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Promotion

Specification of the 

promotion

 is usually part of a communications strategy. This will 

include selection of target markets, positioning and integration of different communications 

tools. The Internet offers a new marketing communications channel to inform customers 

of the benefits of a product and assist in the buying decision. The main elements of the pro-

motional or communications mix and their online equivalents summarised by Chaffey and 

Smith (2008) are shown in Table 8.8.

One approach for developing promotion tactics is to specify the communications tech-

niques required for different stages of the buying. Another approach is to look at how the 

Internet can supplement the range of promotional activities such as advertising, sales pro-

motions, PR and direct marketing. (These approaches are discussed in Chapter 9, where we 

also look at how customers can be persuaded to return to a site for future purchases.)

The promotion element of the marketing plan also requires three important decisions 

about investment:

1