer.
• Display URL - The URL of the promoting website.
• Destination URL - This URL is not shown in the ad. It is a landing page, where
will the visitor arrive after clicking the ad.
There was an ad created to promote the Hotstyle e-shop:
• Headline: Long Hair within 5 minutes
• Lines of text: 100% pure clip in human hair. Special offer 50cm extensions for
1590CZK
• Display URL: www.hotstyle.cz
• Destination URL: http://www.hotstyle.cz/clipin50/
The Like button will be used for the main page of the e-shop for giving users an
opportunity to share the content with their friends on Facebook. When the user
clicks on the like button on the main page of the e-shop, a message appears in the
user’s friends’ news feed with a link back to the Hotstyle e-shop.
For creating the like button, the Facebook’s configurator was used. The URL
was chosen to the main page http://www.hotstyle.cz, layout style chosen to boxcount
without showing faces under the button.
Here is the HTML source code that is used for input to the upper right part of
the Hotstyle e-shop website:
8.1 Social Media Marketing - Viral marketing 42
The result is then interpreted and depicted on the website in such form:
How the like button looks on the main page of the website is depicted in ap-
pendix C.
The Like Box is another social plugin, that will help us to attract customers to
share their like experience and stay informed from the news feed. It is actually very
similar tool to like box with the different look and with possibility to show a little
bit of news feed from the Facebook page.
HTML source code of Like Box created for the project website can be seen here:
8.2 Microsites
There was created a special microsite (sometimes also referred to as minisite) for
promotional reasons. The aim of this microsite is to focus on one specific topic, that
is not that well covered by the main e-shop, which is hair extending.
This microsite comprises information primarily about hair extending and it
has a link to the main e-shop for potential customers, who want to know more
information about the products. There was created a special subdomain with used
relevant keywords on the URL: http://prodluzovani-vlasu.hotstyle.cz/
It is much easier to target customers to a website which focuses on one topic
only, by SEO, than to a site that is more general. Thus microsite is a great marketing
tool that will do this job. Preview of the microsite website is depicted in Appendix
F.
8.3 Online Video Marketing 44
The picture below depicts the mobile version of the e-shop Hotstyle how it is shown
on iPhone.
The number of “likes” obtained by Like Button and Like Box also grew from 5
in July 2010 to the total of 186 in January 2011 by increasing trend. However it is
not possible to measure the exact number of visitors that came from Facebook walls
of users, where was the link to the e-shop showed by “liking” the page, the trend
can be estimated from the direct traffic to the website.
From Pic. 15 we can see that the direct traffic at the beginning of examining
period was 794 visitors and at the end of examining period it reached 1,969 visitor.
This makes 2.5 times increase in direct traffic. The overall direct traffic was 11,051
visits.
There is also no statistical data for measuring the exact impact of online video
marketing technique, but as well as in the case of like button, we can assume from
9 EVALUATION OF THE INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS USED 49
the trend of direct traffic, that also online video marketing affected the growth of
the number of visits, that went directly to the main website. This hypothesis can
be supported by the exact counts of how many times was the video watched. In
case of online video stored at Youtube it was 3,223 and Stream 1,961 on the date of
January 31.
The microsite brought altogether 799 visits in the examined period as we can
see from Pic. 16. Started at 64 visits in July 2010 and ending with 179 visits in
January 2011 with increasing trend. In 7 months the monthly number of visitors
from this referral site has almost tripled.
Very interesting is also to see the rapid growth of using mobile devices to access
the e-shop’s website, which is displayed on Pic. 17. From 19 visits in July 2010 to
179 visits in January 2011 makes unbelievable growth of more than 9 times within
7 months time period and it makes 565 visits in total for the whole period.
9 EVALUATION OF THE INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS USED 50
Under the graph we can also see individual shares of variety of mobile devices
used.
Regarding number of sales for each month can be seen on Pic. 18. There were
170 sales in July 2010 slowly growing up to 366 sales in January 2011. Total increase
in sales in examined period was little bit over 215%.
Summed up there was an overall growth of visits from 7,782 in July 2010 to
28,129 in January 2011, which makes over 360% growth in number of visits in 7
month using internet marketing techniques.
9 EVALUATION OF THE INTERNET MARKETING TOOLS USED 51
From the data, we can see the positive impact of internet marketing tools used
for this project, in respect to both number of visits of the website, as well as the
total number of sales. Some of the internet marketing techniques used develop over
the time, and from the positive trend in graphs we can assume the upward slope of
trend will continue even further.
11 REFERENCES 54
11 References
Kotler, P., Keller, L. Marketing management. Grada Publishing, 2007. ISBN
80-247-1359-5.
Blažková, M. Jak využít internet v marketingu: krok za krokem k vyšší konkuren-
ceschopnosti. Grada Publishing, 2005. ISBN 80-247-1095-1.
Phillips, D. Online public relations. Grada Publishing, 2003. ISBN 80-247-0368-8.
Stuchlík, P., Dvořáček, M. Marketing na internetu. Grada Publishing, 2000.
ISBN 80-7169-957-8.
Aranda, N. A Brief History of Internet Marketing. [online]. Ezine Articles
[cit. 1. 11. 2009]. Available online: <http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Brief-History-
of-Internet-Marketingid=434488>.
Celtnet Internet Marketing — A Complete Guide to the strategies, me-
thods and how you can use it to make money. [online]. www.celtnet.org.uk
[cit. 15. 11. 2009]. Available online: <http://www.celtnet.org.uk/internet-
marketing/internet-marketing-information.html>.
Mohammed, R., Fisher, R. J., Jaworski, B. J., Paddison, G. Internet Mar-
keting: Building Advantage in a Networked Economy, 2nd edition. McGraw-
Hill/Irwin, 2003. ISBN 0072538422.
Marketingcharts CHART CLOSE-UP FROM THE STORY:Ad Spend
to Grow 6.7% in ’08, Internet to Overtake Radio in ’08 Mags
in ’10. [online]. Marketingcharts [cit. 5. 8. 2010]. Available online:
<http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/ad-spend-to-grow-67-in-08-
internet-to-overtake-radio-in-08-mags-in-10-2596/zenithoptimedia-global-ad-
spend-and-market-share-by-medium-2006-2011jpg/>.
Internet World Stats World internet usage and population statis-
tics. [online]. Internet World Stats [cit. 5. 8. 2010]. Available online:
<http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>.
CPCCCI Internet Marketing. [online]. CPCCCI [cit. 5. 8. 2010]. Available online:
<http://www.cpccci.com/pdf/Internet-Marketing.pdf>.
McGaffin, K. Keyword Basics Part 4: Using keywords in website co-
pywriting. [online]. Wordtracker [cit. 10. 8. 2010]. Available online:
11 REFERENCES 55
<http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/keyword-basics-part-4-using-
keywords-in-website-copywriting>.
McGaffin, K. Keyword Basics Part 2: Discovering 1000s of keywords orga-
nized into Projects and Lists. [online]. Wordtracker [cit. 10. 8. 2010]. Avai-
lable online: <http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/keyword-basics-part-2-
discovering-the-keyword-matrix>.
Quinton, B. Microsites Are Becoming a Macro Idea. [online]. Directmag
[cit. 10. 8. 2010]. Available online: <http://directmag.com/searchline/5-17-07-
microsites/>.
The B2B Lead 101 B2B Marketing and Sales Tips from The B2B Lead
volume two. [online]. The B2B Lead [cit. 10. 8. 2010]. Available online:
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/6416348/eBook-Vol2-Direct-Marketing>.
Howard, T. ’Viral’ advertising spreads through marketing
plans. [online]. USA Today [cit. 10. 8. 2010]. Available online:
<http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2005-06-22-viral-usatx .htm>.
Fielding, V. What is Search Engine Marketing. [online]. Busi-
ness Love To Know [cit. 15. 12. 2010]. Available online:
<http://business.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Whati sS earchE ngineM arketing>.
Epower The Shift from Push to Pull Marketing. [online]. Epower Marke-
ting [cit. 15. 12. 2010]. Available online: <http://www.epower.com/push-pull-
marketing.php>.
Alexandrou, M. CPM vs. CPC vs. CPA. [online]. All Things SEM [cit. 15. 12. 2010].
Available online: <http://www.allthingssem.com/cpm-cpc-cpa/>.
Wikipedia Search Engine Optimization. [online]. Wikipedia [cit. 21. 12. 2010]. Available
online: <http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seo>.
Google inc. Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Gu-
ide. [online]. Google [cit. 12. 2. 2011]. Available online:
<http://www.google.co.jp/intl/en/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-
starter-guide.pdf>.
Google inc. Growing your business with AdWords.
[online]. Google [cit. 19. 2. 2011]. Available online:
<http://www.google.com/adwords/pdf/hc/growinga dwordse n.pdf >.
11 REFERENCES 56
Facebook Facebook Social Plugins. [online]. Google [cit. 23. 2. 2011]. Available online:
<http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/>.
Tansun, R. 10 Web Analytics Tools For Tracking Your Visitors. [online]. Sitepoint
[cit. 21. 3. 2011]. Available online: <http://blogs.sitepoint.com/10-web-analytics-
packages-for-tracking-your-visitors/>.
Checkfacebook.com Chceckfacebook.com. [online]. Checkfacebook.com [cit.
1. 4. 2011]. Available online: <http://www.checkfacebook.com/>.
Boulay, J. All In One SEO: An Efficient Internet Marketing Tool for Your On-Page
SEO Strategy and SEO Blog. [online]. Ezinearticles [cit. 3. 4. 2011]. Available on-
line: <http://ezinearticles.com/?All-In-One-SEO:-An-Efficient-Internet-Marketing-
Tool-for-Your-On-Page-SEO-Strategy-and-SEO-Blogid=6214894>.
Helft, M. At First, Funny Videos. Now, a Reference Tool.. [on-
line]. The New York Times [cit. 5. 4. 2011]. Available online:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/business/media/18ping.html?r = 1>.
Appendix
A HOTSTYLE.CZ LOGO 58
A Hotstyle.cz Logo