The first problem I recognized is that traditional marketing people needed to change their perception of Internet Marketing. Most marketers are taught certain ways to target markets using television, radio, newspaper, magazine, billboards and direct contact. Though some marketers are starting to recognize the web as a possible new advertising tool, they still don't think of it as a now thing. One example of this is a statement by Kathleen Riordan, director of media planning and technologies at Kraft said, " I personally believe that, at some point in time, the Internet is going to be an advertising medium in its own right, especially as televisions and PC’s converge."

The next problem is learning how to use your business objectives to set up a good marketing strategy based around your Web site. Using the company's objective you should then come up with what is your objective for your Internet marketing. Many none Internet savvy marketers do understand that the Internet objective for your marketing must fit your company's objectives.

The Company as a whole may have to adjust its marketing strategy and service to fit the new realm. They will have to look at the external influences, internal influences, and situational influences. Companies must recognize that they may have to get over consumer fears, organizational behavior, and lack of regulations but high customer expectations. At the same time the company must realize just what kind of impact a good marketing strategy on the Internet can bring to the bottom line.

Almost all large companies have an IT department. Though this is so most if not all of the people that work in these departments may be able to write programs for programs to assist with track inventory or keep the books but doing similar things for Internet sell and marketing takes a totally different thinking. These programmers will not usually know what it takes to attract consumers to the web site and persuade the consumer to possibly buy or atleast consider buying a product from the site.

I read somewhere that the normal thinking of large companies is that they don't have to compete with smaller companies already on the net. Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, put it best saying, " I may be only 2 years away from going out of business." He was talking about that there is always a company out there that is on the net and may have a better marketing strategy and be more appealing to possible consumers. This means Microsoft must be constantly innovative in their strategy to compete. In Fortune magazine it was put that a business may not have to do exactly what these small companies are doing on the Internet buy they must not ignore them or else one day that little company may be a large company ready to buy out the older large company.

Companies must realize those traditional sales and marketing will not disappear, but the Net is growing faster then any other means of sales and marketing then any of the traditional platforms. If companies do not start revving up their marketing toward Internet marketing and learn how to do so they may be one day the company with much lower sales and profits. Many companies also fear that their consumers right now (large retail stores) will cut them out due to the producer will be viewed as a new competitor of that store. As the web and its technology change so will how the do marketing and companies must be willing to adjust to this.

The company and its marketers must learn how to handle their marketing strategy differently from traditional marketing. With research and a mix of technology and marketing skills a full strategy must be produced. This strategy will include what type of environment they are working with. They must learn what it is that people on the Internet are looking for, how to attract them, how to track their browsing habit, how to get possible buyers to their site. Once there the marketing strategy must focus on how to educate and make the sell. Finely once you have gotten them to try the service and buy a product, you must provide for a possible repeat customers.

I will now present a formal working market strategy for a company that is looking at Internet marketing. First, I will present some basic facts that may help persuade why a company should go toward Internet marketing. Next I will show what to look for that makes up the global community. Then I will present how to get people to pay attention to your advertising and make a visit to the web site. From there we will look at how to keep your possible consumers interested and willing to come back and even buy a product or service. Finely I will present some of the ways to track your success and tools used to succeed.

The Internet is quickly growing to become a very important tool to doing well in business. In an article called Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments: Conceptual Foundations, by Donna Hoffman in a project 2000 report, it provided several reasons why. Consumers and firms are conducting business on the Internet in proportions that dwarf the commercial provider base of other types of media. The worldwide provides a broader context. The web offers a versatile laboratory-like environment in which research hypotheses may be developed, explored, tested and refined. They also pointed out that you could have online catalogs that save a firm up to 25% in processing costs and reduce cycle time by up to 62%. Also some other benefits include the ability to introduce a new product that is tested and receives feedback on it and adjust to customers wants all with in 2 weeks. It is said that a good marketing strategy may not always produce immediate changes in bottom line but in a matter of time significant increases will be noticed. The company will not only reach people in the region or country but around the world. As of now there are still no strict regulations on importing from sales on the Internet. One last point is that the Internet is now the second most used media and growing. People that use the net are doing so over watching television. These benefits plus more are excellent reasons why company should focus more on the net

So you may ask what to look at as a marketer when marketing on the net. Lets look at external influences, internal influences, situational influences, and information searches.

Lets look at the Influences. Since the web is international you may want to look at producing web sites in several languages and adjusted to each culture. Unlike traditional marketing platforms, the Internet is the highly demographic driven anymore, but more products provided and a level of service. As computers get cheaper the level of wealth and social status gets wider in use of the Internet. Much of the marketing on the net is not social driven, but reference groups do provide some focus on who to target. Internal influences are made once you get consumers to your web site. So this should lead to the question of how to get them to the site.

In a article in web marketing today, How to Attract Visitors to Your Web site, too many web marketers work on the if-you-build-it-they-will-come model but this is wrong and you must give them reason to come. The article says you should do the following:

• Advertise your web site to web search engines that index the Web.
• Give a good reason to come by offering valuable information.
• Find industry-wide linking pages and negotiate reciprocal links.
• Purchase web advertising in the form of a web banner.
• Include e-mail and Web addresses on all you company's print literature, stationary and display advertising.

Once you have gotten them to the site you have just started on your way to a successful web site but there is much more to do at this point. Some of the key points that were found were:

• Don't keep your shoppers waiting. Most shoppers on the net are trying to save time and will not stay long if your site is bogged down and slow.
• Do not hide the goods; offer them multiple navigation options.
• Build Trust with these tools:

1. Make it easy to contact you by phone.
2. Display testimonials.
3. Provide a privacy policy.
4. Proved a return policy.
5. Allow customers to view the products.
6. Join a company that you are trustworthy.

• Don't hide prices, people do not like surprises and usually need to know first to buy.
• Make human contact. Give a phone number, live chat rooms, and showing pictures of employees along with their bios.
• One last thing is if you collect information on customers do not sell the information.

I find that Internet marketing if not already will soon be as important as all other forms of marketing. As the fastest growing media and changing and evolving, it is possible that in near future televisions and computers will be one machine and traditional advertising used for the television will be replaced by the type of advertising used now for the Net. Traditional Marketing will become the minor form and a new species of marketers with both marketing skills and higher computer skills will be necessary to proved good marketing strategies for the companies of the future. A few companies have already recognized this and have full Internet marketing and sales departments. To be successful in the future companies that have not yet started preparing for Internet marketing may be left behind.

In review companies should follow these parts of obtaining a marketing strategy for Internet marketing. Look at if product based and customer friendly and not demographic based. Use several tools to inform possible customers of the web site. Make the web site easy to shop and provide a good product. Finely use marketing tools to keep track of how well your marketing strategy is working.
 
 

Conventional Wisdoms About Women and Internet Use:
Refuting Traditional Perceptions
Prepared by Katie Hawfield and Emily Lyons, April 1998
http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/Student.Projects/Women/conventional_wisdom.html

Website Architecture: The Key to Online Purchasing
By Kimberly McGill, Lisa Glufling, Kiattisak Lertsukkijwatana, Eric Jewett, and John Gould
October 12, 1998
http://www.nashvillebusiness.com/research/index.htm

Internet Privacy: Government Regulation Vs Current Practices of Self-Regulation
By Kim Anderson , Kathryn Brookfield , Mani Kulasooriya , and Walton Smith
http://mba.vanderbilt.edu/student/mba99/mani.kulasooriya/privacy/privacy.htm

Project 2000
Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-Mediated Environments:
Conceptual Foundations
By Donna L. Hoffman, and Thomas P. Novak (Revised July 11, 1995)
http://www2000.ogsm.vanderbilt.edu/cmepaper.revision.july11.1995/cmepaper.html

10 Ways to Target French-Speaking Markets
By Bill Dunlap, Euro-Marketing Associates
Web Commerce Today, Issue 15, October 15, 1998
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct2/981015frenchmkt.htm

Brand Interaction: the Oft-Neglected Element of Online Branding
By Rob McEwen of M2K, Inc.
Web Commerce Today, Issue 15, October 15, 1998
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct2/981015mcewen.htm

The Integration Imperative
By Wayne Cummings, President, Reliant Software
Web Commerce Today, Issue 14, September 15, 1998
http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct2/980915integration.htm

How to Attract Visitors to Your Website
By Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/attract.htm

The Web Marketing Checklist: 23 Ways to Promote Your Site
By Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Web Commerce Today, Issue 39, December 1, 1997
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm

Testing, Testing 1,2,3: A New Spin on an Old Concept
By Dave Shackleton, CEO, Concept Test Inc.
http://www.searchz.com/clickz/011598.shtml

Who’s in Line to Log On
By Brad Edmondson
Forcast, October 1997
http://www.demographics.com/publications/fc/97_fc/9710_fc/fc9797101.htm

How to Do Marketing Online (and not get flamed)
By Wade Leftwich
July/August 1994, Marketing Tools
http://www.demographics.com/publications/mt/94_mt/9407_mt/mt202.htm

New Analysis Tools Gauge Impact of Online Ads
By Jim Kerstetter PC Week
November 09, 1998
wysiwyg://106/http://www.zdnet.com/icom/e-business/1998/11/ad.analysis/index.html

Web Ads That Work
By Annella Wynyard and David Snow
http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/moneymachine/smallbusiness/story/0,3666,2163399,00.html

Flash Forward: Sound and Motion
http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/monymachine/smallbusiness/story/0,3668,2163660,00.html

Proven Ads, Developing Strategies
http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/monymachine/smallbusiness/story/0,3668,2163594,00.html

P&G Holds Banner Day For Internet Advertising
By James Tenser
Brand Marketing, September, 1998

Kraft Foods Testing Internet Ads
By Richard Turcsik
Brand Marketing, September, 1998

The e-Corporation: More then just Web-based, it’s building a new industrial order
By Gary Hamel and Jeff Samples
Fortune, December 7, 1998

Schwab Puts it All Online
By Erick Schonfeld
Fortune, December 7, 1998