Internet Marketing

Internet marketing, also known as online marketing, is the practice of marketing products and services over the Internet. If the marketing specifically involves Website-based advertising, it’s called Web marketing.

Internet marketing services blend the creative and technical aspects of the Web, like Web design and development, together with the more traditional aspects of marketing such as advertising and sales.

Online marketing services may include strategies and tactics such as:
affiliate marketing
behavioral marketing
cause marketing
contextual advertising
customer relationship management (CRM) marketing
digital marketing
display advertising
e-mail marketing
geographically targeted online advertising
in-text advertising
interactive advertising
Internet news releases
lead scoring
newsletter marketing
online market research
online reputation management (ORM)
online lead generation
search engine marketing (SEM) (link)
social media marketing
software-based advertising

Online marketing is quite different than traditional marketing and offers distinct advantages and disadvantages. One of the benefits is the lower cost of distribution of information and media to a global audience. Another benefit is the interactive nature of Internet marketing, which allows nearly instant response from the consumer.

Like traditional marketing, effective Internet marketing uses a comprehensive strategy. Online marketing integrates a company's business model with its Website function and appearance, and targets a specific audience with different types of advertising, media, and design.

Online Marketing - Advantages

- Internet marketing allows businesses to reach a wide, even global audience for a fraction of what traditional advertising would cost.

- Online marketing allows marketers to experiment with different forms of marketing, different audiences, different messages and different mediums. They can very quickly, and cheaply, determine what combinations are most effective. The same cannot be said for traditional marketing.

- Internet marketing allows the measuring of statistics quickly, easily and inexpensively. Most aspects of an Internet marketing campaign can be tested, tracked and measured. Similar measurement simply cannot be obtained through traditional marketing methods. The ability to measure response and efficiency can also offer advertisers a greater sense of accountability.

Internet Marketing - Disadvantages

- Advertisers who are comfortable with traditional marketing may have trouble adjusting to newer technologies and different media.

- Consumers with low-speed connections or mobile devices may experience delays if company Web pages are too large or too complex.

- Sales of tangible goods may be somewhat limited by the inability of consumers to touch, smell, taste or "try on" these products before purchase. Liberal return policies, however, can reassure consumers and partly negate the effect.