Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. Overview Of Digital Marketing

1.1.1. Definition of Digital Marketing

In the opinion of the book Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice of
Dr. Dave Chaffey- an experienced digital strategist; digital marketing involves in
applying all kinds of digital technologies and media in order to achieve marketing
objectives. All kinds of digital technologies and media refers to the range of access
platforms or hardware, and communications tools that form the online channels which
marketers use to build and develop relationships with customers as well as frequently
interact with them. In particular, the access platforms or hardware consist of PCs,
mobile phones, smart phones and interactive digital TV and communications tools
includes official websites, pages, search engines, e-mail, blogs, text messaging, and
social media. Also, even traditional voice telephone is regarded as a part of digital
marketing. Besides, it is said that marketing objectives are achieving profitable
acquisition and retention of customers within a multi-channel buying process and
customer lifecycle through using all of the marketing tactics.

According to Investopedia, digital marketing is the use of the Internet, mobile devices,
social media, search engines, display advertising and other channels to reach
consumers. Digital marketing goes beyond the internet to include Short Message
Service (SMS), Simple Notification Service (SNS), Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
and other online ads (such as banner ads) to promote products and services.

Some marketing experts consider digital marketing to be an entirely new endeavor that
requires a new way of approaching customers, and new ways of understanding how
customers behave, improving customer knowledge (of their profiles, demand and
value) compared to traditional marketing.

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 1.1.2. The Brief History Of Digital Marketing
 History of Digital Marketing: 1990s

The term Digital Marketing was first used in the 1990s.

In the 90s, CRM tools became very popular. It was the software that tracked the
interactions, taking place between the current as well as future customers.

In 1993, the first clickable banner went live, after which HotWired purchased a few
banner ads for their advertising. This marked the beginning of the transition to the
digital era of marketing.

In 1994, a search engine called Yahoo! was born. That’s when people started searching
the web for information. It was also around this time people started talking about
something called “search engine optimization.” That was a way to ensure that their
websites appeared at the top of the results when people searched for specific terms.

In 1998, Google officially appeared which is now known as the most popular web-
based search engine. It plays the most significant role in optimizing Digital Marketing
Campaigns and Search Marketing.

In the same year, Microsoft launched the MSN search engine and Yahoo brought to the
market Yahoo web search. A couple of years later, more search engines popped up.

Two years later, the internet bubble burst and all the smaller search engines were either
left behind or wiped out leaving more space for the giants in the business.

 History of Digital Marketing: 2000s

In the year 2000: Google released AdWords. That service gave marketers the
opportunity to advertise their products with the assistance of one of the most popular
Internet sites in the world.

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In 2006, The digital marketing world saw its first steep surge, when search engine
traffic was reported to have grown to about 6.4 billion in a single month.

In the early 2000s, WordPress was launched which would make content marketing
easy for entrepreneurs.

By 2004, Google had just released AdSense, a service that gave website owners the
opportunity to monetize their sites.

Soon, Web 2.0 came along and introduced us to user-generated content, and what we
now call social media.

In 2004, Facebook also launched and allows digital marketers to engage with their
target customers through their fan pages and Facebook ads

In 2005, YouTube launched which offered digital marketers great opportunities to

promote their brand.

Also in 2005, the word “analytics” also became much more popular when Google
launched Google Analytics. It is a free tool that offers website owners a wealth of
information about their traffic sources and visitor behavior.

In 2006, Amazon’s sales reached the $10 billion mark. Also, Twitter launched and
would soon become another important social media channel.

Chua sua: Considering the current volume of internet marketing business, it’s hard to
believe

how young the internet marketplace is. While the timeline of internet marketing

has been short, the cumulative events leading up to where we are now have

impacted the entire globe faster than any marketing revolution in history. In 1994,

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spending for internet marketing totaled nearly nothing, but increased to over $300

million in 1995. Now, little more than a decade later, marketing spending and

internet marketing business has exploded to nearly $200 billion (according to

Forrester Research). Today, it’s hard to believe in having an organization which

doesn’t have some kind of online presence.

When the internet was first introduced in the early 90s, it wasn’t considered to be

an advertising medium at all. Instead, the internet was treated as a tool for

exchanging emails and digital information, but wasn’t yet considered valuable for

reaching customers. However, it wasn’t long before marketing pioneers began to

see the potential for internet marketing business as millions of web surfers logging

on each day to find valuable and relevant information. Within just a few years,

informative and educational marketing, as well as graphically enticing banner ads

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began to be show up. It wasn’t long before results began to flood in which proved

the value of the internet marketplace to even the most skeptical advertisers.

Most importantly, companies which had been spending huge chunks of their

marketing budget on offline list building, begin to realize that they could

accomplish the same thing via email and for much less. It wasn’t long before

everyone from industry giants such as Microsoft Corp. to small businesses began

to build company sites and spend marketing dollars to attract qualified traffic.

Next, search engine companies like Yahoo! began to create significant profits from

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advertising alone.

Then came the great internet marketing business bust around the year of 2000,

which marked the beginning of the end for interruptive marketing such as flashing

banner ads. As interactive features were added to web pages, consumers were

given the option of turning off marketing messages at will and they did. Then

entered the age of education based invitational marketing, which crystallized with

the creation of web 2.0 technologies. Suddenly, billions of “voices” began to rise

all over the world, as the internet marketplace became as much a global

community as it was an advertising medium. This led to a relational based

marketing approach which has led to one of the most lucrative opportunities for

solo entrepreneurs and small start ups alike to make a small fortune working from

their spare bedroom. Who knows where the internet marketing revolution will lead

us, but one this is for sure: Those who understand the principles upon which the

thriving internet marketplace is built will most likely never want for opportunities

to create internet marketing business success and to earn solid income.

1.1.3 Strategic Goals Of Digital Marketing

There are 3 strategic objectives that digital marketers need to set and measure in order
to generate revenue. The primary objective of most businesses is obtaining new leads
and converting these leads into buying customers. Without gaining more leads, taking
the leads they invest so much money in to convert them into buying customers, a
business will never grow beyond what it is now.

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The next strategic goal of digital marketing is activating leads and potential customers.
Companies or businesses which have worked for more than a few months often have
leads and potential customers who have yet to buy or have not bought in a while, so it
is important to use digital marketing campaigns to encourage people to buy your
products again, as well as to show past customers who haven’t purchased from you
lately the reasons why they should buy from you or offer them discount. It means that a
business’s digital marketing campaigns can activate these potential leads and
customers and help keep its business in mind.

Last but not least, it is building community and advocacy. In order to generate more
loyal customers, create brand trust, interact effectively with customer, a business need
to build digital campaigns that create communities of advocates and brand promoters.
One of the most effective ways to achieve this advocacy is through social media, such
as through a Facebook groups, fan pages or a Twitter page. Here, existing or potential
customers of a business can reach out what they have praise for or ask questions about
your product or service. This strategic goal of digital marketing means cultivate a sense
of community for your customer base, which leads to increased satisfaction and
loyalty.

1.2. Types of Digital Marketing Strategy

1.2.1. Social Media Marketing

According to Wikipedia, Social Media Marketing is the use of social media platforms
and websites to promote a product or service. It means that all activities of sharing
information and engagement with followers, fans, partners or competitors on social
networking platforms with the goal of promoting a product or service is regarded as a
part of digital marketing. In addition, social media platforms offer different solutions
for organic and paid advertising. For example, paid Twitter and Facebook ads or
influencer marketing are among the most popular methods of social media marketing.

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Thus, social media marketing is a great way to increase awareness for a brand or
product.

1.2.2. Content Marketing

According to Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is a strategic marketing

approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content
to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience- and ultimately to drive profitable
customer action. Content marketing is known as the art of using storytelling and
valuable information to increase brand awareness with the goal of getting target
audience to take a profitable action. Content marketing aims at building relationships
with potential customers and becoming a partner rather than an advertiser. It means
that content marketing often focuses on providing value to the target audience through
a content strategy.

1.2.3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In the opinion of Neil Patel, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of
optimizing the online content, so that a search engine likes you show it as a top result
for searches of a certain keyword. In other words, SEO is the process of optimizing
content or websites so that they show up in search results in search engines like
Google. Search engines decide which websites to show for a search term based on
keywords mentioned on the website and links that refer to this website. So, the goal of
SEO is to optimize content in a way that makes it appear among the first results on a
search engine results page.

1.2.4. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

While Search Engine Optimization describes the process of getting unpaid traffic from
search engines, Search Engine Marketing refers to using paid advertising to get traffic
from search engines. The most common form of search engine marketing is probably

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Google Adwords for the simple reason that Google is by far the most used search
engine. In Search Engine Marketing, digital marketers usually pay the search engine a
predefined amount of money for showing a marketing message at various places within
the search results for specified keywords or phrases.

1.2.5. Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the best converting marketing channels. In email marketing,
marketers can build a relationship with their target customers, cultivate relationships
with potential customers, keep existing customers informed and updated on your brand,
offer coupons to encourage customer loyalty, and more by sending regular emails to
your email subscribers. By providing value with your email updates, marketers can
build trust, generate more sales and profits. Marketing through email allows you to
reach a great deal of Internet users even if they are not on social media or surfing the
websites. Email Marketing includes many different forms and the increasing number of
email users make Email marketing become one of the most effective way to reach a
wider audience and strengthen a brand’s relationship with current customers which is
widely used by businesses all over the world.

1.2.6. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays

commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.
Particularly, the idea behind Affiliate marketing is that you will promote other people’s
products, often through an affiliate network, earning a commission if people actually
end up buying thanks to your marketing. Marketers will find a product that they like,
promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that they make. Affiliate
marketing is popular among bloggers and high-traffic website owners who create
money from selling other people’s products to their audience.

1.2.7. Mobile Phone Advertising

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Mobile Phone Advertising is a form of advertising by using mobile (wireless) phones
or other mobile devices. It involves in sending text messages to subscribers, engage an
audience by providing messages with SMS or free messaging mobile apps for Android
and iOS devices such as Messenger and Telegram. The earliest form of mobile
advertising took place via SMS test messages, but has quickly evolved to mobile web
and in-app advertisements. These days, in mobile phone advertising, there is a variety
of mobile marketing forms to choose such as app-based marketing, in-game mobile
marketing, location-based marketing, QR codes, mobile search ads, mobile image ads
and more

1.2.8. Radio Advertising

In radio advertising, advertisers pay commercial radio stations for airtime and, in
exchange, the radio station broadcasts the advertiser's commercial to its listening
audience. There are numerous types of commercials that an advertiser might employ in
radio advertising. For instance, you can sponsor a program. Many radio stations
implement sponsorships for certain types of radio segments, such as traffic, weather, or
sports scores during halftime of the big game. It also includes live read which you can
hear commercials read in real-time online by a radio announcer, and produced spot- a
straight read of your advertising message or a read that incorporates multiple voices,
sound effects or a short, catchy song about your company. Radio advertising is a cost-
effective way to expand your reach

1.2.9. Television Advertising

Television advertising is the sending of promotional messages or media content to one

or more potential program viewers. The viewers are influenced by the messages which
results in actions that benefit the advertiser. Advertisers desire to provide messages to
people who are interested in their products or services. Advertisers pay media
companies (such as broadcasters) to send their promotional messages. Advertisers

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coordinate the selection of broadcasters and transmission of their promotional
messages using advertising campaigns. Broadcasters operate systems that gather,
organize, and provide people with content that they want to see. The broadcaster may
purchase license rights for content they send through their systems or create new
(original) programming. Viewers select programs they want to view and some of these
programs contain promotional messages which motivate some of them to take actions
that satisfy advertiser’s business objectives.

1.3. Significance Of Digital Marketing Strategy In An Organisation

In 2018, the average Internet user has at least 7 social media accounts. 97% of US
adults under 65 are on the Internet at least once a month. Internet is strongly preferred
as a means of customer care. Thus, there is no doubt that running a digital marketing
strategy allows companies to reach people where they spend their time and money. If a
company is not devoting enough resources to digital marketing or have no clearly
defined digital marketing strategies, existing and start-up competitors will quickly gain
its market share. Moreover, digital marketing actually gives small businesses and start-
up the chance to hold a top ranking position, allows them to increase brand awareness
and help them to compete with a much smaller advertising budget. When digital
marketing strategy is managed effectively by using automated tools, it gives small
businesses and start-up control over where and how they spend their money. When
they have this kind of control and the data to support decisions, they will make smarter
ones to gain the success and minimize the risks. With large businesses with larger
customer bases, digital marketing helps them stand out from the competition,
differentiate them which will generate more leads and increase the close rate, sales and
profits.

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Chua sua: Growth of internet users must be credited for the growth of online
marketing. With

the advent of internet technology number of internet user is increasing at the

greater extent across the world. India stands at forth place with 81 million internet

users in 2010

Online marketing is becoming increasingly important to small businesses of all

types. In the past, marketing online was something that local bricks-and-mortar

businesses could justifiably ignore. It didn't make sense to waste time and money

on online marketing when all your business was local.

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Now with increasing local search and people's new habit of searching on the

Internet first, it matters.

Online marketing refers to a set of powerful tools and methodologies used for

promoting products and services through internet. Online marketing includes a

wider range of marketing elements than traditional business marketing due to the

extra channels and marketing mechanisms available on the internet.

Following are few specific contributed to the growth of online marketing -

Online marketing can deliver several benefits such as:

Growth in potential

Reduced expenses

Elegant communication

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 Better control

Improved customer service

Competitive advantage

Online marketing is also known as Internet marketing, Web marketing, digital

marketing and search engine marketing (SEM).

Offline and online work together

If you have a brick-and-mortar store, you know creating an image is key to

bringing in customers. That’s why online branding is vital.

Com Score reports the average American spends 32 hours online every month.

42% of Americans report watching TV while browsing the Internet. Having

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consistent messaging across different mediums reinforces your values and brand.

Offline tactics will often result in larger online results

1.4. Introduction of PCM Partnership Construction Consultant Company

Limited

1.4.1. General Information And Development History

[Link]. General Information

Company name: PCM Partnership Construction Consultant Company Limited

Short name: PCM Partnership

Representative Office In Hanoi: Floor 5, Big Office Building, 63 Vu Pham Ham, Yen
Hoa Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi.

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Representative Office In Ho Chi Minh: No.20 Ngo Be Street - Ward 13 Tan Binh Dist
- Ho Chi Minh City

Tel: 024 3201.0906

Tax code: 0107558284

Facebook Fanpage: [Link]

Email: info@[Link]

Website: [Link]

[Link]. Development History

PCM Partnership Construction Consultant Company Limited started to implement the

construction projects of industrial and infrastructure factories in Thai Nguyen, Hanoi
and Hai Duong in 2016. It then cooperate to the foreign partners from Japan, Korea and
Germany to implement the projects of industrial and infrastructure construction,
complete the mechanism and make sure of the abilities to implement the complex
projects. After 3 years of operation, PCM Partnership has gained many encouraging
achievements by signing contracts, implementing construction and handing over
completed works to domestic and international customers. Experts from PCM
Partnership are always doing research and studying the new construction technologies
and materials in order to have timely proposals to the customers and improve our
technologies to boost the construction progress as well as achieve higher construction
quality. All of the departments of PCM Partnership always try to listen, understand and
find out the best technical construction solutions to reduce the costs and boost the
construction progress.

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With nonstop efforts, PCM Partnership has been trusted by many customers and
become the D&B contractor of big projects, such as Construction of Wiha Factory in
Thai Nguyen, Construction of Lixil No. 02 Factory in Hanoi, Construction of MeKong
Fabric Factory in Tien Giang, Sunhouse in Da Nang, etc...

In the coming time, PCM Partnership will continue to focus on its strong fields in
implementing the construction of industrial and infrastructure works. With good
financial capacity as well as experienced, dedicated and skillful staffs including
engineers, architects, experts and technical staffs, PCM Partnership is totally confident
to compete with other domestic and international contractors.

1.4.2. Organizational Structure

Diagram 1. The organizational structure of PCM Partnership

Board of Director

Assistant Director

Financial And Mechatronics, Air- Bidding And

Executive And Construction Marketing
Accountant Conditioner Procurement
Human Resource Department Department
Department Department Department

1.4.3. Business activities

Number Main business activities

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 1 Construction of all kinds of houses
2 Construction of the railway and road
3 Installation of electricity system
4 Install water drainage system, heating system and air-condition system
5 Other special-purpose construction activities
6 Management consultancy activities
7 Architecture services and other related technical consultancy
8 Construction of other technical civil works
9 Production of concrete and other products from cement and gypsum
10 Production of metal building components
1.4.4 The function of each department

Board of Director is the head of the company which has the highest authority, profound
knowledge and lots of experiences in many construction fields and project types. He is
charge of fulfilling all obligations to the state, make decision to carry out the strong
improvement in order to bring better solutions and values, come up with strategic plans
and innovation to build a stable company with long-term development.

Finance and Accounting Department includes the staff that helps PCM Partnership to
deal with tax issues, implement PCM Partnership’s financial plans, prepare the
financial statements, safeguard assets through internal control, pay salary, control
budget and write accounting policy and procedure manual.

Marketing department is responsible for promoting the business and mission of an

organization. It serves as the face of PCM Partnership, coordinating and producing all
materials representing the business. It is the Marketing Department's job to reach out to
prospects, customers, investors and the community.

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Construction Department includes every staff who completes all assignments as
manager and supervisor to the engineers and sub-contractors, deals with site
management, bridge construction, prestresses cable and technical solution services,
comes up with construction decision based on their understanding on legal
requirements in construction and more.

Mechatronics, Air-Conditioner Department is in charge of prompt restoration of

operating safety as well as modifications and system function tests of electronics, air
conditioning systems. Air-condition technology technicians work in air-condition
installations, cold-storage and freezer rooms

Bidding And Procurement Department is be responsible for all aspects of the bidding
process such as writing detailed instructions on the bidding process, accepting
companies onto the approved list of bidders, handling bid security money or making a
recommendation on which bid to accept.

Executive And Human Resource department attracts the best talent to work for their
companies, make sure that new and existing workers are satisfied with their positions,
handle areas such as personnel management, insurance-related issues and protect PCM
Partnership’s documents and so on.

1.4.5 Labor Situation

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18
Chapter 2: THE STUDY ON CURRENT DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
IN PCM PARTNERSHIP CONSTRUCTION CONSULTANT COMPANY
LIMITED (FROM 2016 TO 2018)

2.1 The Research Question

Because of its difference in nature from most other businesses, it is believed that it is
quite difficult for a construction company in Vietnam to run an effective digital
marketing strategy to gain the success. Nevertheless, it is getting much tougher for a
new construction company to compete with a handful of big construction companies,
hundreds of builders and contractors if they still use the same, old marketing campaign
and do not develop an effective digital marketing strategy in today’s digital age. During
my internship at PCM Partnership- a new construction business, I realize that the sale
revenue of the company was considerably high. But I always wonder that without its
digital marketing strategy, how the company might promote its construction business,
compete with other big construction companies and gain such a good sales. Hence,
there are three following research question raised:

1. How PCM Partnership use digital marketing to get awareness of target

customer?
2. How does digital marketing of PCM Partnership’s marketing affect on business
performance?

2.2 Methodology

In this chapter, I use quantitative method for my study. It means that I will describe and
resolve problems using numbers; collect data of numerical data; summarize of those
data and draw the inferences from the data. In particular, firstly, I conduct the research,
collect and summarize information from books, documents, and some sort of
knowledge related to the topic in order to form the background. In order to complete
this study, I also gather my experience I have gain during my internship and all of the
knowledge I have learnt before in the university. In fact, I collect data from the

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marketing department, finance and accounting department, and executive and human
resource department.

After collecting all of the information and data needed, I start analyzing information,
figures and charts. Once it is done, I summarize to show major finding, give
recommendation and solutions. Besides, comparative method is also used to evaluate
the study more effective.

2.3 Data

Shows achievements and limitation

2.4. General Business Performance At PCM Partnership

2.4.1 General Business Performance At PCM Partnership

In the period of 2016-2018, PCM Partnership started to enter the construction industry.
Thus, is is understandable for a new company like PCM Partnership to face up with
challenges and difficulties. Nevertheless, the company has always tried to come up
with the right business strategies, tried to overcome all of their difficulties and more.
Especially, in 2017, PCM Partnership witnessed a considerably successful year with
such a great business performance.

Table 2.1 PCM Partnership’s General Business Performance

Unit Currency: Billion Vietnamese Dong

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 250 236.3
222.8

200 183.62
171.39

146.86
150 138.12
Total Revenue
125.9
114.68 Total Cost
100 Profit

50

8.74 11.22 12.23 13.5

0
First Quarter Second Quarter Third Quarter Fourth Quarter

The bar chart compares four different quarters in terms of changes in total revenue,
total cost and profit in 2018.

If you look at this bar chart, you will notice that the figure reflecting the company’s
general performance gradually increased over 4 trimesters in 2018.

Overall, total revenue, total cost and profit in PCM Partnership experienced an
enormous growth over the period shown. However, the company witnessed a slight
decrease in its growth rate in the second quarter, down to 125.9 billion Vietnamese
dong in total revenue and 114.68 billion Vietnamese dong in total cost which lead to
only 11.22 billion Vietnamese dong in profit.

Total revenue in the fourth quarter reached the greatest number with 236.3 billion
Vietnamese dong, almost doubling that in the second quarter while total cost in the
fourth quarter accounted for the highest growth point with 222.8 billion Vietnam Dong.
The speed of rising total revenue is higher than that of cost. Thanks to that, the
company witnessed an increase in firm’s profit.

In general, it could be proved that PCM Parnership’s general performance was quite
positive in 2018.

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2.4.2. The Current Digital Marketing Strategy At PCM Partnership Construction
Consultant Company Limited

[Link]. Website Design

Design is generally associated with style and fashion, but what it fundamentally

represents is how to think creatively, solve problems and help humankind to function

better. It is a way of turning an abstract into a functional good: it is art that people use.
A

great designer keeps constantly asking “why?” and “why not?”. Designing can be

described as observing what can be made in a better way. [25,27]

Depending on the business type, a website’s primary function is to provide the

information a user is searching, featuring the products marketer is selling and

representing the brand as a business. User experience design, UEX, means design

starting from looking at the user first, and observe what he or she really wants and
needs

from the product. Great design takes all kind of customers and their personal features

into account: age, vision, education, likes, dislikes and so on. Great design is simple
and

easy to use and makes the user feel good about herself or himself. User should not need

to fight with the design but the design itself should advice the customer how to
manage.

[24,47] Feedback is an essential feature in website UEX: customer should know

whether

to push or pull a button and what happens if he or she does so. This can be applied to a

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web site design by providing interactive elements with hover and click –effects,
changing

colors or opacities. Fillable forms like checkout elements should also provide feedback

by providing instant feedback of customers’ actions. [68,62-64]

Too much noise creates a stress-like condition in our brain: when there is too much
going

on in the design, our brain does not know where to focus and it goes to an overdrive

mode. On the contrary, a simple design lets our brain relax with ease. [23,56] White

space, also called negative space is important to remember when designing a web site.

Eyes must have a place to concentrate and to rest. Clear hierarchy and alignment on

elements help the customer to spot the relevant information. [24,31] Colors should be

chosen in a way that they serve customers with long sessions and work well with other

elements. Social media icons and other small elements should be placed into a footer or

a sidebar to make the design more simple and appealing. An optimal font choice is
clear,

easy to read and designed for web. People with vision problems should be considered

and make the letter spacing and font size big enough. [41]

[Link]. SEO

According to a UK SEO Services study, around 60% of people expect sites to load in

two to three seconds. [18] Website functionality is the corner stone of good website

design. A site must not contain too much heavy media like large photos or video files.

The navigation system should be quickly learnable. The customer should always know

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where he or she is located and be able to quickly find the information she or he is
looking

for. [24,59] Too many times graphic designers fall into a trap of making websites only

good looking, not functional. If a customer must think how he or she is going to
remember

how to use the site next time, website design has failed. [41] According to Smart
Insights’

survey about mobile usage, smartphone platforms represent about half of all digital

usage. [36] Large screen optimized web sites are not enough: a responsive web design

that scales to all end devices is a must in order to keep the existing customers. When

creating a mobile optimized site, one must remember that a mobile is a much smaller

platform compared to a computer screen. Compressing images, creating single files of

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CSS or JavaScript code and caching are some ways of making the mobile page load

faster. [35]

Fallibility must be considered when designing a website: if there is a possibility to an

error, someone is going to make it. The problem with designing a website is that

engineers and designers think they are the potential end users. This is not true, since

both engineers and designers know too much about the product and the technology

applied: they are not the average end users. Hence, usability testing is very important

when launching a website. According to marketing professional Steve Krug, the first

three testers will encounter most of the problems. [24,146] The key is to test as many

different people as possible: different ages, backgrounds, technical knowledge and so

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on. By testing people from different backgrounds, a tester gets the best variation in test

results. [24,160]

There are some special things to consider when creating an eCommerce web site.

Search –button is one important feature in web shop design. According to

Econsultancy’s

survey about Ecommerce, about 30% of all people use search -button while shopping

online. Search -button means better usability and therefore, automatically better sales.

Search –button should be placed away from other boxes and clearly labelled as a
search

tool. Search box can have a feature of auto-completing, which helps the possible

customer to find the wanted product. [37]

A secure connection is a promise online marketer gives to the potential customer when

setting up a web shop. SSL encryption secures the information submitted to the site,
like

customer visa information. Without SSL, the marketer is responsible for possible
identity

thefts happening on a site. SSL can be spotted from URL –address of “https”-
connection

type and lock-icon.

Allowing a customer to add items directly to the cart and proceed to pay is a user-
friendly

way of supporting checkouts. Web shops should not require registration before the

customer is able to buy the product. A user-friendly option is to place the registration

button to the checkout page where the customer information is collected. It is good to

25
have registration possibility available since it will benefit loyal customers by saving
their

11

information for the future purchases. Email subscription button can also be added to
the

checkout page. [35]

Most people found online shopping easy if the site provided enough information about

the products and the checkout process was simple. Simplicity was the main thing

mentioned in almost every answer: people wanted to find what they were looking for
and

be able to buy it with as few steps as possible. Possible problems occurred at sites that

demanded registration before the possibility to buy the product and sites that did not

provide clear information about terms and conditions. Various paying methods and
online

support were the two things that were appraised in the answers. Free shipping and

returns were also popular features and the kickers for most customers to complete the

shopping process. Personated messages and additional free items were also highly

appreciated

SEO

attempts to improve a website's organic

search rankings in SERPs by increasing the website content's relevance to search

terms. Search engines regularly update their algorithms to penalize poor quality

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sites that try to game their rankings, making optimization a moving target for

advertisers. Many vendors offer SEO services.

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