Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

Integrating Online and Offline Marketing 339
tronic communication by prospects and customers, the Internet will
become the core medium of the entire marketing process.
In many respects, Internet marketing has now come full circle. B-to-b
marketers who are moving aggressively toward it recognize that it does
not work in a vacuum, that to be most effective, marketing programs
need to integrate Internet advertising with traditional forms of advertising,
and that traditional forms of fulfillment and customer service need to
meld with e-business practices. If there was a backlash against dot-coms,
it was the realization that click and mortar companies combining traditional
methods with e-business initiatives had a more sustainable business
model. For b-to-b marketers, there are even more lessons to be
learned:
B-to-b marketing by its very nature is longer term and programmatic.
More often than not it involves complex selling situations,
decisions by committee, the need for continuous follow-up and
cultivation, and long sales cycles. The Internet can effectively play
to all of these factors, but it must be applied strategically.
B-to-b marketers have different promotional media needs from
b-to-c marketers that influence the use of Internet media. B-to-b
marketing tends to make greater use of segmentation criteria and
targeted marketing strategies. Since audiences tend to be smaller
than on the consumer side, marketing efficiency is more difficult
to achieve. The b-to-b marketer will need to learn how to leverage
Internet media, use cross-media advertising strategies for
maximum impact, aggressively explore e-newsletter sponsorship
opportunities, and pursue Internet-based marketing alliances.
B-to-b marketers will likely find that a key part of their world
will be private business exchanges or e-marketplaces and public
information networks or e-communities. These Internet-based
business models will change the way marketers view the world
and affect the promotional vehicles used to promote b-to-b products
and services.
Real-time marketing initiatives will offer competitive advantages
that cannot be ignored. E-initiatives will unfold very rapidly; online
ads, e-mails, and Web pages will be executed on a fast track,