MORE and more businesses are choosing digital technology to sell and promote their goods or services.

E-marketing gives businesses of any size access to the mass market at an affordable price and, unlike other advertising, can be truly personalised. An effectively planned and targeted e-marketing campaign can be tailored to reach your target audience much more affordably than traditional methods.

Building a website gives your company a global reach, 24 hours a day. This allows you to find markets for only a small investment and compete internationally, even while you're sleeping.

By linking your database to your website, you can greet return visitors with personalised offers and messages. The more they buy, the better profile of them you get, which means they are targeted every time with the offers they want.

E-mail or banner advertising makes it easier to evaluate how successfully your campaign is running as you can obtain information about customers' responses.

E-marketing can also make a campaign much more interesting and interactive by adding music, graphics and videos. Games, quizzes and e-newsletters can remind them of your services.

The fundamentals of starting an e-marketing campaign are the same as starting a traditional one. First, you need to identify your target audience; if you want to target more than one, then prioritising the list is vital.

Next comes setting your objectives, such as brand awareness, sales focus and the efficiency of the company. Before any activity begins, it is important everything behind the scenes is working properly and the company brand reflects the way you want the company to grow.

Before you begin the campaign, the planning needs to be addressed. Budgeted planning and measuring success may vary along the way, but it is important to have a clear process planned.

It is also important to set up a contingency plan with an extra pot of money. Starting a marketing campaign half-heartedly is not worth the time and effort, so in case you go over budget in the first few months, the extra money will allow the campaign to continue to its conclusion.

Now the fun starts, and you can decide on the right mix of marketing tools for you. Look at competitors' websites and see what is or isn't working well for them. Invest some money into researching what your customers want to see. It may be quite a big outlay, but it is likely to save a lot of money on wasted campaign ideas.

Customer feedback is essential. Make your site easy to navigate so customers want to return.

Happy customers are more likely to give feedback. Include a FAQ page, ask visitors to register so you can e-mail newsletters; offer incentives and give responses to customers to let them know that their thoughts are appreciated.

A not-for-profit organisation and a fully owned subsidiary of the development agency One NorthEast, TNERP represents the North-East online via its n-e-life.com website. It can also provide advice, funding, e-tendering services and online shopping. To view TNERP's White Paper on e-marketing, visit www.n-e-life.com

* Norma Foster is chief executive of The North East Regional Portal

Call 0191-487 2002 or visit www.n-e-life.com

Published: 13/12/2005