TX_1~AT/TX_2~AT International Review of Management and Marketing ISSN: 2146-4405 available at http: www.econjournals.com International Review of Management and Marketing, 2023, 13(3), 25-32. International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 3 • 2023 25 Exploration of Salt Farmers’ E-Marketing Strategy: A Lesson from Madura Island, Indonesia Fathor AS*, Fatimatul Fatmariyah Department of Management, University of Trunojoyo Madura, Indonesia. *Email: fathor.as@trunojoyo.ac.id Received: 12 February 2023 Accepted: 05 May 2023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.14351 ABSTRACT This study aims to explore various e-marketing strategies that salt farmers might use. The qualitative-descriptive method was chosen as the method used in this research. Researchers collected data by observing, conducting interviews, and documenting our studies. The method of analysis is known as descriptive-qualitative analysis. The findings indicated that salt farmers’ knowledge of the various forms of e-marketing media was satisfactory. However, their expertise consisted just of knowledge, and they needed to learn how to make the most of the existing media to exploit it as a promotional tool. Although salt farmers are already familiar with many different media that can use as marketing media, the most excellent e-marketing technique for business uses only Facebook networking or social media marketing strategy. Keywords: Marketing, E-Marketing, Salt Marketing, Social Media Marketing JEL Classifications: M30, M300, M31, M310, M37, M370 1. INTRODUCTION Salt is one of the commodities that have an important position in life. The need for salt is very high, both to meet the needs of consumption and industry. Nationally, the need for salt increases with population growth and industrial development. The need for salt demand reflects that salt has a function that has yet to be replaced or substituted by other materials (Trikobery et al., 2017). In 2020, the need for salt nationally was 4.5 million tons (Lokadata, 2020), but national salt production is predicted only to be around 1.26 million tons (Statistics-KKP, 2020). The data confirm that salt production in Indonesia has never been sufficient for salt needs, so imports are one solution. Data from the Central Statistics Agency noted that throughout 2020, Indonesia imported 2.61 million tons of salt (DataIndonesia.id, 2020), or 50.29% of the national salt availability (Lokadata, 2020). The need for salt is large and has yet to be met by salt farmers in the country due to various factors. On the other hand, the need for large salt and small salt production is not directly proportional (inline) to the level of absorption and salt prices of farmers in the country. The level of absorption and price of salt at the farmer level is very difficult and cheap because one of them is not a little game from intermediaries. So that the average income earned by farmers in one production is Rp 17,294,563/m2. Collecting traders buy farmers’ salt starting from Rp 35,000/Krg to Rp 40,000/Krg. The calculation of the total marketing margin on his marketing channel is Rp 25,000, and the level of marketing efficiency shows that marketing at the farmer-to-merchant level is 100% and at the merchant, level collecting to consumers is 58.33% and 61.53% (Ismail, 2015). Therefore, a comprehensive national policy is needed that favors salt farmers in terms of absorption rate, price, and marketing strategy. Farmers’ price and sales side experience inequality due to sales factors on one particular party because they have no other alternative. So that in the long run, farmers need to understand the right marketing strategy, one of which is using e-marketing as a marketing promotion medium to publish farmers’ salt products to This Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Fathor and Fatmariyah: Exploration of Salt Farmers’ E-Marketing Strategy: A Lesson from Madura Island, Indonesia International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 3 • 202326 each buyer to provide a choice of price decisions that are suitable for farmers. In Indonesia, one of the salt producers is Madura. Madura is an island known as the “salt island.” Madura holds the largest salt land potential in Indonesia, reaching 15,000 hectares of salt land, and is the largest salt supplier in Indonesia (Zubaidah, 2018). The total salt production on Madura island in 2018 was 768 tons (Indonesiabaik.id, 2019), while the data for 2019 and 2020 have yet to be officially realized. The regency on Madura island, the third largest salt producer, is Pamekasan Regency. Salt production in this district during 2020 reached 30,726 tons from a total land area of ±913 H spread across 15 villages and three districts (Galis, Pademawu, and Tlanakan) (Liputan6.com, 2021). This number decreased compared to previous years; the decrease in production was due to high rainfall and frequent weather changes in 2020 (MaduraNews, 2021). In addition, the large number of salt farmers who have not used geo-membrane technology is also an obstacle to increasing the quantity and quality of salt. Technology is indeed one of the obstacles. Besides, salt farmers experience various other obstacles in producing salt, including weather factors, government policies that are considered not pro-salt farmers, sales, prices, access to information, access to marketing, and so on. Small-scale salt business actors could be stronger in terms of mastery of technology, capital, market access, market information, and business governance. The lack of access and information to the market has caused salt farmers to become entangled in oligopsony marketing practices or entangled in unfair salt marketing cartels (Komaryatin, 2012). Because so far, in their marketing strategy, salt farmers need help understanding the marketing strategy for the products they produce. This is due to various factors, including farmers’ level of understanding and knowledge. Regarding the promotional model, it can be seen that (1) Farmers do not have promotional tools, and (2) Farmers feel that there has never been a party or anyone who helps promote their products to the public (Fathor and Gitayuda, 2018). Marketing is a business activity that needs to be mastered by anyone to maintain business survival because marketing activities are interactive business instruments with stakeholders. Marketing becomes a social and managerial process between individuals and groups that need each other to meet the needs of each other (Kotler and Amstrong, 2012), and marketing is an activity to prepare and deliver products appropriately to the right consumers at the appropriate time, place, and price through the appropriate promotion or communication process (Assauri, 2015). Based on the views of marketing experts, marketing is a series of business principles in determining the target market, evaluating needs, providing products, value for consumers, and profit for the company. Implementing this concept requires a strategic creation to achieve all the company’s goals, so it requires well-organized marketing management towards the stability of marketing implementation. Marketing management is a tool for implementing marketing. Furthermore, in marketing, marketers should be able to understand the importance of a strategy and what can be implemented; strategies in marketing have a strategic role in the product’s success in reaching consumers. In essence, marketing strategy is the logic of company marketing in creating value and obtaining profits (Kotler and Amstrong, 2012). Marketing strategy becomes very important as a series of goals, targets, policies, and rules that guide marketing efforts from time to time at each level in facing business dynamics (Assauri, 2015). Related to the marketing strategy of salt farmers, some research results show the importance of a new strategy in marketing policy since the market structure of the salt industry tends to oligopsony based on indicator (1) The number of participants in the market needs to be more balanced; (2) Few competitors, (3) Market entry barriers. In terms of behavior, there are unfair practices in form (1) the collecting merchant is the agent of the company, (2) Inaccurate weighing, (3) Buyers monopolize pricing. And in terms of market performance, it shows that marketing could be more efficient, profits are uneven, farmers’ share is low, and the market needs to be integrated, so that price increases are not transmitted to farmers (Alham, 2013). In addition, other facts show that there is only one salt marketing channel, namely farmers – middlemen – factories – agents – retailers - consumers. The marketing margin for salt marketing channels is Rp. 1,780,000/ton with the largest margin distribution is in salt factory marketing institutions and based on marketing efficiency analysis with a structure conduct performance approach, namely inefficient salt marketing (Suherman et al., 2011). Widiyastutik et al., (2017), in his research, confirmed that there had been two channels for marketing people’s salt so far, namely, (1) Intermediaries, and (2) Factories, but the prevailing market mechanism is imperfect market competition, so there is no market integration within the scope of salt factories from outside Madura with Madura salt farmers, especially since the distribution of market margins and the largest profit share remains controlled by factory marketing institutions. Research results show that a new strategy for carrying out salt marketing must exist. During this time, the company’s strategy tends to be backward, so it must be considered a breakthrough in the most feasible and realistic marketing strategies (Rohmad, 2015). In addition, according to Jamil, the government should carry out comprehensive empowerment through the strategic role of farmer groups because groups can take advantage of opportunities in the salt marketing system to find alternative sales to more profitable marketing institutions (Jamil and Netti, 2015). In addition, consistent assistance from the government is needed for farmer groups because the participation of the government is important, especially local governments, in helping to communicate with stakeholders through the optimization of integrated communication systems (Fathor, 2014). For the rest, seeing the reality of information technology that is developing very massively and has been able to change the direction Fathor and Fatmariyah: Exploration of Salt Farmers’ E-Marketing Strategy: A Lesson from Madura Island, Indonesia International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 3 • 2023 27 of the business world today, it is also necessary for salt farmers to be responsive to these developments. The development of information technology is making it easier and more challenging for companies. One of these information technologies is the internet. The internet has developed very quickly and can reach every corner of the world, so companies are competing to introduce their products to the public through these media because the internet can become an instrument of product marketing, improve the brand image with a very wide reach online system, and in internet marketing, there are five main targets and benefits determined, namely sell, serve, speak, save and sizzle (Chaffey and Smith, 2008). Furthermore, the role of internet marketing or online marketing is transformed into a company’s effort in marketing products and building long-term relationships with stakeholders through internet media (Kotler, 2016), because the main purpose of internet marketing is to create, build and maintain relationships with stakeholders through online interaction in the exchange of ideas, products, and multi-services (Tandusan, 2015). Along the way, internet marketing is further known as e-marketing, because e-marketing is the use of the Internet and related digital technologies to achieve marketing goals and support modern marketing concepts (Khandagale and Gonte, 2023). In the era of globalization, e-marketing has become a part of daily life for almost all businesses, although many companies still need to optimize electronic media optimally for various reasons (Cant and Van Rooyen, 2017). The true, e-marketing provides various conveniences and speeds in information, expanding the market, brand image, ease of providing information, and so on. E-marketing is a strategic effort in product marketing using electronic media or the internet. It is the most effective e-marketing channel that successfully conveys the brand message to consumers and generates the greatest return on investment in the form of consumer purchase intent (De la Roche et al., 2022) and, to increase marketing areas and sales volume. In its development, only some companies have utilized e-marketing services as their business strategy. In its implementation, e-marketing is carried out by utilizing various models: (1) Advertising through a website or Blog. This ad can increase business productivity, and (2) Search Engine Marketing. This model aims to promote the presence of a website through increased visibility on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), (3) Search Engine Optimization. This marketing model improves web visibility access, (4) Social Media Marketing. This model is applied through social media; (5) Email Marketing by sending messages directly via personal email, (6) Blog Marketing. Company-owned blog sites used for promotional purposes; (7) Referral Marketing. Method of product promotion by word of mouth, (8) Inbound Marketing. This method is carried out by withdrawing if there are customers, (9) Viral Marketing (Baker, 2002; Mohammed et al., 2003; Frost et al., 2019). This method is similar to word of mouth but in digital messages from person to person. The empirical and real use of e-marketing media has been able to have a positive effect on the development of the company because e-marketing, such as social media marketing, has a positive effect on brand sustainability and consumer (Adhawiyah et al., 2019), e-marketing has a significant effect on purchasing decisions (Sugianto and Fathor, 2021), e-marketing has a significant influence on presales activities (AL-Zubi, 2022); the positive effect of e-marketing on Facebook generates buying interest (Yasin et al., 2019), the use of electronic marketing makes companies more successful among various companies (Cant and Van Rooyen, 2017). Marketing through e-marketing can obtain benefits which include consumer services and company image services to be good, finding new business partners, the process becomes simple and can condensed time, can increase productivity, efficiency, access to information becomes fast, learn to attract and communicate with customers (Manggu and Beni, 2019), e-marketing can form a positive attitude and a higher intention to buy (De la Roche et al., 2022), and social media marketing capital, the company has been able to achieve turnover (Fathor et al., 2021). So that in the context of salt farmers, internet marketing is gradually expected to support farmers’ salt marketing strategies. As said Khandagale and Gonte (2023), e-marketing plays a significant & critical role in doubling agricultural income, so that they can gradually get out of the confines of irresponsible and unfair market rulers. Nowadays, the internet has become an important commodity for the daily necessities of everyone in various directions of different ages. Through this internet media, everyone can find out various information. It is a separate strategy to be used in marketing products. It is to expand the reach of marketing without having to go directly to the market physically. Therefore, this research is very important to help find marketing solutions for salt farmers. Thus, one of the alternative solutions for salt farmers at a crossroads is to get out of dependence on intermediaries and overcome the confusion of salt farmers to sell their products. It is necessary to study e-marketing strategies or internet marketing for salt farmers. The difference between this research and previous studies lies in the marketing strategy used; the previous research used marketing strategies in general, while this research focused on marketing strategies through e-marketing. So the purpose of this study is to explore marketing strategies for salt farmers through e-marketing. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Marketing Business strategy in a very tight competition needs cautious attention from the company’s managers. Capability in marketing is one of the keys to success to exist and survival from similar business competitors or their substitutions because marketing is an activity carried out from the beginning to the end of the product in the hands of the consumer. Marketing is a mandatory activity that needs to be done by every business. Marketing activities widely contained various strategies for maintaining business continuity. Marketing is creating, pricing, distributing, and promoting favorable to stakeholders (Pride and Ferrell, 2015). According to AMA, The activity, set of Fathor and Fatmariyah: Exploration of Salt Farmers’ E-Marketing Strategy: A Lesson from Madura Island, Indonesia International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 3 • 202328 institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers and The Chartered Institute of Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customer requirements profitability (Basines et al., 2017). The marketing concept requires precise creativity to achieve all the company’s goals, so it requires well-organized marketing management to stabilize marketing implementation. Marketing management becomes a tool or tool that imparts the concept of marketing. These various marketing activities need to be integrated and follow the business unit being run. In the people’s salt business, this activity needs to be observed. One of them is in carrying out the promotion of business results through the use of marketing concepts that follow the development of information technology, namely e-marketing. 2.2. E-Marketing The revolution in the field of marketing is moving so fast, from traditional marketing patterns to internet-based marketing. Internet marketing is a form of business that markets products and services through internet media (Kotler and Amstrong, 2012). Internet marketing not only refers to digital media use but also to maintaining good relationships with consumers. Internet Marketing becomes a process of building and maintaining customer relationships through online activities (Mohammed et al., 2003). Internet marketing is part of electronic marketing; E-marketing is the use of information technology for marketing activities and communicating and conveying various information to customers (Frost et al., 2019). Today, e-marketing moves so fast that it cannot be ignored. Even many organizations are examining how they can best use this new medium (Baker, 2002). So, marketers need to carefully assess the importance of e-marketing and assimilate it into all aspects of marketing (Baker, 2002). In implementing the application of using e-marketing, there are five components in internet marketing: (1) Process, (2) Build and strengthen relationships with customers, (3) Online, (4) Exchange, (5) Meeting the satisfaction of the needs of both parties. In addition, internet marketing can be done using several application models, including (1) Advertising, (2) Search engine marketing, (3) Search engine optimization, (4) Social media marketing, (5) Email marketing, (6) Blog marketing, (7) Referral marketing, (8) Inbound marketing, and (9) Viral marketing (Baker, 2002; Mohammed et al., 2003; Frost et al., 2019). 3. RESEARCH METHODS The approach used in this study is qualitative. This qualitative approach is carried out through the uniformization between reality and theory and empirical through descriptive methods. Qualitative is a tradition in the social sciences that fundamentally relies on human observation of its area and relates to these people in their language and distillation (Moleong, 2013). At the same time, descriptive is the activity of studying certain problems, ordinances, and situations, including relationships, activities, attitudes, and views, as well as ongoing processes and the influences of a phenomenon (Nasir, 2014). This study focuses on Galis District, Pamekasan, East Java. The location selection is because it is the only salt-producing district in Pamekasan Regency with 795 miners. Selection and determination of informants using purposive sampling techniques with 40 informants. The primary data in this study is the result of interviews with informants, while secondary data is data obtained from reading sources. The data strengthen the findings and complements the information collected through direct interviews. Data analysis techniques are carried out through a descriptive- qualitative approach. This analysis technique is carried out by describing and interpreting the meaning of the collected data to get a thorough picture of the real situation. 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Galis Subdistrict is one of the sub-districts with salt farmers in Pamekasan Regency. The district is between 113o 19’ – 113o 58’ BT and 6o 51’ – 7o 31’ LS. Geographically, Galis District has an area of 2,386,254 H2, divided into ten villages. The total population of Galis District is 14,349 men and 14,569 women, making the total population of Galis District 28,913. Galis Subdistrict is a district that has a very large area of salt pond commodities, so the locals mostly work as farmers or professional salt farmers. 4.1. Informant Characteristic The informants in this study were salt farmers in Galis District, Pamekasan Regency. The number of informants was as many as 40 salt farmers. Informant characteristic data in the form of data on gender, age, education, and average income per season in Table 1. Table 1 shows the number of informants, as many as 40 people or 100% of the male gender. The age of informants between 30 and 40 years is seven informants or 17.5%, the age of informants between 41 and 50 years is ten informants or 25%, the age of 51- 60 years is 20 people or 50%, and the age of 61 years and above is Table 1: Informant characteristic Information Amount % Gender Man 40 100 Age 30–40 7 17,5 41–50 10 25 51–60 20 50 61 above 3 7,5 Education Elementary school 17 42,5 Junior high school 13 32,5 Senior high School 10 25 Average earnings per season ≤Rp. 5.000.000 11 27,5 Rp. 5.000.000–10.000.000 20 50 Rp. 10.001.000–20.000.000 4 10 ≥Rp. 20.000.000 5 12,5 Source: Primary Data Processed 2021 Fathor and Fatmariyah: Exploration of Salt Farmers’ E-Marketing Strategy: A Lesson from Madura Island, Indonesia International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 3 • 2023 29 three people or 7.5%. The highest education in elementary schools was 17 people, or 42.5%; 13 informants, or 32.5%, had a junior high school education, and the highest high school education was 10, or 25%. The average income per season ranges from ≤Rp. Five million amounts to 11 people, or 27.5%, of the average income per season, which ranges from Rp. 5,000,000-10,000,000 as many as 20 people or 50%, the average income per season is between Rp. 10,001,000 and 20,000,000 is four people or 10% and informants with an average income per season ranging from ≥Rp. Twenty million amounts to 5 people or 12.5%. 4.2. Informant’s Knowledge of E-Marketing Media The results of this analysis are the answers of informants who are asked to answer and explain their knowledge of e-marketing media, as shown in Table 2. The summary results of the informant’s answers are mapped and summarized to clarify the meaning contained in the information provided by the informant, as stated in Table 2 above. Based on the table, it is known that in terms of informants’ knowledge about e-marketing media, it is adequate. Still, their knowledge is only knowing, and they need to learn how to use the existence of these media to be used as marketing media. This limited knowledge has caused the implementation of e-marketing to be constrained, and It is also following the findings Balogun and Raji (2021) that the average company faces problems and difficulties in the implementation of e-marketing that have a significant impact on services. 4.3. The Right E-Marketing Strategy for Salt Farmers The results of the analysis related to the right e-marketing strategy for salt farmers in marketing their products as shown in Table 3. Table 3 shows that a suitable e-marketing strategy is social media marketing with Facebook media facilitation. However, their knowledge already exists about other media that can use as marketing media. Seeing the real condition of salt farmers in rural areas, who experience limitations in their marketing strategies, both in terms of products, prices, promotions, distribution, and markets, it is necessary to implement marketing strategies to help salt farmers get out of these problems. The current condition has been shown in the study results above, in addition to some research findings showing that many things are experienced and harm farmers. The complexity of the problem of traditional folk salt farmers is shown in several research results that show that in terms of market structure, the salt industry tends to oligopsony based on indicator (1) The number of participants in the market needs to be more balanced; (2) Few competitors, (3) Market entry barriers. In terms of behavior, there are unfair practices: (1) the collecting merchant is the agent of the company, (2) Inaccurate weighing, (3) Buyers monopolize pricing. And in terms of market performance, it shows Table 2: Knowledge of E-Marketing media Question Answer Have you ever heard of or know about information technology? Yes, I’ve heard of it, but I need to find out what it looks like technology information. Have you ever heard of or know about the internet? Yes, I’ve heard and known from people, but I need help understanding to use it. Have you ever heard of or known about websites? Yes, I’ve heard and know, but I need help understanding to operate and use it. Have you ever heard of or know online marketing? Yes, I’ve heard and said I could buy things there, but I need to learn how to use that tool. Have you ever heard of or know e-marketing? I had never heard of or known about the tool. Have you ever heard of or known Path? No, I never heard or knew about the tool. Have you ever heard of or know Email? Yes, I’ve heard, but I don’t know how to operate it. Have you ever heard of or know YouTube? Yes, I know because sometimes I watch lectures on youtube. Have you ever heard of or know Kaskus? No, I Never heard or knew about the tool. Have you ever heard of or know Google+? I have yet to hear or know about google+. Have you ever heard of or know Facebook? Yes, I have a Facebook account. Have you ever heard of or know Twitter? No, I never heard of or knew about Twitter. Have you ever heard of or know BBM? No, I never heard of or knew about BBM. Have you ever heard of or know WhatsApp/WA? Yes, I know about WhatsApp because I use it. Have you ever heard of or know SMS? Yes, I know, and I often use that to communicate. Have you ever heard of or know Messenger? No, I never heard or knew. Have you ever heard of or know marketplaces like olx, lazada etc? Yes, I’ve heard, but I need to find out what the media is as a marketplace. Source: Primary Data Processed 2021 Table 3: E-Marketing strategy Question Answer If you want to market salt through e-marketing, what media is more suitable for online marketing? Website/blog/situs I need to learn how to operate and use it. Path I need to learn how to operate and use it. Email I need to learn how to operate and use it. Youtube Yes, as long as there is someone who wants to teach us first about how to use and operate it Kaskus I need to learn how to operate and use it. Google+ I need to learn how to operate and use it. Facebook Because my son and I have cell phones and Facebook accounts, and so far, we have used them to communicate WhatsAap Because my son and I have cell phones and Facebook accounts, and so far, we have used them to communicate Twitter I need to learn how to operate and use it. BBM I need to learn how to operate and use it. SMS I need to learn how to operate and use it. Messenger I need to learn how to operate and use it. Marketplaces like olx, lazada etc I need to learn how to operate and use it. Reasons for using the most suitable media Facebook Because Facebook it’s already used enough to make a video or story Source: Primary data processed 2021 Fathor and Fatmariyah: Exploration of Salt Farmers’ E-Marketing Strategy: A Lesson from Madura Island, Indonesia International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 3 • 202330 that marketing is inefficient, profits are uneven, farmer’s share is low across all channels (20%), and the market is not integrated into the short and long term, so price increases at the retail level are not transmitted at the farmer level (Alham, 2013). While based on channels or distribution, salt marketing channels consist of 1 channel: Farmers to traders collecting to consumers (Ismail, 2015). It is reinforced by the fact that there is only one channel of salt marketing, namely farmers – middlemen – factories – agents – consumer retailers; based on marketing efficiency analysis, salt marketing is inefficient (Suherman et al., 2011), and the lack of people’s salt marketing channels consisting of two forms, namely marketing channels through intermediaries, in the form of sack coarse salt and marketing channels through factories in the form of sack coarse salt and iodized fine salt. The structure of the salt market leads to an imperfect competition market. The distribution of marketing margins and the largest share of profits in marketing people’s salt lies in the marketing institutions of factories (Widiyastutik et al., 2017). These findings show farmers’ wiggle room is very narrow in marketing their products. These limited and narrow channels have caused farmers only to wait and leave the fate of their products to them without being able to attempt opposition. So that marketing innovation needs to be carried out to open new market segments, so the government should empower comprehensively through the strategic role of farmer groups because groups can take advantage of opportunities in the salt marketing system to find alternative sales at more profitable marketing institutions (Jamil and Netti, 2015). In addition, consistent assistance from the government is needed for farmer groups because the participation of the government, especially local governments, is very important in helping to communicate with stakeholders to increase competitiveness (Fathor, 2014). Based on several findings show that small-scale salt business actors living in rural areas need access and information about the market. The lack of access and information to the market has caused salt farmers to become entangled in oligopsony marketing practices or entangled in unfair salt marketing cartels (Komaryatin, 2012). This is because, so far, salt farmers need help understanding the marketing strategy of the products they produce due to various factors, including the level of understanding of farmers. So that the strategy applied by the company (farmer) in competition needs to be updated; the company (farmer) must implement the most feasible and realistic marketing strategy to overcome these conditions (Rohmad, 2015). One alternative solution for salt farmers at the intersection is to use an e-marketing approach or internet marketing for salt farmers. Internet marketing or electronic marketing is one of the efforts that can be made to market a product or service through or using electronic media or the internet. In the real world, in this era of 4.0, regulating marketing efforts requires implementing e-marketing to be possible for a company, while modern trends are considered when making decisions (Al-Ababneh, 2022). It is because business owners who wish to keep competing in the future the market need to implement e-marketing (Markoski and Janeska, 2018), and the fact of Wanniarachchi and Rajakaruna (2022) is that many companies tend to launch, manage, and organize business ventures with e-marketing. In the long run, implementing e-marketing in business can provide positive compensation for companies (Wanniarachchi and Rajakaruna, 2022). The basis is that internet marketing has become an important commodity for the daily needs of everyone in various directions of various ages. Through this internet media, everyone can find out various information. It is a separate strategy to be used in marketing products. It is to expand the reach of marketing without having to go directly to the market physically because internet technology can reach a large market area with an unconstrained space and speed of time. In addition, using e-marketing can be an alternative method to maximize marketing strategies (Lin, 2021), and have less time (Mohan, 2017). There are seven stages in analyzing and designing an e-marketing strategy: situation analysis, e-marketing strategic planning, objectives, e-marketing strategy, implementation plan, budget, and evaluation plan (Strauss and Frost, 2009). However, this study does not discuss these stages because this research is focused on using the right application model. In e-marketing, several e-marketing application models can be used, (1) Advertising, (2) Search Engine Marketing, (3) Search Engine Optimization, (4) Social Media Marketing, (5) Email Marketing, (6) Blog Marketing, (7) Referral Marketing, (8) Inbound Marketing, and (9) Viral Marketing (Mohammed et al., 2003). The use and selection of e-marketing applications are crucial because the application model must be adjusted to the marketer’s capabilities. The unrestricted use of social media is one of the many e-marketing models (Lin, 2021) that can be utilized in the process of carrying out communication system integration programs continually and intact continuously (Fathor, 2014). Other models include the following: Marketers can develop technologies with others. Still, they need to know enough to grasp the technology and choose the appropriate supplier (Strauss and El-Ansary, 2006), so that the media they chose is suitable to be utilized as a tool to implement an e-marketing plan (Chasanah et al., 2022). It necessitates having sufficient knowledge to comprehend the technology. It has been demonstrated that implementing this e-marketing strategy can improve firm survival (Lin, 2021), raise business returns at little cost, improve productivity, and create a competitive edge (Mbuh et al., 2020). Salt farmers are adequate, based on the analysis results regarding knowledge of e-marketing media. Still, their knowledge is just knowing and needing to learn how to use the existence of these media to be used as marketing media. Regarding the use of e-marketing media that is right for farmers, the use of media in e-marketing that will be used as an e-marketing strategy is essentially only using Facebook or social media marketing strategies. However, their knowledge already exists about other media that can use as marketing media. 5. CONCLUSION Salt farmers’ knowledge of e-marketing media is adequate. Still, their knowledge is just knowing and needing to learn how to use Fathor and Fatmariyah: Exploration of Salt Farmers’ E-Marketing Strategy: A Lesson from Madura Island, Indonesia International Review of Management and Marketing | Vol 13 • Issue 3 • 2023 31 the existence of media to be used as a marketing medium. The right e-marketing strategy for salt farmers is only using Facebook media or social marketing strategies. 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