Working in online marketing

Companies use online marketing techniques, such as sending e-mail, advertising online, and search engine optimisation (SEO) to market products to customers and increase traffic to their websites.

An overview of online marketing

Online marketing is increasingly becoming essential to an organisation’s successful marketing strategy. With measurable results and real return on investment an effective e-strategy is essential to generating outstanding results. Online marketing is attractive to businesses due to its cost-effectiveness and measurability compared to other mediums such as television and print. Businesses using online marketing are able to better reach and target audiences, whilst tracking their activity online to measure return on investment.

To connect with consumers through e-marketing, a business may send e-mails to new and existing customers. They may also advertise on websites or tailor and structure the content on their own sites to rank highly in search engine results.

Job responsibilities of e-marketing professionals

Online marketing professionals are responsible for owning, managing, delivering and measuring revenue and margin through the online business channel. Professionals working in e-marketing must design and implement online marketing plans, but they also must have a broad understanding of what makes these plans effective.

Online marketing professionals must be able to carry out many tasks:

• Increase site traffic through a mix of online an offline marketing and promotional initiatives.
• Increase awareness of the online channel in the target market.
• Create e-marketing strategies and choose cost-effective marketing methods.
• Ongoing liaison with technical teams in the commercial evaluation of new technology for the future progression of the company’s online capability.
• Liaise with web development and design teams to ensure that navigational links are clear and easy to use. Ensure design and feel of a site is in line with the values of the brand.
• Evaluate traffic patterns within the website, implementing tracking and management information systems to check numbers of visits to the site.
• Develop appropriate reporting metrics and procedures to measure effectiveness.
• Apply a good understanding of the importance of legal and regulatory frameworks e.g. data protection laws.

The demand for online marketers is plain from the number of job adverts currently on online job boards.