E-MARKETING TOOLS AND THE NEW DIMENSION OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS IN EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION SERVICES

The increasing competitiveness, rising target audience's expectations (students, their families, employees/employers, academic staff, government, suppliers) and widening access to information determines higher education institutions across the world to continuously evaluate their activities with the external environment, get in touch with the users' needs and integrate this analysis into their every day working plan, which, in fact, means adopting the marketing concept - an important issue, that concerns higher education marketers, even with today's grim economic outlook. Recent studies indicate that nowadays higher education institutions are moving online across the spectrum of marketing activities, from building awareness to creating a high-quality virtual education system and they use online tools as an important and effective component of their marketing strategies. In order that the Internet is most effective, it requires to be deployed as part of an integrated marketing communications approach. European higher education institutions have to identify ways to integrate E-marketing tools into their communication plans. The unique characteristics of the new media require that a database driven segmentation approach to communication strategy be employed, including the development of a customized, interactive, integrated marketing communication plan.