Promotion of e-Commerce sites

A business which uses e- commerce to trade online must also advertise. Several traditional methods can be used, such as billboards, television adverts and direct mail shots, however the internet provides its own advertising opportunities.

Search engines If you do not know the address of a website you might use a search engine such as google, ask jeeves, yahoo or alltheweb. Because of this e-commerce businesses want to be listed as highly as possible on the search engine results page so that they are one of the first addresses that users see when doing a search.

Search engines do not search the whole internet when a key word is typed in, instead enormous databases are used to store information about all the websites of which the search engine is already aware and it is this database that is searched. To build up and maintain this database, search engines use spiders to trawl the internet.

Key terms: Spiders / Meta Tags They examine each web page encountered and send information back to be stored in the database. To ensure these spiders list the web page correctly, web developers can include meta tags in the coding.

Definitions A spider is a bot (a program that runs on a computer 24/7, automating mundane tasks for the user) which examines websites on behalf of search engines. Meta tags are words that are put into the HTML code of the web page but are not displayed on the screen.

With the huge increase of the number of web pages it is no longer sufficient to rely on meta tags. Businesses often pay a search engine to ensure they are listed highly in a related search. These are called sponsored links.

News Groups and Forums Newsgroups normally use Usenet, a distributed bulletin board system. They are separated into very specific topics and there is one for practically every subject and they are text based only. newsgroups.asphttp:// newsgroups.asp = Very popular Usenet newsgroups Forums are mostly attached to websites and discuss the topic of the site. IMDb (The Internet Movie Database) is a website about films and has a large forum where users can discuss films.

Banners and Pop Ups Pay per click: adverts designed by businesses are put onto other websites. The host website benefits by earning money every time a user clicks the advert. £0.02 per click. 1000,000 clicks per week £2000 for having the advert on their site. These adverts are often banners, across the top of the website or inside bars.

Spam Spam is the internet equivalent of a direct mailshot. Businesses use their own customer list or buy a mailshot list and then send an advert out in an . Businesses can target customers directly, however spam can also be used by disreputable people and can be a nuisance when it appears in your inbox.

Key terms: Newsgroups: a method of posting messages to other Internet users. Forums: web pages where users can post messages to other users. Avatar: an image used to represent a user online. This could be an image of the user, something that interests them or something completely random. Spam: the terms used for junk mail.

Think about Site names / are they really important? Direct marketing / registering / s / is this just another form of spam? Effective user interface / give examples Establishing customer loyalty in a virtual environment / trust / personalising accounts.

Site names Businesses try to use memorable domain names so that customers will remember them and return. While short domain names are generally preferable, there are such names such as which have proved that longer ones can also be unforgettable.

Direct Marketing. This method involves sending s to existing or potential customers. When a customer registers on the website their address will be captured in a database, which can be used to generate a list. Potential customers s addresses can be purchased from agencies that operate purely for direct marketing services.

Businesses can target their market precisely. Tracking a customers purchases and tailoring advertising is also used. E.g, If a customer buys a science fiction DVD, they may receive a direct marketing advertising a new Star Wars box set. Direct marketing is sometimes considered to be spam, it is a matter of perception. If it is unwanted and a nuisance, it is spam. However if the recipient is interested, then it is not.

Effective user interface The user interface is one of the most important parts of an e-commerce site. There is no point in having amazing coding and database behind a website if the user interface is unusable.

Customer Loyalty Due to lack of human contact and the underlying mistrust customers have of e- commerce it can be difficult to establish loyalty to an e-commerce business. Loyalty can be encouraged by personalising web pages, ensuring customers confidence in the sites security and always delivering on promises.

Using a search engine, search for a style of business (football teams, hairdressers) and identify those that have paid for sponsored links and those that have managed to obtain high listing positions in searches. What do you notice about these results? Take a screen shot of the search results as evidence. Choose a website of your choice, preferably one that you have subscribed to, and view the source code. Identify, print off and highlight the sites meta tags and keywords. What promotional techniques does your chosen website offer, take screen shots as evidence. Print off and hand in: Timed 20 mins.