Strategic Finance and the Outsourcing Decision
For a long period of time, the term outsourcing has been associated with cost reductions. Outsourcing is generally considered to be an operational tool or at best a tactical tool. However, this has changed in the past few years. There are many companies across the world which have outsourced or offshored some of their functions […]
People Problem in Talent Management
Organizations globally are one in their view that managing people in a strategic priority. Yet something somewhere seems to be going wrong and research has it that it is the human factor that is big impediment in talent management processes. Is it something in the implementation or lack of people participation at the top level? […]
Information Technology and Business Alignment: Why it is Important
Introduction: What is IT Business Alignment and Why it is Important The saying about the Blind Men and the Elephant in which three blind men touch the Elephant and state different things without knowing that it is an Elephant, firms and organizations must ensure that their IT and business strategies are complementary and supplementary to […]
Strategic Finance and Sustainability
The concept of strategic finance relates to making decisions that help the firm increase its cash flow in the long run. Strategic finance is about changing the focus from short-term profits to long-term value creation. On the other hand, sustainability is about including more stakeholders in the value creation process. For instance, in the past, […]
Criticisms of Globalization: Growing Income Inequality
More Losers than Winners The previous articles in this module covered the topic of globalization in depth. Some of the points of discussion were about how globalization has succeeded in lifting millions of people out of poverty. While accepting this fact, it is also the case that globalization has created income inequality which when coupled […]
Ever wondered how websites give away much for free or for low prices and offer lots of information and other such conveniences? Did you ever felt the need to know how online marketing works with terms such as clicks, click through, eyeball views, and likes and shares indicating how online marketing firms monetize these aspects?
Indeed, online marketing offers website owners, firms, marketers, and advertisers a way to convert the digital footprint of the visitors to the websites into monetary values thereby ensuring that website owners do not lose out on their low cost access and advertisers find new ways to convert clicks and eyeball views into product sales.
If not anything online marketing is similar to Television and Newspaper marketing except that in its case, the number of unique visitors can be measured accurately due to the availability of tools that provide statistics on how many visitors (measured as eyeball views) browsed through, among them how many actually clicked on the ads, and in a more granular manner, how many of them visited the advertiser’s website.
These metrics in turn help marketers and advertisers pick and choose which websites to place their ads in. In a way websites compete with each other to attract the, most number of visitors in a manner similar to how TV channels are geared towards attracting the highest readership possible so that advertisers choose them over others when placing ads.
Thus, online marketing is a relentless race to garner the most eyeballs, achieve the most number of clicks as possible, and to convert such clicks on ads into product sales. In this respect, it needs to be noted there needs to be a “synergy” between the websites on which the ads are being placed and the ads that are being displayed.
A clear example of how successful online marketing works is this website, ManagementStudyGuide.com wherein as you read a particular article, you can see ads that are relevant to the topic of the article.
Indeed, the key to successful online marketing is the complementarities and the supplementarities that the website and the ads that are being placed on it have in common.
This is the reason why many websites and the advertisers who place ads do so with view of attracting what are known as Click Through consumers.
These are visitors who after reading something on the website notice the ads that are related to the specific content and then click on the ads and if enticed and persuaded, buy the product that is being advertised. For successful “conversions”, the website of the advertisers has to be optimized as well.
Talking about optimization, it is also the case that websites can attract visitors only if they are ranked higher than the other pages when browsers search for information on search engines. Research has shown that browsers do not go beyond the first 10 (or more commonly, the first five) results on Google when they search for a particular keyword.
This is the reason why most websites often undertake what is known as SEO or Search Engine Optimization wherein they use targeted language and keyword placement so that they appear on top of the results. Indeed, the better optimized your site, the more chances that you would attract visitors, and the more possibility of conversions.
However, sometimes this race for search engine ranking has the consequence of making the language on the website pretty jumbled and unorganized and hence, not reader friendly, thereby defeating the purpose for which such optimization was done.
Having said that, in recent years, the race for eyeballs and likes and shares has led to what is known as Black Ops Advertising wherein marketing and advertising are so “in your face” that it is almost impossible not to notice or for that matter, not to be bombarded by ads and escape the incessant buzz of notifications and alerts.
You may have noticed how most websites ask whether you want alerts to be sent, and how they place ads almost everywhere to the point where it becomes irritating, and how intrusive such ads are as you browse through the website.
Indeed, this type of advertising is known as Black Ops Advertising and it has got some consumer privacy advocates and other well meaning stakeholders worried about how to protect consumers from this so that they are not tricked into buying because the ads are so invasive.
Moreover, there is also the concern that in the race for eyeballs, clicks, and views, marketers are unduly targeting the consumers and in some instances, collecting data that includes personal and confidential data as well. Indeed, in an age where Data is the New Oil, such nefarious access to data might do more harm to everyone than good.
Thus, there is a need for regulating online marketing in the same manner in which print and visual media marketing is regulated.
Of course, one must also consider how online marketing helps businesses lower costs of website access for users as they gain on ads and then pass on the benefits to the users by charging them low costs for access.
Thus, there are advantages and disadvantages of online marketing and much depends on how website owners allow their websites to be used or misused as far as the race for eyeballs, clicks, and likes and shares are concerned.
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