How The Internet Has Changed The Ways Of Doing Business Nowadays (Essay Sample)

Digital Marketing and CRM Student Name Affiliation Digital Marketing and CRM Twenty-five years ago, a company opened up a store, put ads in the local newspaper and engaged in community activities in the hopes that the local community needed what they provided. Following the internet, business is no longer dependent on local customers to become successful. A company has to consider a worldwide audience for its products and services. Today, business processes run faster with the use of connectivity. Scheduled meetings can be done any time of the day regardless of the physical location of the participants. Applications such as Skype and Whatsapp have made it possible for businesses to conduct conference meetings with shareholders, clients, suppliers and other stakeholders without either party coming into the office physically. Moreover, the internet has made advertising and marketing cheaper and faster, reducing a company’s overhead costs and increasing efficiency and profit. Away from work, having the internet has enabled people to keep in touch with family and friends even when living far apart. People no longer need to meet at cafes or bars but can do so right where they are. However, some argue that the emergence of social media has caused people to be more unsociable as they spend more time in the virtual world than the physical one. Despite this, the internet has seen many advances in business processes, proving its use is more beneficial than risky. Today’s marketing world is fast and constantly changing. This is because, with the use of the internet, content needs to be short and precise as well as provide most of the information that customers need. The customer of this century is always seeking the fastest and most fulfilling experience when shopping; therefore, companies need to stay updated and current. Customers today have a worldwide selection of products. Thus, they are able to compare these across a vast pool of service providers (Laudon and Traver, 2013). With digital marketing, a company is able to reach a larger audience with little effort through various platforms. Social media has made this even easier as potential customers are able to get information about products at the click of a button while still going about their browsing. Additionally, digital marketing is cheaper as compared to other forms of marketing. Before the internet, companies accrued heavy overhead costs from printing ads, brochures and pamphlets. Moreover, companies can now reach a wider audience as well as narrow down a niche market faster (Shimp, and Andrews, 2013). However, one cannot disapprove the power of persuasion that comes with older forms of marketing. Thus, a company would be better suited to incorporate both digital as well as ‘analog’ marketing. The marketing process involves five parts to ensure that a company has the right marketing strategy. These five parts are what the company is selling, the price at which it sells as compared to competitors, where consumers can get the product, how consumers get to know about the product, as well as the people involved in ensuring customer queries and needs, are met. Companies use paid, owned and earned media to ensure that the marketing strategy flows smoothly and is profitable (Campbell, 2017). Paid media is where the company pays a third party to advertise their products and services on media such as TV, radio, newspapers or billboards. On the other hand, owned media is that which a company controls the content it displays to the world such as that on their social media platforms, websites and blogs, whereas earned media involves others ‘advertising’ a company’s product from using it or hearing about it from others, on their social media platforms and blogs. A good example is where a company decides to sell snickers. Such a company would have to ensure that its product is differentiated in order to attract customers using the right pricing, the most convenient way for consumers to get it, using the most effective advertising channels and ensuring that customer support is better than that of competitors (Campbell, 2017). A company like Nike uses owned and earned media to its advantage. Since it has many users of its products, many people refer them to their friends and families through their social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook (earned). On the other hand, it uses its website, Facebook page and Twitter feeds to keep maintain customer relations (owned). As marketing trends change, this is an indication of the changing consumer purchasing process. The consumer decision-making process has been greatly shifted by the emergence of the internet. Before a potential customer goes to the shop, the first step is to go online and find out about the company and the product they wish to buy. The first step a consumer goes through to make a decision about their purchase is recognizing a need for buying a product. An example is where a student runs out of pen ink and a need to but another one arises. Marketers create this need by having adverts across many platforms both in digital and non-digital media (Duermyer, 2017). The customer then is engaged in the second stage which is information search. They find out what other types of pens are there and the one that would last long as students need to constantly write notes. This search usually involves asking for recommendations from family and friends. With the internet, however, this stage has become easier and faster. A customer usually goes online and seeks out reviews from past users of products and is able to make a decision faster. Once they have all the information they need, customers evaluate their alternatives by deciding which product to buy (Duermyer, 2017). The internet has made this very easy as information on different companies is readily available online. In the case of the student, a good pen is that which is long lasting and cost effective to fit within a student’s budget. After deciding the best deal to take, the student finds out where to get the pen and purchases it. Purchasing has become easy nowadays as one can pay for goods and services online through media like PayPal, MoneyGram and others. In the end, the ability of a product to meet customer needs determines whether the customer will buy it again and recommend it to others or will shift preferences. The internet also brought with it changes in how companies interact with their customers. Customer relationship management, most commonly referred to as CRM is the business practice of engaging customers and managing these relationships through different platforms and practices. These efforts are aimed at improving sales, marketing, technical and customer support as well as increasing efficiency in the workplace (Customer Relationship Management, 2014). Before the internet, CRM was often unreliable, inefficient and difficult to manage. Today, the internet has made CRM more efficient and streamlined, increasing revenue by lowering business costs. CRM involves four basic stages: marketing, sales, orders and support. In order for a company to market itself, it first needs to understand the market it wishes to serve and the customer needs. With the help of the internet, getting information about customer needs has become easier as a company can collect it through surveys conducted on social media platforms. Potential customers become easier to find as the internet provides a large pool to choose from. In the case of sales, a company would need to come up with a marketing strategy that would capture the attention of its target audience. An audience consisting of young people requires that advertising content online is short, precise and eye-catching. A company selling clothes for young adults would need to have flashy and colourful content having short but precise descriptions that would captur...