Nowadays in each moments and everywhere, we go online and in few seconds we find whatever you want and we need.  Each online consumers is comfortable with search engines and they use it to search a lot of various information.

Most of us use Internet, for example, to find information about flights and for booking online tickets. Travelers use search engines to purchase travel arrangements, 82% of online consumers buy airline tickets and 67% book overnight accommodations ( source: travel industry association of America).

People book online for a wide range of reasons: one of these is that in a busy lifestyle, they save time staying  comfortable sit down in their home and because online it’s possible to see different opinions and reviews of different users or buyers. In this way online customers have a list of advantages and disadvantages about a product or a service before and if they decide to buy.

The arrival of web 2.0 and social networks change the way of communication in the web: there is an interaction between users through a 2 way medium, where people share experience, ask questions, collaborate and participate.

Through the social network ( ex: Facebook, Twitter, My Space, You Tube) traditional word of mouth is enhanced and more convenient, experience and comments can’t be erased and unshackled from time. In these social network search meets social: all experience and opinion of users are available; good experience are amplified and bad experience remain. Listen different experiences is a way to learn, added value and for create interesting contents for new and potential online customers.

“Applying digital technologies which form online channels to market to contribute to marketing activities aimed at achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers through recognizing the strategic importance of digital technologies and developing a planned approach to improve customer knowledge, then delivering integrated target communications and online services that match their individual needs” (www.theidm.com)

In this post we what to analyses this definition in details:

Digital technologies: a lot of people have access to the Internet; there are a lot of platforms and communication tools that allow us to communicate and interact on the Web. The easiest ay to do that is to use a computer to visit a website, but think about the enormous amount of possibilities we have via email, wireless networks, TV and the Web 3.0.

Achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers: e marketing has the same objectives of traditional marketing. We want to acquire new customers to enlarge our market but, in addition to this, we want to retain old customer. This has to be done in order to have profitable customers. We have to get rid of unprofitable customers.

Strategic importance of digital technology & developing a planned approach: Marketing is not rocket science. Everything has to be carefully planned and implemented through a pondered strategy.

Improve customer knowledge: this is the core competence of marketing: gain knowledge about your customers. No business is an island. We need our customers to sell our offerings (products or services), but we need to know what customers want, what are their needs and expectations. Marketing and digital marketing are a great way to do that.

Integrated target communications: there are many ways we can use in order to communicate to our customers and exchange information. Sometimes using only one mean of communication is not enough. We need to pick up different means of communication and mix them to make it more likely that the customer will be targeted correctly.