What is Internet Marketing

The last decades of the 20th century brought in a new form of communication that changed how information is shared and that is the internet. The power of communication through the internet has exponentially changed the world and added a new dimension to how people interact. As the internet quickly becomes popular, it has been a natural course for businesses to see its money making potential and take advantage of it. This gave rise to a new form of business strategy and it is called Internet marketing. What is internet marketing, what are its benefits and how does it change business ideas and strategies are the questions that will be answered today.

What is Internet Marketing?

Internet Marketing is a strategy used by businesses today that utilizes the power of the internet to advertise and promote products and services online. Normally, businesses would create websites and advertise their products and services there. Many businesses today find internet marketing appealing due to the large number of benefits it brings. These are the benefits of using internet marketing as compared to traditional business concepts.

Benefits of Using Internet Marketing

After answering the question “what is internet marketing”, the next thing to ask is what its benefits are. Traditional marketing concepts all revolve on traditional forms of communication. These are the following:

  • Telemarketing
  • Direct selling, advertising and promotion
  • Broadcast Media
  • Print Media

These forms of marketing strategies have dictated how businesses create their advertising and promotion plans. However, with the entrance of online marketing strategies, the benefits of using this new form of marketing quickly becomes apparent.

  1. Costs exponentially less – The first major advantage of using online marketing compared to traditional advertising practices are that it is amazingly cheaper. As a comparison,
    A 30-seconder commercial during Sunday Night football, will cost up to $500,000 per spot. This will hopefully attract the attention of 20 million viewers, however not all of them will immediately respond to it. In comparison, a small website would only spend from roughly $6,000 – $20,000 for online marketing, but can reach millions of people with the use of techniques that utilizes the power of the internet. In this simple comparison, one can easily see the benefit of knowing what is Internet marketing and using it effectively.
  2. Requires less number of people to operate – A small business website normally requires 2 to 3 people to manage, compared to 50 or 60 personnel working on one or two TV commercials. The less number of people needed for a full blast internet marketing campaign allows businesses to save money and allocate it to improve other areas of the business. This makes it ideal for small businesses as it can exponentially increase market visibility online without spending too much on traditional advertisement campaigns. Have the potential to reach the largest audience possible – online marketing campaigns are able to reach the most number of people in the world for 2 main reasons.
  3. The internet allows people from all over the world to interconnect – This ability to provide a means of communication for every single internet-user on Earth is one of the main reasons why internet or online marketing has the potential to reach the largest number of audience possible. By utilizing various online marketing methods, a small business, operating in a small town, can have a running, multi-million dollar company just by purely having a powerful online marketing plan.
  4. Another thing that makes internet or online marketing a great opportunity to connect to millions of people is through social media – Various social media sites online have millions of users worldwide. Facebook, the current leader in social media boasts more than 1 billion users worldwide, YouTube at around 300 million different accounts and over One billion unique viewers and Twitter at 200 million. All of these subscribers are potential customers of online businesses using internet marketing.

Types of Internet Marketing

There are many types of online marketing campaigns that businesses use to take advantage of the internet. This is a list of internet marketing techniques and their definitions.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing where one allows other website owners to advertise products in return for commission. It is an online form of consignment and is one of the most successful internet marketing strategies used today.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization is type of online marketing strategy that utilizes the search engine results page (SERP) rankings for advertisements. This is done by the strategic use of “keywords” which search engine algorithms keep track of in order to rank websites.

Display Marketing

This uses the same principle as billboards and posters but done online. Display marketing uses online ads, commonly called “banners” and places them strategically on websites to encourage people to “click” on it. This will then take them to a landing page where the advertisement is shown. Display marketing is also among the most used types of marketing strategy online. Pay-play-click schemes are also variants of display marketing.

Inbound and Outbound Marketing

As both terms indicate, inbound marketing involves schemes that will attract people to one’s business by providing free, informative content that will give value to clients and allow them to understand and appreciate one’s product without using traditional “sales talk.” Outbound marketing on the other hand uses lead generating tactics to find potential customers. This is done by various techniques, the most famous of which is email marketing.

Social Media Marketing

This is by far the most interactive type of marketing techniques used online. It basically works by personally selling products to people online. Social media allows fast and interactive communication between people and it is this capability that social media marketing gets its power.

In summary

Internet marketing is one of the major innovations of the 21st century. It has opened new avenues for businesses to grow and expand. It gave people the tool to connect with the world in the most effective way possible without spending a fortune. Knowing what is internet marketing, understand its benefits and having the courage to take that step into using this new way of making money can help entrepreneurs inch their way into financial success with relative ease.