Internet Marketing Course Outline

Elements of a successful advertising campaign; the role of marketing, communication, society, and economics in advertising; the five major players in advertising; evolution of advertising from the 'age of print' to the global business environment; niche marketing; interactive advertising; the global marketplace.

Defining marketing; consumer, business-to-business, industrial, institutional and reseller markets; the four tools of marketing; channels of distribution from producers to consumers; types of ad agencies; how agencies are organized; how agencies make money; the effect of technological changes on ad agencies.

Consumer behavior; dynamics of the consumer's relationship to advertising; target markets; the influences of culture, social class, family, demographics and geographic location on consumers; psychological influences such as perception, learning, motivation and other factors that contribute to the purchasing process; low- and high-involvement decision processes.

The structural complexities of the integrated marketing campaign (IMC); stakeholder audiences; consistency and coordination; situation analysis; SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis; campaign strategy; message strategy; media strategy; other marketing communication activities; appropriation and budget; evaluating campaign effectiveness and measuring results.

How the Internet evolved; growth of the Internet; advantages of the Internet for businesses and non-profits; how leading edge firms are using the Internet to fuel leadership positions, lower costs and improve customer service; the basic technical infrastructure of the Internet; supply chain, value chain and virtual chain or net; managing the supply chain; core marketing processes; EDI, ERP and Web services and their role in integrating the value chain; the four Vs. of business transformation.

The special economic issues and parameters that affect e-business; the evolution of Internet business revenue models; the process of value creation; content providers; portals; aggregators; bricks ‘n' clicks; principles and strategies for business-to-business Internet marketing success; building blocks for constructing marketplaces; service providers; infomediaries.

How successful companies identify and understand the needs of their customers; popular behavior models that identify customers and what motivates them to make a transaction; how companies obtain and use research data to retain customers and remain profitable.

The challenges of Web promotion; alternative approaches to advertising a Web site to potential customers; advantages and disadvantages of various online promotional methods; how companies look beyond one-time sales transactions, create relationships with their customers, retain loyalty and ensure profitability.

The Web site development process; how design influences the success or failure of a Web site; examples of well-designed sites and the marketing principles behind the design elements; methods of testing site usability; how Web analysts measure site performance; collecting data from server log files, coded pages and user panels; traffic and audience metrics.

The critical role of good customer service strategies in the profitability and prolonged success of a company; examples of companies that have turned their businesses around through the reorganization of customer service; using technology to implement a full customer service strategy; personal privacy; preserving security.

Data, information and knowledge; how knowledge-based systems can help human agents do their work; how knowledge-based automated marketing systems can improve customer experience; pervasive computering; wireless technology; digital convergence.