In order to unveil the various claims surrounding online marketing, social workers introduce the following counterfeits currently found in the market:
1. Website promotion is not the center of online marketing.
Website promotion was once considered one of the most fundamental functions of online marketing. A few years ago, some even believed that "online marketing is simply website promotion." Their reasoning was: all functionalities of a website depend on a certain level of traffic as a foundation; thus, website promotion is the core task of online marketing. Some even thought: as long as you can register your URL on Yahoo and maintain a relatively high ranking, the task of online marketing is basically accomplished, symbolizing the success of online marketing.
This view is incorrect. Website promotion is merely one means of online marketing, not its goal. It is certainly not the entirety of online marketing. Website promotion only creates an environment for online marketing. Viewing website promotion as the whole of online marketing represents a "foggy perspective on online marketing."
This is a viewpoint from the era of attention economy, which misleads online marketing. We call it a "foggy perspective on online marketing" because those who hold this view are still in the fog, failing to recognize the true nature of online marketing. They lack awareness and mastery of the functions and roles, operational methods, and characteristics of online marketing. By treating website promotion as the determining factor, they negate the rich connotations of online marketing, making their understanding not only partial but also impractical. Imagine a website without commercial appeal, like a cold store. No matter how hard you promote such a store, you won't attract customers. Even if you manage to bring them in, they will leave immediately because merchants have their own discerning eyes. A website without commercial appeal won't attract merchants or clients, so how can online marketing develop?
It should be said that in online marketing, especially in the early stages of website establishment, putting effort into promoting URLs is necessary. However, website promotion cannot and should not be the core of online marketing. Building a business website is not about creating a fancy decoration; it's about opening up markets, finding opportunities, selling products, and achieving economic benefits. Simply generating noise is insufficient.
Moreover, even the most powerful search engines can only index about 36% of all web pages. Clearly, relying solely on search engines for URL promotion cannot yield entirely satisfactory results. Placing all hopes and reliance on search engines is one of the main reasons why many marketing websites see no orders despite having built their web pages.
2. Online marketing is not effortless.
Some believe that since the threshold for entering the internet is low, online marketing is easy to achieve. Every company can easily conduct online marketing.
True, building a business marketing website is not difficult, and handling some commercial transactions on a website is routine. However, conducting "effective" and "successful" business operations in the practical field of online marketing is far from simple. Especially, deeply mining the vast amount of information resources on the internet is a challenging and creative task requiring arduous efforts.
Charles Feld, the Chief Information Officer of Delta Airlines, likened a website to an iceberg. He said: the part you can see is very simple and insignificant. But the part underwater is massive. Therefore, you shouldn't act based on assumptions.
In fact, online marketing is a systematic project. It involves not only adopting new technologies and methods during the marketing process for business operations but also reflects a company's choice affecting future survival, showcasing the operating capabilities and competitive strength of modern enterprises.
Online marketing opens up a brand-new world. In cyberspace, users suddenly gain access to a large amount of information they previously didn't possess. Studying, reviewing, and processing this information requires new skills and knowledge. Many issues we face may be unimaginable with traditional thinking. During the process of online marketing, the basic business flow changes, relationships with customers and distributors change, data acquisition channels and methods change, pricing principles and strategies change... Online marketers face completely strange and unfamiliar topics. Here, the collision and excitement brought by new technology and thinking are immense.
However, obtaining any treasure on the network requires online marketing skills. Only with the increase of these skills can our ability and level to master online marketing continuously improve, allowing us to truly appreciate the infinite scenery within online marketing. The idea that one can easily obtain abundant results through online marketing is unrealistic. Thinking that just putting products online will lead to a flood of wealth, ignoring the process of developing online operations, facing multiple risks, setbacks, or even failures, believing that clicking a mouse can achieve everything at once is impractical.
3. Online marketing is not direct response marketing.
Someone has coined the term "Internet Direct Response Marketing," claiming that "online marketing is a form of direct response marketing."
Equating online marketing with direct response marketing and categorizing it as "one kind" of direct response marketing is another important scam in online marketing theory.
Online marketing is not direct response marketing and certainly cannot be equated with it!
Direct response marketing is an advertising and channel-integrated marketing method aimed at profit-making. Through mail, catalogs, telegrams, telecommunications, etc., it sends direct sales information to target market members to introduce and promote products, seeking direct responses.
On the surface, direct response marketing staff and target customers seem to be engaging in "two-way information exchange." The channels of direct response marketing are extensive, and its results are measurable. Customers can provide feedback via telephone, direct mail-order, and other ways to respond to direct response marketing personnel. Moreover, in direct response marketing, marketers have already realized the importance of maintaining good customer relationships, striving to build a stable group of frequent consumers. Database technology has also entered direct response marketing and become its technical support system.
Some might say: aren't these characteristics similar to online marketing?
This is precisely one reason some people equate online marketing with direct response marketing.
Just as a type of meningitis whose initial symptoms resemble a cold and is therefore easily misdiagnosed, similarly, equating direct response marketing with online marketing is a "misdiagnosis" in marketing theory. Especially among some of our marketing theorists, there is a reluctance to propose their own discoveries and contributions in theory. They prefer to fit their research results into foreign theoretical frameworks.
In fact, online marketing and direct response marketing are fundamentally different. These differences mainly lie in the following three points:
1. Different primary marketing carriers
Direct response marketing is a multi-channel marketing method that integrates advertising and channels. In these multi-channels, email can be used, but more often, direct mail, phone calls, and faxes are utilized. The network has not become a major marketing tool or method. Therefore, the function and role of the network have not been fully utilized or developed.
In online marketing, the network and business websites are the primary carriers of marketing activities. As a result, the functions and roles of websites are fully displayed and developed, becoming tools and carriers for information exchange and transmission. They also serve as spaces and bases for actual business transactions.
2. Different marketing subjects
In direct response marketing, the subject of marketing is unknown. It is "aimless searching." Its sales targets are mostly individuals and households, with products primarily being consumer goods.
In online marketing, the marketing subject may be unknown, but more often it is known. Unknown customers or information can be transformed into known ones through the integration of network resources. Not only are they known, but they are interactive and communicative. The position of customers in the marketing process has significantly changed, becoming the subject of marketing activities.
The sales targets of online marketing can be individuals but are more often companies, organizations, or groups. Therefore, the products sold in online marketing cover a wide range of categories, including production materials and consumer goods, with significant amounts and clear outcomes.
3. Different primary marketing tools
The main tool relied upon in direct response marketing is "lists." Sales are conducted through the dissemination and aimless diffusion of lists. Although databases are used as technical support systems in direct response marketing, they are only used to obtain customer data from large databases to edit lists, segment lists, rent lists, and perform static analyses of customers. The basic law of database management, the RFM method, only analyzes the recency, frequency, and monetary value of customer purchases. The functions and roles of databases have not been fully utilized, akin to using an anti-aircraft gun to swat mosquitoes, wasting a considerable amount of resources.
In online marketing, the main reliance is on the transmission, diffusion, and connection of online information, capturing business opportunities from it. The large platform of a business website allows customers to autonomously, selectively, and actively connect buyers and sellers in the shortest possible way and achieve the fastest transaction. Moreover, in online marketing, customer analysis, customer tracking, and customer relationship management can be actively and intelligently conducted. Therefore, the effects, functions, and roles of online marketing far surpass those of direct response marketing.
Through the above analysis, we can confidently state: online marketing is fundamentally not direct response marketing!
4. Online marketing is not integrated marketing
Equating online marketing with integrated marketing is another very prominent issue in current online marketing.
Integrated marketing is a practical and operational marketing concept that emerged in the United States. Its core concept is: establish brand positioning, then "design strategies, allocate resources, integrate the strengths of various departments—sales force, advertising, product management, market research—and internal coordination to achieve 'from cognition to purchase.'"
On this point, Philip Kotler pointed out: "When all departments of a company work together for customer benefit, it is integrated marketing." The American Advertising Federation further clarified: "By organically integrating discontinuous information, provide clear, stable, and maximized communication impact." This is integrated marketing.
This integrated marketing theory played a certain positive role at the time. Especially, it reflected the shift in the focus of marketing theory systems and the development requirements from the 4P theory to the 4C theory. After being introduced and disseminated to China, it promoted the development of China's marketing theory system and strengthened enterprise internal management, establishing and improving the internal coordination marketing mechanism.
However, after China entered the market economy, this marketing concept has shown various signs of weakness and inadaptability. Consider that many of our enterprises have sound internal management mechanisms and can achieve "all departments working together for customer benefit." Why have brands like "Jinji Shoe Polish" and "Feige Bicycles," which were famous in the past, all failed? While there are many deep-level reasons, the paleness and weakness of the internally closed integrated marketing concept is a significant one.
When we review and study this marketing concept in line with the times, we find: it has been proven by practice to be unsuitable for the objective changes in China's economic development. Therefore, equating this marketing concept with today's online marketing concept and mixing them up is inappropriate.
5. Online marketing is not "one-to-one direct sales"
Currently, some people involved in online pyramid schemes also wave the banner of online marketing. They claim: online marketing is "one-to-one direct sales." Under this guise, they "build pyramids" and engage in "stove god incentives," taking advantage of people's lack of network knowledge to deceive kind-hearted individuals. In Beijing, thousands of people got involved in illegal pyramid schemes under the guise of "one-to-one direct sales."
More seriously, some pyramid scheme websites, especially those with foreign names engaged in educational pyramid schemes, are also hanging sheep heads to sell dog meat, using the banner of online marketing to recruit subordinates and engage in disguised online pyramid schemes, deceiving innocent citizens. This is something we must be vigilant about.
Here, it should be pointed out that "one-to-one direct sales" is a single-directional communication method of information. The information holder does not need the recipient to understand the real situation of the product but wants them to memorize or repeat known information and pass it on to subordinates, luring people into scams.
In online marketing, information consumers are the main body of consumption. They not only can obtain the information they should get but also can interact on the network, compare and understand the products they want to buy, comprehensively understand them from multiple dimensions, and finally independently determine their purchasing intentions. Therefore, online marketing and "one-to-one direct sales" are fundamentally different things.
Clarifying the above vague views in online marketing will accelerate the informatization construction of enterprises, promote and popularize online marketing knowledge, expand the application scope and fields of online marketing, and will have important significance.
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And globally, search giants like Google, Yahoo, MSN, and domestic search portals like Baidu were pioneers in paid search.