How RiverTech Benefitted by Adopting the Internet Marketing Strategy (Case Study Sample)

How RiverTech Benefitted by Adopting the Internet Marketing Strategy
(Name)
(Institutional Affiliation)
In this paper, I discuss the changes in marketing strategy made by RiverTech, a company that provides information technology (IT) solutions and sells software to small and medium-sized businesses. I review its role and structure, and changes made to improve its performance. I have also highlighted the results of the changes and their benefits for the company.
Company Structure
RiverTech has 18 employees, including field officers, marketers, technicians, and the executive. It has been supplying and installing IT equipment and software for 25 years. RiverTech’s technology is cutting edge and some of the work can be done remotely, while the other has to be done on-site. 
Initially, RiverTech used to get customers through cold calling and visiting their workplaces personally, although, some customers used to contact them to request their services. Since 2005, the company has been using internet marketing to acquire customers and is gradually abandoning traditional marketing. 
Each department is allowed to make its suggestions and forward them to the management for consideration. At times, the process of initiating changes can start from the top, but all employees are allowed to participate in the decision-making process. While not all employees have to accept the decision made, the decision that’s accepted by majority is usually adopted. 
Key Players
The key players in making this change in marketing strategy were the management. The changes were made in the marketing department and affected all employees in that department. According to Tovmasyan (2017), management includes planning, motivating, organizing, and controlling, and is performed to fulfil the main goals of the organization using resources. The management determines the targets of an organization’s plans and organizes activities, encourages people and monitors the functions. Managers are also responsible for the staff and themselves. 
The management of RiverTech was looking for a way to boost at a low cost sales and increase the company’s revenue, so they wanted a good marketing strategy. Choosing internet marketing is only one of the many critical decisions that management has made to improve the business.
Nature and extent of change
Durmaz and Efendiogu (2016) state that advances with IT and the quick spread of broadband internet service have made access to the internet easy for most people. These changes and the benefits associated with them have pushed companies to enter the digital environment. The changes in communication rules lead to changes in the definition and field of marketing. By following technology, businesses can easily interactively communicate with customers while providing services and products. Similar to traditional marketing, businesses using digital marketing have to build good communication with clients and determine their needs and requirements. Internet marketing makes dual communication possible and organizations that don’t embrace it become distanced from other industry participants within a short time. 
The RiverSide team realized that they could make more sales by adopting a modern marketing strategy and allocated more resources to internet marketing. According to Aleksander (2018), the rate at which marketing is evolving poses challenges for both companies as systems and individual marketing personnel, which are striving to find customers. The development and quick adoption of the internet as a powerful marketing platform and ample opportunity for implementing a practical marketing model has resulted in the emerging and constant improvement of internet marketing. The appeal and power of the internet have resulted in new consumer behaviour creating unique lifestyle and patterns that must be considered when creating internet marketing strategies, unique from traditional ones. 
Managers of RiverTech decided to hire an in house digital marketing team working hand in hand with independent contractors. The in house team is tasked with creating content while the contractor markets the content on the internet. According to Suman and G (2013), there are two significant differences between traditional forms of advertising and internet marketing. Internet marketing is more measurable because users have access to metrics, and they can track responses to the marketing campaign efficiently and quickly. It’s not easy to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement in the case of traditional marketing. As well, internet marketing has more targetability because the advertiser can control the type of content that reaches a particular group of people by segmentation variables such as geographical location, age, income, and hobby.
Because most of the company’s potential customers are tech-savvy, the managers realized that it could easily access them with internet marketing. RiverTech retained a team of 3 traditional marketers who visit potential customers and try to close a deal with them. Also, marketers are available in the office. The in house digital marketing team works from office fewer days a month than the traditional marketing team. The company now includes a mix of traditional and digital marketing strategies, although it is working to be completely digitized by 2025. 
Justification of the Change
The managers of RiverTech realized that the traditional marketing strategy was time and resource consuming and didn’t give the intended results. Hence, there was a need to adopt a new marketing strategy. After analyzing the market, they realized that most of their potential customers had access to the internet and so decided the best way to reach them is through the internet. As much as they didn’t have a qualified digital marketer in their team, they realized they could hire a small team and link with an independent digital marketing company. 
Most of the industry participants had already adopted digital marketing, and the company was keen not to be left out. This was the right time to make a move and stay ahead of the competition. RiverTech believes in new ideas and innovation, so adopting internet marketing was in line with company policy.
The RiverTech team was facing difficulties with actively engaging with each customer on an individual basis, so they wanted an easier way to do it. By adopting the digital marketing strategy, they can now engage with their customers with less difficulty, and this has helped them provide better service to its customers. The team can now hold their customers’ attention for a long time while building a good reputation. 
RiverTech was incurring colossal marketing and advertising costs, so the management was looking for ways to lower the financial burden. Being a small business, the company lacked enough resources to increase the marketing team, and digital marketing was the best option because it could reduce the marketing costs while reaching more potential customers. 
Internet marketing is easy to adjust, unlike traditional marketing. The management faced some difficulty when evaluating the effectiveness of their traditional marketing strategy. RiverTech can now assess the impact of an advertisement and make a quick adjustment to it. Also, a single advert can directly reach a broad audience at no extra cost. 
Because the company specializes in IT and Software, no new infrastructure was needed, and this further lowered the costs of adopting the new marketing strategy. Also, some members of their marketing team had internet marketing skills, and they retained those. These individuals help the new team with content creation and are helpful in closing deals with new customers. 
RiverTech wanted to make the most sales for every prospective customer so that internet marketing could help with precise targeting. The management wanted to increase the probability of making sales and lower marketing costs. Yamin (2017) says that modern-day marketing has undergone significant changes and portable communication gadgets have a big influence on the behaviour of customers. Companies need a well-designed marketing plan with unique marketing tools. 
Challenges That Arose during the Change and their Solutions
Some team members were resistant to the change and even didn’t believe the new strategy could work. The management took its time to educate the entire team about internet marketing and the associated benefits. Also, the whole marketing department was overhauled, with the company laying off some staff and recruiting new ones. The remaining team members were required to work with the latest marketing team, and they needed some time to integrate and start working cohesively fully. 
The marketing team was at first reluctant to work with the internet marketing company. They thought the management was not confident in their ability to deliver. To create relevant content, the company decided that all content was to be made by the in-house team and sent to the marketing company for advertisement. After just a few weeks the two teams were already working seamlessly. RiverTech always assures staff that their services are appreciated and provide training that would make the members of the department well versed with internet marketing. The training begins with an evaluation of each person’s strengths, expertise, and weaknesses, as this is time and money saving.
The management experienced problems when deciding the most appropriate internet marketing budget. RiverTech wanted to ...