Advantages and Disadvantages of E- Marketing

Reduction of costs is one of the most important driving forces in any business. One of the highest cost items in any enterprise is the sales and marketing activity.

Sales and marketing professionals are very expensive animals and any way to keep the number of these as low as possible is a good stratagem. E- marketing provides just this very opportunity.

The most effective messages can be generated in the optimum time, and then using electronic media can be replicated time and time again, modified, re-invented, you name it. All at the touch of a button, and with no overpriced marketing or sales executive in sight. Oh, what a lovely thought.

This same electronic media also provides extremely efficient end-to- end communication. You get to the end user and the marketeer in a very cost efficient and effective way. No inertia and no resistance.

Part of the marketing activity has always been to collect data of various formsa. This data is used to assist marketing teams in product evaluation and other marketing oriented activities. The use of e-marketing activities makes this process much more efficient and timely. Out-of -date figures are worse than useless, they are downright dangerous!

Because of the amount of niche marketing that these figures enable, a e-business can market to very small subsets of the population. They can get to niches inside niches.

How about the downside of e- marketing?

Obviously the main disadvantage is lack of the personal touch. This is very important with such merchandise as apparel and cosmetics.

The real main bugbear though is dependence on technology. If the computer fails, your connection goes out to lunch, or a myriad of other nasties happens, you are dead!

Security and privacy also present their own issues and many times this more a part of the latent fear that many have for things they do not understand than it is of the reality of digital life. Proper care will take ensure security and privacy.