Situational Leadership – Meaning and Concept
Leaders are essentially people who know their goals and have the power to influence the thoughts and actions of others to garner their support and cooperation to achieve these goals. In-case of leaders these goals are rarely personal and generally to serve the larger good. Ever since man was a hunter gatherer and lived in […]
Historic Greek Debt Relief Deal and the Lessons for Other Nations from this Crisis
Historic Debt Deal The Greek Debt Crisis is over, so proclaimed Finance Ministers from the Eurozone Countries who gathered in Brussels, on June 21st in talks that went into the early hours of the day. By saying so, they paved the way for Greece to emerge from a nearly decade long bailout process wherein it […]
Information System for Training and Development
Introduction A successful organization is built on satisfied and trained employees. They are the company’s greatest assets. Employee development is defined as formal education, on-the-job training, previous job experience, personality mapping, and improvement in the current skill sets as to prepare the employee for future. A trained and developed staff will contribute to productivity increase, […]
Digital Cash: Advantages and Disadvantages
There is a proliferation of electronic payment systems in the 21st century. Debit and credit cards have become the norm, and cash has become obsolete. However, many people still prefer to use cash because of some benefits that it offers. Up until now, people have been facing a choice between using the electronic medium and […]
Will London Still be the Financial Capital of the World ?
Experts believe that the effects of Brexit will be varied in nature. What has happened now is a mere announcement of the intention of Britain to leave the European Union. However, the effects are not really seen. There are contradictory views about the possible outcomes. Some believe that the outcome will be catastrophic for Great […]
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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