Internet Marketing

As the term suggest it is Marketing on the Internet. Some of the attributes are similar to conventional marketing but many are not. But before we get to that, why do you do Internet Marketing or e-Marketing or iMarketing as it is referred to as at times?

Reason 1:

The answer lies in the fast adaptation of technology. The world is moving towards the virtual reality. People rely on the Internet for a large chunk of their requirements. Reviews are read online before buying a product, potential employees check out a company on social media before joining it, companies check out supplier website before finalizing orders, tickets are booked online, a multitude of online shopping portal, have boosted the online shopping experience. Almost everything is moving online, from gaming to shopping, you name it and it has presence on Internet.  So Internet is a bandwagon you have to join sooner or later, because the younger and more techno savvy generation is embracing Internet as a part of their daily lives.

Reason 2:

The most important reason is, that you are not targeting the Suspects but the Prospects. How? you may ask. The answer lies in the fact that when a individual/company/supplier is using internet to search for the products/services you offer (s)he/ is actively looking out for what you sell. This individual is a sure shot potential customer; you know he’s interested in what you sell; now the trick is to get him to buy it from you. This is where you can save lot of resources, which you would have had to spend in traditional marketing, which focuses on targeting suspects.  So it is the win-win situation for the any venture both when it comes to saving money and connecting with the potential customers.

What does Internet Market Comprises of?

1. Search Engine Marketing: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which comprises of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC). SEM=SEO+PPC.  Though it is another matter that any marketing technique that is used on the Internet leads to SEO (especially for a long term marketing strategy). But let us just stick to the conventions.

For SEO you need to keep up with the constant changes and updates major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo keep rolling out. Staying abreast with them and adjusting your website strategy to stay on top of these changes is a constant part of SEO.

Source

For PPC you need to shell out money. But most importantly you need to decide the desired keywords that you would like to bid for either using Adword or any other Internet Ad Agency. And especially if you want some quick results than you must go for PPC.

2. Social Media Marketing: Sounds pretty easy on ears, but don’t be mislead, it’s a tricky area to tread on. Why? because there are a lot of restrictions that Social Media sites (especially Facebook) puts on the Marketers. For the Social Media websites the business is their secondary target and the people who are the members and use it as a Networking tool are the primary targets. For good and lasting results you need to be patient by building your followers and subscribers.

3. Affiliate Marketing: This technique is used in conjugation with a website/ blog/ brand having immense following/ visitors. A marketer looking to advertise/ promote his products will like to take advantage of this following/ visitor base. Marketer places his Ad on this website/ blog/ brand page and then  for every time when the customer would click on the link on your site the website/ blog/ brand owner is paid some predetermined charges.

5. Inbound Marketing: Everybody likes freebies. And it is especially true for the World Wide Web. Inbound marketing offers on the concept of offering useful freebies, which act as a lure to your potential customers, so as to bait them and reel them in, to your website.

A example for this type of marketing is; there are many software’s that give the basic version for free but charge for the Pro version.

6. Email Marketing:  The most common grouse about Email Marketing is the wrong belief that this technique of marketing is long dead. Many reasons are cited for this misconception ranging from increasing use of social media to availability of more interactive medium for marketing. However all said and done this s technique is still very much alive and kicking. Over time it has refined, and require much more expertise and systematic management, but no it’s not dead, and continue to be amongst one of the most cost effective Internet marketing techniques.  

7. Referral Marketing: It refers to any means that an Online Marketer can use to help him with word of mouth campaign on the Internet. Either you accidentally make a Viral Video and everybody posts the links to everybody (you see over and over again) or you ask people to refer your service or product and in return you give them some incentives. Like you let them shop for a certain amount for free if you are an online retailer for referring a product on your site to someone else.

Now that we have had a brief overview of Internet Marketing and its components, lets have a look at some facts and figures that will help enforce the importance of this medium.

Based on this survey you can see that the various Internet Marketing components, like Social Media marketing, Email Marketing, SEO etc have gained prominence in revenue allocation over the more traditional mediums like Display advertising, and Print advertising

Aforementioned statistics clearly point out the growing importance of Internet, as more and more users are opting for this medium to gain information and make decision regarding their purchase choices.

So this is all for now. Hope we have piqued your curiosity for the various components of internet Marketing.