Marketing still needs to satisfy the basic needs of, awareness, research, consideration and comparison, and procurement, whether it be offline or online. Lead generation has to start somewhere, it does not matter if it is for B2B or B2C. Traditional methods still work great for everyone. The big events that gather people to tradeshows or phones and direct emails. I personally think that networking is huge and will continue to be. But, now more than ever internet marketing, it has certainly taken over how we advertise to the world. A website’s design is critical to if it meet, needs and exceeds what the customer demands. So what is the customer demanding? Av vivid page that is easy to navigate, has lots of eye appeal and interaction. The landing page must be smooth, with any click through that are directly routed. Checking out should be secure and simple.

With that being said companies also need to install the Customer Relationship Managing. Which is basically building a trusting relationship. This means that everyone from the sales force to the customer service to the shipping departments must be all on the same page. That way if something falls through the cracks everyone will know how to try to fix it. That is the only way you can keep a customer for life.

Websites are no longer just an advertisement. They need to be a fully functional store at everyone’s finger tips. Not just compatible for the desktop or laptop either. Consumers want it to be convenient. Convenience means mobile. So build in security and compatible is done for mobile phone of all different operating systems, and tablets. So this now all done, everyone is happy right?

Nope! Now how do we deal with the problems?  Security was broken, webpage would not load, order delivered wrong? Customer service is more important than ever. When surveys are giving of unhappy consumers they want to be acknowledged and actions taken about their issues right away. So whether it be a call center or an online virtual advisor, we need to be courteous and prompt. It is also to be understanding of the culture in which you operate. For instance, in America we would appreciate a representative who “takes charge of the situation” may even crack a joke, but a consumer in Japan may take this approach as being disrespectful. I think that is a very difficult role to follow. But there are so many people that are successful at it and keep consumers nationwide happy.

All of this greatness comes at a price, that a price is keeping the knowledge. So many companies have to worry about intellectual knowledge being lost or stolen. Laws have been written to regulate internet transactions. But also to protect the companies, designers, programmers all sign a waiver about the confidentially.

 At the end of the day when all is said and done, this cycle all starts over only keep changing and improving more and more.