As an MBA student I think it is important to constantly learn the
new strategies businesses use to engage their customers. One concept that I
consider very important is search engine marketing and its importance. Search
engines are Web-based programs that index the Web and allow people to find what
they are looking for (Stokes 2013). We all use at least one of the following
examples of search engines: Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Ask, and Aol. There are
several other search engines and can be classified in: all-purpose search
engines, business, games, job, legal, maps, medical, news, and so forth. To
find the complete list you could visit The
Search Engine List. Search engine marketing (SEM) is often used to describe acts
associated with researching, submitting and positioning a Web site within
search engines to achieve maximum exposure of your Web site. SEM includes
things such as search engine optimization (SEO), paid listings and other
search-engine related services and functions that will increase exposure and
traffic to your Web site (Webopedia, 2014). SEM seems extremely important and
useful in this global marketplace where everyone wants to promote and engage
their current and possible customers. We are in an era where we are all
interconnected, and information is at the tip of our fingers. For companies
that want to have that competitive edge and get higher exposure paying
attention in SEM could be the way to reach their goals. But, how can small
businesses and entrepreneurs take advantage of what SEM has to offer? How much
knowledge in websites, programming, and marketing do you need to have in order
to use this tool? Is it really available to everyone or just people who either
have the knowledge, or have the money to invest in this?
Source: Redfoxuniverse.org
Another
concept I found interesting was the new 4 P’s. The 4 P’s is usually associated
to product, price, place and promotion, and as MBA students we have learn that
extensively in the past. Idris Mootee’s “new 4 P’s of marketing” model was
proposed as a supplement to the original marketing mix concept in order to
accommodate the emergent Web 2.0 phase of the Internet (Kimmel, 2010).
These new marketing mix elements are personalization, participation,
peer-to-peer communities and predictive modeling. Personalization basically
refers to the customization of the services or products using as the main tool
the Internet. Participation refers to the different channels or ways customers
can interact and be involved with the brand or company (Kimmel, 2010).
Peer-to-peer communities has to do with customer participation and true
engagement, that can be achieve through social networks and brand communities
as part of a long-term strategy (Stokes, 2013). The last one is predictive
modeling entails neural network algorithms that marketers have begun to apply to
marketing related problems (Kimmel, 2010). This concept is very relevant to our
fast-paced environment where technology is a main tool not only for customers,
but for businesses that need reliable information to meet customers’ needs by
customization, and also to engage clients who are more likely to consider
online sources to evaluate their alternatives when looking to buy
products/services. The concern in this, at least in my opinion, is that all the
information gathered needs to be interpreted and there are always different
ways to analyze something. So, a company that uses this concept, needs to
clearly understand what it stands for, what is it looking for by using this
approach, what is its target, and how is it going to avoid misinterpretation of
the information gathered.
Source: RedFoxUniverse.com
Session
1 has allowed me to understand a little bit better why it is so important to
embrace technology and adapt to the different trends to succeed. I now know how
online advertising works, why it is important for marketers, how data is
collected, and also how my searches are manipulated by companies that pay to
appear at the top of the search results, and also why some small businesses and
companies do not appear in the first pages of results. It depends on many
factors, and if a business is not well known, and does not have enough traffic then it will not be as visible as others. I think that by
learning all these terms and strategies I will be able to help our client to
optimize her presence in the web. She has amazing products, and people should
know about her offerings.
I must admit that having no background on this area and it is challenging to understand how online advertisement works and all the kind-of-technical terms but is very rewarding to be learn things like this that are going to be very helpful whenever I am in a job or for my own business. I am looking forward to learn about how Google+ and AdWords work and the techniques been used by social media networks like Facebook to compete with search engines.
Sources:
Kimmel, A. J. (2010). Connecting
with consumers: Marketing for new marketplace realities. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Quinstreet Enterprise (2014). What is SEM? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary. Retrieved January 18, 2014, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SEM.html
Red Fox Universe (2013). Importance
Of Search Engine Marketing | RED FOX UNIVERSE. Retrieved from
http://redfoxuniverse.org/?p=732
Stokes, R. (2013). eMarketing: The
essential guide to online marketing. (Vol. 1). Washington DC: Flat World
Knowledge. Retrieved from
http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/19?cid=1515571
The Search Engine List | Comprehensive
list of Search Engines.
(2010). Retrieved from http://www.thesearchenginelist.com/
