For these reasons, we should consider Customer Service function (in its fullest and largest definition) as an essential one within e-Marketing mix.

As we can easily figure out, service (or assistance if you wish) can be performed upon any element from classic 4 P's, hence its moderating character.

4. Community We can all agree that e-Marketing is conditioned by existence of this impressive network that internet is. The merely existence of such a network implies that individuals as well as groups will eventually interact. A group of entities that interact for a common purpose is what we call a "community" and we will soon see why it is of absolute importance to participate, to be part of a community.

The Metcalf law (named after Robert Metcalf) states that value of a network is given by number of its components, more exactly value of a network equals square of number of components. We can apply this simple law to communities, since they are a network: we will then conclude that value of a community rises with number of its members. This is power of communities; this is why we have to be a part of it.

The customers / clients of a business can be seen as part of a community where they interact (either independent or influenced by marketer) – therefore developing a community is a task to be performed by any business, even though it is not always seen as essential.

Interactions among members of such a community can address any of other functions of e-Marketing, so it can be placed next to other moderating functions.

5. Site We have seen and agreed that e-Marketing interactions take place on a digital media – internet. But such interactions and relations also need a proper location, to be available at any moment and from any place – a digital location for digital interactions.

Such a location is what we call a "site", which is most widespread name for it. It is now time to mention that "website" is merely a form of a "site" and should not be mistaken or seen as synonyms. The "site" can take other forms too, such as a Palm Pilot or any other handheld device, for example.

This special location, accessible through all sort of digital technologies is moderating all other functions of e-Marketing – it is then a moderating function.

6. Security The "security" function emerged as an essential function of e-Marketing once transactions began to be performed through internet channels.

What we need to keep in mind as marketers are following two issues on security:

- security during transactions performed on our website, where we have to take all possible precautions that third parties will not be able to access any part of a developing transaction;

- security of data collected and stored, about our customers and visitors.

A honest marketer will have to consider these possible causes of further trouble and has to co-operate with company's IT department in order to be able to formulate convincing (and true, honest!) messages towards customers that their personal details are protected from unauthorized eyes.

7. Sales Promotion At least but not last, we have to consider sales promotions when we build an e-Marketing strategy. Sales promotions are widely used in traditional Marketing as well, we all know this, and it is an excellent efficient strategy to achieve immediate sales goals in terms of volume.

This function counts on marketer's ability to think creatively: a lot of work and inspiration is required in order to find new possibilities and new approaches for developing an efficient promotion plan.

On other hand, marketer needs to continuously keep up with latest internet technologies and applications so that he can fully exploit them.

To conclude, we have seen that e-Marketing implies new dimensions to be considered aside of those inherited from traditional Marketing. These dimensions revolve around concept of relational functions and they are a must to be included in any e-Marketing strategy in order for it to be efficient and deliver results.

7. Implementation and control: consist in series of activities that must be performed in order to run marketing plan in accordance to objectives set by marketer. At this stage, it is critical to gain support of all members if organization, especially when marketing plan is due to affect organization from its grounds.

8. Performance measurement: constitutes last but not less important stage of marketing plan, since we can achieve only what we can measure. In order to measure performances achieved through marketing plan, we need to constantly monitor each previous stage of plan.

The marketing plan that has a feedback cycle, from 8th stage back to 4th. That is because sometimes during planning process, we might need to perform stages 4 to 8 several times before final plan can be written.

III. The e-marketing plan

The e-marketing plan is built exactly on same principles as classical plan. There is no different approach, but there might be some formal differences given by uniqueness of internet environment. Many of these differences come from necessity to ensure a high rate of responsiveness from customers, since e-world is moving faster and requires faster reaction from its companies, compared to traditional offline marketplace.

Even though it is perfectly acceptable and is a common practice to use 8-stage classic model for e-marketing plan as well, you might want to consider simplified version proposed by Chaffey, who identifies four major steps to build e-marketing plan:

1. Strategic analysis: consists in continuous scanning of macro- and micro-environment. The accent should fall on consumers' needs that change very rapidly in online market, as well as on surveying competitors' actions and evaluating opportunities offered by new technologies.

2. Defining strategic objectives: organization must have a clear vision and establish if media channels will complement traditional ones, or will replace them. We must define specific objectives (don't forget to check if they are SMART!) and we must also specify contribution of online activities to organization’s turnover.

3. Formulating strategies - we do that by addressing following essential issues:

- develop strategies towards target markets;

- positioning and differentiating strategies;

- establish priorities of online activities;

- focus attention and efforts on CRM and financial control;

- formulate strategies for product development;

- develop business models with well-established strategies for new products or services, as well as pricing policies;

- necessity for some organizational restructuring;

- changes in structure of communication channels.

4. Implementing strategies: includes careful execution of all necessary steps to achieve established objectives. It could refer re-launching of a website, promo campaigns for a new or rewritten site, monitoring website efficiency and many more.

Note: a common strategy to achieve e-marketing objectives is communication strategy. The steps to built a coherent communication plan will be presented within a further article.

IV. The e-marketing plan (sample titles)

1. Executive Summary a. overview upon present conjuncture; b. key aspects of strategic e-marketing plan.

2. Situational Analysis a. characteristics of e-market; b. possible factors of success; c. competitors’ analysis; d. technological factors; e. legal factors; f. social factors; g. possible problems and opportunities.

3. The e-Marketing Objectives a. product profile; b. target market; c. sales objectives.

4. The e-Marketing Strategies a. product strategies; b. price strategies; c. promotion strategies; d. distribution strategies.

5. Technical Issues a. website content; b. website "searcheability"; c. logging security (for customers and staff); d. customer registration procedure; e. multimedia; f. autoresponders; g. order forms and feedback forms; h. access levels to online resources; i. credit card transactions; j. website hosting; k. website publishing; l. technical staff (size, requirements)

6. Appendix

7. Bibliography