Page 288 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

274 9 Marketing and Advertising in E-Commerce

can display B’s banner effectively, but B displays A’s banner E-mail messages may be combined with brief audio or
with poor results. However, B can display C’s banner, and C video clips to promote a product; some messages provide
can display A’s banner both successfully. Such bartering may links that users can click on to make a purchase. Sending
involve many companies. coupons and special offers is done by all major retailers,
including department stores and supermarkets. Airlines,
banks, educational institutions, and anyone else who can get
Pop-Up and Similar Type Ads your e-mail will send you e-mail ads.

One of the most annoying phenomena in Web surfing is the Major Advantages and Limitations of E-Mail
increased use of pop-ups and similar ads. A pop-up ad, also Advertising
known as ad spawning, appears due to the automatic launch-
ing of a new browser window when a visitor accesses or The major advantages of e-mail advertising are:
leaves a website, when a delay occurs. Pop-ups cover the
user’s current screen and may be difficult to close. They can
gain a user’s immediate attention, but their use is controver- • It is a low-cost and effective method.
sial. Many users strongly object to this advertising method, • Advertisers can reach a large number of consenting
which they consider to be intrusive. Most browsers provide subscribers.
an option that allows the viewer to block pop-up windows. • Most Internet users check or send e-mail on a daily
Legal attempts have also been made to control pop-ups basis. Therefore, ads reach customers quickly.
because they are basically a form of spam. • E-mail is an interactive medium that can combine
Several other tactics, some of them very aggressive, are advertising and customer service.
being used by advertisers, and their use is increasing. These • E-mail ads can include a direct link to any website,
tactics may be accompanied by music, voice, and other rich so they act like banners.
multimedia. • A consumer may be more likely to respond to rele-
vant e-mail messages, especially when links to dis-
Pop-Up Videos counts or special sales are provided.

Along with the increase in popularity of free viral videos
(e.g., on YouTube) comes the pop-up commercial before
them. Some can be skipped; others cannot. These commer- Using an infographic, Ellis (2013) explains the benefits of
cials usually last for 10–20 s. These pop-ups may or may not e-mail marketing for customer acquisition and retention,
be related to the content of the video you want to watch. increased sales, and CRM.
Sometimes, video ads come with an incentive, called incen-
tivized video ads, which will be described later. Limitations
A major limitation of e-mail ads is that these messages are
E-Mail Advertising often treated as spam and are blocked by the user’s spam
control software. In general, using e-mail to send ads (some-
E-mail marketing refers to the use of e-mails for sending times floods of ads) without the receivers’ permission is con-
commercial messages to users. E-mail marketing may occur sidered spamming.
in different formats and for different purposes. Typical e-mail As the volume of e-mail increases, consumers’ tendency
marketing formats are: to screen and block messages is on the rise as well. Today,
most e-mail services permit users to block messages from
specific sources or automatically filter certain ads as junk
mail.
1. Using e-mail advertising means that ads are
attached to e-mails. Implementing E-Mail Advertising
2. Sending e-mail messages for facilitating vendor–
customer relationships (CRM types). A segmented list of e-mail addresses can be a very powerful
3. Sending e-mail messages for attempting to acquire tool for a company, helping it to target a group of people that
new customers. share common characteristics. In many cases, the mailing list
4. Sending messages via microblogs or other social is based on membership and loyalty programs, such as an
media platforms. airline’s frequent flyer program. For information on how to
create a mailing list, consult topica.com.