Practice and challenge of E-marketing

By

Addis Ababa,

Ethiopia
 Table of Contents
Introduction 1

Literature review 1

Theoretical Concepts and Definitions of E-marketing 1

Empirical studies The Practices and challenges of e-marketing 5

Company that used E-Marketing in the World 10

The Practices and Challenges of E-marketing in Ethiopia 12

Conclusion 13

Reference 16

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Introduction
Due to globalization, not only nations are coming closer to each other but also different sector
undergoes into significant changes. And marketing sector is also affected by this and
experiencing so many changes continuously. To sell our product through the internet or digital
media is known as E-marketing. E-Marketing is the process of marketing a brand using the
Internet. It includes both direct response marketing and indirect marketing elements and uses a
range of technologies to help connect businesses to their customers. E-marketing means using
digital technologies to help sell your goods or services. In the past few years, the internet and e-
commerce business activities have become one of the fastest growing technologies that playing
a significant role in the daily life of human beings. Today, E-marketing is one of the most
emerging technologies in the IT and E-Commerce sector. The scope of E-Marketing is deemed
to be broad in scope it does not only use to promote marketing over the internet but also helps in
marketing as well through e-mail and wireless media. The purpose of the review is to
emphasize the concept of e-marketing. The review is used the secondary data listed in different
databases of books, research papers, and related articles of e-marketing available on the
Internet. The present study has been undertaken to describe the present status of e-marketing in
world and Ethiopia and examine the challenges & opportunities of e-marketing..

Literature review
Theoretical Concepts and Definitions of E-marketing
The Definition of the American Marketing Association for 1985 (AMA): According to AMA,
“marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and
distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and
organizational goals” (Al-Jany, 2009: p. 20). Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as

The science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target
market at a profit, Marketing identifies unfulfilled needs and desires. It defines measures and
quantifies the size of the identified market and the profit potential. It pinpoints which segments
the company is capable of serving best and it designs and promotes the appropriate products and
services (https://www.kotlermarketing.com/phil_questions.shtml/).

So, it is an activity based on prior knowledge of the needs and requirements of marketing in
order to satisfy its needs using a variety of marketing activities. Definition of E-Marketing:
Here are some well-known definitions for e-marketing:
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E-Marketing (a.k.a. electronic marketing) refers to the marketing conducted over the Internet.
Two synonyms of E-Marketing are Internet Marketing and Online Marketing which are
frequently interchanged. E-Marketing is the process of marketing a brand (company, product, or
service) using the Internet through computers and mobile devices mediums. By such a
definition, e Marketing encompasses all the activities a business conducts via the worldwide
web with the aim of attracting new business, retaining current business and developing its brand
identity.

Experts see that E-marketing means using computers and communication technology to market
goods and services; it’s also using information technology to connect the actor between the
functions provided by vendors and buyers. And Arafa maintains that e-marketing is linked to
the use of the Internet and various services of modern technologies to communicate in
marketing activities, which helps to attract the largest number of customers as a result of
continuous communication with the organization and focus on its needs (Arafa, 2010: p. 225).

According to Encaclopedia.com., “E-marketing is a process of planning and executing the

conception, distribution, promotion, and pricing of products and services in a computerized,
networked environment, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web, to facilitate exchanges
and satisfy customer demands. It has two distinct advantages over traditional marketing. E-
marketing provides customers with more convenience and more competitive prices, and it
enables businesses to reduce operational costs”

One of the main obstacles in literature, which affects the efficient deployment of e-marketing by
businesses is the unclear way of dealing with the concept and definition of E-Marketing (El-
Gohary 2013: 216).

There are various definitions of E-marketing based on the author’s view, background and
specialization. Smith and Chaffey defines it as: “Achieving marketing objectives through
applying digital technologies” (Smith and Chaffey, 2005: 11), whilst Strauss and Frost define it
as: “The use of electronic data and applications for planning and executing the conception,
distribution and pricing of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual
and organizational goals” (Strauss and Frost, 2001: 454).

Whilst the various definitions have an electronic component in executing the marketing agenda
the mix-up in terms of what electronic technology is in operation is the main problem. It is as

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such because these technologies serve different purposes, objectives and operate at different
focal levels. Therefor the danger is that digital marketers end up using strategies for E-
commerce or E-business for E-marketing, resulting in lower return of electronic marketing
investment (ROE-MI) (low conversion rates) The majority of the researchers are using the
terms: E-Marketing/Internet-marketing / E-commerce / E-business as equivalents, which is
incorrect because they are not synonymous. For example, E-Marketing has a broader scope than
internet- marketing since Internet Marketing (IM) refers only to the Internet, World Wide Web,
e-mails. While E-Marketing includes all of that plus all other E-Marketing tools like: Intranets,
Extranets and mobile phones. In contrast with that, E-commerce and E-business have a wider
and broader scope than E-Marketing.

Features Of E-marketing

The Basic Features of e-Marketing According to the basic determinants of ICT and e-marketing
definitions, the basic features of e-marketing can be limited to the following[4]

:  The Customer Databases. The digital nature of ICT provides detailed information about
customer characteristics and behavior within the electronic environment.

 The Interaction The possibility of bilateral communication between the company and the
customer has changed the way of implementation for traditional marketing activities and
contributed to apply the modern marketing methods.

 The ICT provides a direct response to all forms of marketing activities, which was not
possible in traditional marketing activities.

 The Evaluation the Effects The effects of marketing activities within the electronic
environment have become rapidly evaluable and have been enhanced as traditional marketing
activities are difficult to evaluate and measure their efficiency. Mohammed& Abdurrahman
(2019)

E-marketing and traditional marketing

Comparing both types of marketing, Internet Marketing is more economical and faster way to
reach out to buyer directly, and is the ideal ways for business to advertise locally or
internationally. As the result in case of comparison; both types of marketing can help traders
and marketers to do business. Each has advantages and disadvantages. In traditional marketing
consumers can see and touch the real goods or service but the domain of effect is low, on the
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other hand using of E-marketing will exceed the boundaries and introduce goods and services to
the demographic of internet users. Also using the internet would be more chipper, faster and
convenient for marketing. Approximately the advantages of E-marketing are quit greater than
advantages of traditional marketing. Salehi (2012)

Difference between e- marketing, e- commerce and online marketing

E-commerce is the activity of buying or selling of products on online services or over the
Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic
funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing,
electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data
collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at
least one part of the transaction's life cycle although it may also use other technologies such as
e-mail. Typical ecommerce transactions include the purchase of online books (such as Amazon)
and music purchases (music download in the form of digital distribution such as iTunes Store),
and to a less extent, customized/personalized online liquor store inventory services. There are
three areas of ecommerce: online retailing, electric markets, and online auctions. E-commerce is
supported by electronic business.

E-Marketing (Electronic Marketing), also known as Internet Marketing, Web Marketing,

Digital Marketing, or Online Marketing, is marketing done through the internet on online
channels. E-marketing is the process of marketing a product or service offering using the
Internet to reach the target audience on smartphones, devices, social media etc.. E-marketing
not only includes marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and
wireless media. It uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their customers.

Like many other media channels, e-marketing is also a part of integrated marketing
communications (IMC), which helps a brand grow across different channels. E-marketing has
become a pivotal tactic in the marketing strategy adopted by companies using several digital
media channels. Chaffey & Smith (2013)

Online marketing

Chaffey et al. (2000) explain marketing as "the application of the internet and related digital
technologies to achieve marketing objectives". This definition is a simple definition which,
unlike the following ones, does not touch the important aspect of customer relationship.

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According to (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012) online marketing consists of measures and activities
to promote products and services and build relationships with customers over the Internet.
Burrett (2008) understands online marketing as ―carefully targeting users and getting them to
interact with you while they‘re engaged with the most personal, intimate medium ever invented‖
(44). The most comprehensive definition has been articulated by Chaffey (2007), he defines
online marketing as ―Applying Digital technologies which form online channels (Web, e-mail,
databases, plus mobile/wireless & digital TV) to contribute to marketing activities aimed at
achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers (within a multi-channel buying
process and customer lifecycle) through improving our customer knowledge (of their profiles,
behavior, value and loyalty drivers), then delivering integrated targeted communications and
online services that match their individual needs". As this relationship concept definitions show
online marketing revolve around interaction and building relationship with customers, a point
which discriminates it from traditional, offline marketing.

E-marketing tools

Commonly used tools of E-Marketing are: Internet Marketing, E-Mail marketing, Intranet
Marketing, Mobile Marketing and Extranet Marketing Al-Weshah,(2020). These five main tools
of E-Marketing those are create exchanges and satisfaction for customers; with the potential to
enhance the performance of business enterprises.

Empirical studies The Practices and challenges of e-marketing

From the very beginning, marketing in the 21st century has been different. Marketers today
have a greater number and variety of choices in support, media opportunities, and methods of
communications but they also face increasing competition due to the Internet facilitating virtual
competition (Andreasen, 2006). E-marketing is the application of marketing techniques,
principles, and practices using electronic media, especially the Internet (Pride & Ferrell, 2011).
It encompasses all the activities which a company conducts through the Internet so as to attract
new business, retain current business, or develop its brand identity. In an analysis of e-business
components and accepted marketing concepts, Albert and Sanders (2003) developed this
definition: “E-business marketing is a concept and process of adapting the relevant and current
technologies to the philosophy of marketing and its management. Focused attention on the areas
of e-commerce, business intelligence, customer relationship management, supply chain
management, and enterprise resource planning provide a framework for effective adaptation.

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Although the electronic environment experiences rapid changes, the reliance on proven
marketing models, in these areas, ensures continuity of the marketing process both online and
off-line.” (P. 10))

Management for E-Marketing Management plays an important role in E-Marketing, one which
establishes the system for decision making, improving customer knowledge, efficient targeting
of advertising, and so on (Chan, 2005). The style of management is an important consideration
when attempting to implement any E-Marketing plan (Chan, 2005). Generally speaking, there
are two kinds of management styles - centralized and decentralized - though there is a range of
styles between those two values (Albert & Sanders, 2003). Although the approach style depends
on the size of the company and the management context, for E-Marketing it is generally better
to use a decentralized approach.

In a decentralized approach, decision making authority is distributed throughout a larger group

such that lower level individuals have higher authority than they would in other contexts (Daft
& Marcic, 2005). For E-Marketing, this to be part of the decision-making process without
jeopardizing the authority of the company is valuable for adapting to customer feedback,
responding positively to emerging trends, and providing opportunities for individual employees
to engage with customers in a more natural manner. Given that decision making is distributed
across the group, it also enables custom. Hence, companies can learn the desires and interests of
the customers, so as to better market products to them, while customers can feel as though the
company takes them seriously and are able to form stronger attachment to company brands
(Pride & Ferrell, 2011).

However, a decentralized management style can be problematic in terms of cooperation. Since

all individuals in the decision-making process have similar authority, they may refuse to
cooperate or may go in completely different directions for solving some problem (Daft &
Marcic, 2005). Hence, the role of a manager becomes one who guides other employees with
common vision, goals, and objectives so that there is cooperation in terms of results. Each
individual should be able to use their own strengths to accomplish the goal. In order to
accomplish this, managers need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the employees
and be able to create objectives that can be tailor to specific strengths. Managers cannot do this
unless they have the desire to know and understand others: other employees and the customers
(Daft & Marcic, 2005). This desire to know others, for the purpose of cooperation, is part of

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what is commonly called a social-justice leader. Hence, the role of management in E-Marketing
is to provide leadership in cooperation, in understanding the desires and strengths of others, and
being able to guide by objectives and by example.

Management for e-marketing needs different kind of skills set and leadership style than in-
person marketing. In marketing most leadership functions are exerted through technology rather
than face-to-face. There is an absolute need to have a clear and well defined system of
management control for feedback and motivation. A manager must have online communication
proficiency, comfortable with tools and techniques and must follow etiquette of online
communication. Managers and the employees mush have real-time access to reports, feedback,
updates and guidelines.

E-marketing has different benefits like reach, scope, interactivity, immediacy, demographic
targeting, easy of adoption. E-marketing enables all kinds of businesses to have a global reach.
It is less expensive in comparing to traditional marketing to have a global reach. It is easy to
access customers from all corners of the world. E-marketing allows a business to reach its
customers in wide range through emails live chats and blogs every day. Comparing to
traditional marketing e- marketing is more interactive and enables the marketer to obtain
feedback from its customers. The internet creates a perfect environment for niche marketing to
the targeted groups. It is easy to collect data about your customers it also open the door to
personalized marketing with the right planning and marketing strategy. There are different

Opportunities of e- marketing

According to .Sekar, (2013)

1. The evolution of technology. Improvements in website design and the display of luxury
products online allow consumers to more easily search through hundreds of brands and zoom in
with amazing clarity to see the specific features of a product, which is significant when you’re
making more expensive purchases.

2. Consumer trust. Over time, luxury consumers have become more comfortable shopping
online as the overall site experiences continue to improve. These consumers expect the luxury
experience to translate from offline to online to the degree that it can, and demand great
customer service and flexible return policies.
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3. Shopping Anytime, Anywhere. The ubiquity of electronic devices has put more demands on
retailers. Consumers now expect to be able to connect with their favorite luxury brands
wherever and whenever they want. Luxury retailers and publishers need to work together to
make sure the end-to-end shopping experience is optimized for conversion on desktop, iPad and
smartphones. If you are not at least measuring the traffic from each of these devices, you are
already behind the curve.

4. The right luxury product at the right price at the right time. “Discounting, coupons, and
deals,” are not typically in the lexicon of luxury online retailing, at least not with advertisers.
That’s not to say that luxury shoppers don’t want great value because they do. For them it’s
about finding the right products, at the right price, at the right time. This makes a publisher’s
ability to curate products even more important. It’s right up there with understanding luxury
trends, hot brands, and seasonal patterns. Publishers that fully understand these elements stand
to earn the most commissions.

5. Luxury consumers are citizens of the world. When you consider the luxury audience of
consumers, keep in mind that they live and travel all over the world. When you realize this, you
quickly see how luxury

Challenges of e-marketing

1. A bad reputation. A lot of money spent on Internet marketing over the past few years was
wasted. Why? One big reason is that the stock market distorted company valuations and
rewarded (or at least failed to penalize) profligate attempts to drive traffic or acquire customers
-- even if only temporarily. Now e-marketing has a bad reputation. And half-baked metrics such
as click-through rates (CTRs) still paint a picture of inefficacy and failure. Plenty of evidence
shows that the Web is the most cost-effective branding medium available, but the Net's
reputation will need to be rebuilt one success at a time.

2. Marketing integration. Most major marketing efforts utilize multiple channels, on- and
offline. Email, Web advertising, and viral Internet marketing should serve concrete, measurable
objectives as part of an integrated campaign. But coordinating e-marketing with other marketing
efforts is an underdeveloped art. Some companies have successfully linked the Net to under-
the-cap promotions or to teaser campaigns for new product launches. But all too often the

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Internet is tacked on at the end of a marketing plan. Determining the strengths (and weaknesses)
of the Net relative to other channels is a project we all should be working on.

3. E-CRM. Imagine recognizing the needs of customers as they enter your site. Over time,
through implicit and explicit data, you learn about the preferences of each and can serve
customers based on their habits, needs, and purchase drivers. You build deep loyalty, and you
increase your share of your customers' wallets.

4. Privacy Things have quieted down somewhat since Double Click backed away from its plans
to merge its online data with offline Abacus data. But the industry's privacy issues have not
been sufficiently resolved. Most consumers don't completely trust Web companies and shy
away from offering information about them. Companies that collect data responsibly are
exposed to misguided regulation that spammers and scammers invite. Sound policy, adopted
industry wide, is imperative. Sekar, (2013)

Today, businesses worldwide spend a lot of time and money on digital advertising. Some of
them fail in their marketing campaigns while others succeed, mostly because they continually
re-evaluate their strategy.

Currently, marketing strategies in many companies are limited only to face-to-face

communication, telephone, facsimile, company portfolio, and product brochures. However,
those marketing strategies are well-known to have limited impacts. Therefore, the presence of e-
marketing as one of the marketing strategies would be appropriate to cover the weaknesses and
to solve a number of the marketing problems.

You can use online marketing strategies to attract new customers. To do this, you'll want to
focus primarily on paid social media ads, search engines, and web design. For instance, you
might use Facebook's Lookalike Audiences to get your message in front of an
audience similar to your core demographic. Or, you could pay a social media
influencer to share images of your products to her already well-established community.

Paid social media can attract new customers to your brand or product, but you'll want to
conduct market research and A/B testing before investing too much in one social media
channel.

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To attract new customers, you also need to maintain a powerful SEO presence. With 81% of
shoppers using the internet for research before making purchasing decisions, it's imperative
your business is at the forefront of search for related keywords.

Having a strong SEO presence also translates to more in-store purchases, as well in fact, 78%
of local mobile searches result in an offline purchase. Finally, it's critical you spend
time and resources on your business's website design. When these aforementioned customers
find your website, they'll likely feel deterred from trusting your brand and purchasing your
product if they find your site confusing or unhelpful. For this reason, it's important you take the
time to create a user-friendly (and mobile-friendly) website. Charles. (2014)

Company that used E-Marketing in the World

In the ever-changing context of digital marketing, it can be challenging to find out what works
and what doesn’t. Thus, let’s look at the brands leading the digital world and analyze what
worked for their businesses. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

However, there’s a sea of digital marketing strategies out there and a lot of misinformation. It
can be arduous to implement a digital marketing strategy that reaches your customer, boost your
brand awareness, and earn more money.

Hence, we’ve collected 5 brands with the top digital marketing campaigns that can improve
your ROI and add value to your customers. These brands are not just doing digital marketing -
they are generating experiences and content that captivates their audiences and increase brand
awareness. Now let us dive deeper into the details

1. Zippos is the leading brand in online shoe commerce, setting the gold standard for online
consumer care. The company offers a 365-day money-back guarantee. Besides, it provides free
shipping both ways if customers want to return or exchange purchased products on the website.
As a consequence, Brands With The Best Digital Marketing Campaigns

(https://www.mageplaza.com/blog/brands-with-the-best-digital-marketing-campaigns.html)

1. Zappos doesn’t have to make every effort to promote its online presence. Its policies are so
captivating to customers that buyers are intrigued in singing the company’s praises to one
another.

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2. Mint followed a digital campaign publishing a tremendous amount of quality content pieces,
from informational blog posts to viral, eye-catching info graphics to develop their business.
Finally, the tool achieved an immense online following before being sold to Intuit at $170
million.

3. The Wirecutter has defined the standard since its release five years ago. Assuming itself a
“list of the best gadgets - like cameras and TVs - for people who don’t want to take a lot of time
figuring out what to get”, the website earned $150 million in e-commerce transactions in 2015
and was sold for the New York Times at the price of $30 million.

They produce reviews for products they love, insert a link to purchase it from someone like
Amazon and receive a commission. It takes from 20 to 200 hours to finish their views, which
involve experts and other parties according to the product.

A large amount of time and money is required to spend on content marketing. However,
following content production and professional standards can generate significant market
attention in a short period.

4.Airbnb has transformed the way we travel and search for accommodations. The website now
achieves 100 million users, 2.3 million listings, and a total valuation of $31 billion in 2017.

Their marketing campaign focuses on getting both hosts and travelers for the platform. Its
digital marketing depends mainly on user-created pictures and videos on Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram, big city guides, and how-to videos and posts for owners.

Their Instagram campaign combines humor with appealing pictures of various travel
destinations worldwide, making it a travel forum.

The 2015 Instagram campaign brought in 13.3 million interactions and increased 341% of
followers.

5. JetBlueWhen it comes to online marketing, companies are likely to upload self-promotional

materials only. No one wants to follow a business that talks too much about itself.

JetBlue, a popular discount airline, understands that. Rather than using Twitter to post fare
discounts or appealing deals, the companies utilize it to offer fast and smooth customer service.
As a result, the effect is so good that almost all the messages in the company’s feed add @
replies, which is new in the world of social marketing for businesses.

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The Practices and Challenges of E-marketing in Ethiopia
Any technology-based businesses needs appropriate infrastructure to work properly. Therefore,
the firms in Ethiopia should improve its own technological infrastructure to effectively utilize e-
marketing system and compete with similar firms. The marketing firms could save costs and
simplify its work by using e-marketing. Customers may also become beneficiaries by using e-
marketing system. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the marketing firms should, in
collaboration with its local and international stakeholders, work towards raising the awareness
of customers about the importance of using e-marketing system. Access to credit card is a
pivotal issue in increasing the use of the company’s website to practice e-marketing. In order to
solve this problem, the marketing firms should closely work with the Ethiopian local banks with
a view to facilitating the use of credit/debit card to customers. Chandrasekar Lemma, Senthil &
Kumaradhas,

Simultaneous to the growing ubiquity of internet application as precursor to e-marketing

adoption, 98% of tourism businesses in Ethiopia have developed their own website and internet
services as an integral part of a marketing strategy to pursue a competitive advantage and have
embarked on the first step towards delivering an attractive customer service. There is a high
likelihood that the use of the internet and new technology to create and mediate interactive
dialogue with the customers, and increase the number of customers who are visiting the
company websites to engage in effective communication is increasing. Agag and El-
Masry(2016), Bilghan and Bujisic(2015) and Sigala (2018) and (Bigne&Dercop, 2019) stressed
the danger of neglecting the utilization of websites and internet systems in tourism and
hospitality. They argued that the since the new technologies transformed tourism management
and marketing from the static and utilitarian to a more vibrant tourist or ‘prosumers’ than the
conventional passive tourists or ‘Homo Economicus’, the sustenance of these businesses
depends on their willingness, capability and readiness to cope with the ever changing marketing
dynamics that exist. The new vibrant technologies are very helpful in reducing their distribution
costs, reaching a larger customer potential of the target market, enhancing service quality,
gathering information making direct contact with the potential customers and above all
providing a novel approach to create needed long-term customer relationship(e-loyalty).

Nevertheless, ICT and internet diffusion is lagging behind in Ethiopia. Demeke and Olden
(2012)and Demeke, Olden and Nocera(2016) argued that the successive Ethiopian governments

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have kept the major organizations under their monopolistic control like the telecommunication
sector, which is the sole provider of internet services. This has influenced how the sector
functions, including its ownership, competitiveness, affordability and availability of ICT and it
plays a critical role in the adoption and diffusion processes.

The effect of the monopolistic control of the telecom sector, Ethio-telecom, seriously affected
the structural, operational and functional efficiencies of travel and tourism businesses of
Ethiopia. Demeke and Olden (2012) noted that though critical for the operation of tourism and
hospitality businesses, the interruption of the internet system and high prices imposed on
broadband services have hampered the effective utilization of the new technology for marketing
purposes. This implies the presence of company websites and internet connections was not a
guarantee to commence e-marketing if political, legal, telecommunication, infrastructural and
socio-economic problems remain unsolved. Thus, though tourism businesses have found the
match between e-marketing and its application, and attempted to invest resources and
technological resources which were available at a juncture, e-marketing acceptance,
reutilization and infusion(utilization and application of e-marketing within the organizations to
its fullest potential) have not been that effectively used.

Conclusion
E-marketing has changed the definition of market, now market is defined not by physical place
but by presence of consumer, where is customer there is market, market is in the pocket in the
form of smart phone. The present business is thoroughly relying upon online purchasing and
selling so the organizations for selling online products are carry on e-marketing, advertising,
promotion of their item all through the world. E-marketing also offers businesses the
opportunity to garner data about their consumer base to an extent that has tilled now been very
difficult to achieve via traditional marketing methods. The development of internet marketing
and social media advertising has led to examples of businesses in recent years that emerge to
little more than categories and filter information relating to products and services on the
internet, taking а small cut from any transaction that may occur as а result. In the next few
years, online marketing in India will strengthen even further. Due to Covid-19, many companies
are shifting towards digital marketing for advertising and marketing. It seems great demand for
digital marketing specialists across India once the economy restores to a normal level. The
demand for digital platforms has increased and as per some reports. 50% more time is spent by

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users on social media. This gives are a great opportunity for companies to target these specific
users. Online marketing strategy is something that any company or business is capable of
organizing and administering on their own. Identifying the target audience and market is key, as
well as identifying their needs and wants. Change is an integral part of life. It’s more applicable
to digital marketing. We must strive to embrace new technologies if we want to stay successful
in the market. In the end, we concluded that “e-marketing is the future of the marketing field”.

In spite of the fact that travel and tourism were the front-runners in the adoption of ICT and the
internet, the diffusion of e-marketing has evidently remained at the infant stage in tourism
businesses of Ethiopia. When we realized the adopters’ categories, the majority of these firms
adopted the new technology between 1-5 years ago and a few of them have adopted it before 10
years ago. But the average age of adoption was 2 years. Perhaps this age was highly palatable
with the global acceleration of the internet, and with the development of WIFI, Web.2,
smartphone and other social networking.

Globally during the last ten years, when the tourism business of Ethiopia have attempted to
adopt new innovations, the marketing environment has been characteristically witnessing a
remarkable boom in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatsup, Google+ and
other collaborative tools. The new technologies have emerged as helpful tools to create novel
ways to connect customers with the customers, customers with suppliers and suppliers with
suppliers. These technologies provided unprecedented opportunities for tourism businesses to
directly communicate with their prospective customers and to build on a growing competitive
advantage. The empirical results have identified that the advancement of internet and social
medial has clearly changed the static and utilitarian marketing approach into an interactive and
participatory marketing one. Moreover, consistent with the works of Loureiro(2018), the
ongoing technological innovation has brought countless ranges of opportunities for tourism
businesses allowing them to conduct marketing electronic research, promote products to the
specific target customer and develop new business models for the creation of values.

Similarly, the distribution of e-marketing tools indicated that websites, e-mail and social media
have been widely used among the tourism businesses of Ethiopia. However, mobile marketing,
YouTube marketing, blogging and other user generated contents were not widely used to
market tourism products and services. But contemporary tourism marketing scholars have
argued that e-mail and websites are a more static form of technology based marketing than the

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effervescent and bubbling marketing strategies like for example social media, smartphones and
other user generated contents. Thus, it is likely to conclude that the Ethiopian tourism
businesses depend more on conventional technologies than divergent and ever-growing
marketing approaches to promote and sell products and services and communicate with their
global and domestic customers.

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