To improve the effectiveness of your online marketing strategies, you need to consider the business environment with which you work. There are two approaches to examining the business environment in which you operate:
First, Porter’s Five Forces Model
This approach is named after the creator Michael Porter. He was a professor of strategy at Harvard Business School. Porter’s Five Forces model provides formal and in-depth analysis of the industry as opposed to simply finding new trends and general industry information. This analysis can help you develop better online marketing strategies. According to this approach, there are five forces that affect events within the industry. There are existing companies, potential new companies, alternative products to offer, suppliers and customers. These five forces when combined form the business environment. You can gain better opportunities in your marketing strategies by analyzing the structure and movement among these forces. When developing your online marketing strategies, you must identify the five forces:
Your competitors: These are the sites that also provide the same product, service, or information as your site.
The Potential Competitor – These are the website’s offline competitors, as well as startups that may enter the industry through a website.
Sponsors: These are likely visitors and visitors to your website and your entrant’s website.
Suppliers: These are the companies that will provide you with the products and/or services offered on your site. It can also be web hosting, software, and other providers that offer web-enablement technology.
Alternatives: These are your other ways and resources for the same products, services, or information that your website provides.
By applying these basic definitions of the five forces and fully understanding and using Porter’s strategic methods, you can gain a clearer view of the industry, giving you stronger and more effective marketing strategies.
The second approach is the SWOT analysis.
This approach would help you to identify the Marketing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities for the company and Threats for your business. One way to apply this analysis is to develop marketing strategies that will lessen the effect of weaknesses on your business while taking advantage of your strengths. However, you will highlight your strengths in contrast to the market opportunities that result from your entrant’s weaknesses. It will be helpful to make a table that identifies the comparative observations of each SWOT element for both your company’s site and competitor’s sites. Be sure to record Internet-related activities such as search engine listings, membership in trade organizations, and external links to your site in your table. This chart will help you recognize your company’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats. Online marketing strategy opportunities arise as a result of the changing business environment.
As soon as you develop your online marketing strategies, you’ll be able to stick to a marketing plan that takes into account the overall business environment.