Internet Marketing

Why is Internet Marketing so Important?

Internet is one of those global platforms that help a small business grow into a market giant over the shortest possible time. Over the past few years, Internet has played a crucial role in business development and successfully redefined the provider-consumer relationship. Internet marketing is a set of particular web based marketing strategies that allow you to reach the global clientele without spending a fortune on campaigns and resources.

Some of the core benefits of Internet Marketing are as follows:

• Easy communication with consumers at a global scale
• 24x7 working environment
• Low-cost advertizing
• Fast and effective business promotions

Days are gone when only big brands had websites and other marketing approaches to get in touch with worldwide audiences. Looking at the unlimited possibilities, almost all small and medium companies have invested time and effort in developing unique Internet Marketing strategies of their own. Here are a few facts that will help you understand the importance of Internet Marketing even better:

• A recent 'Stanford Poynter Study' conducted on people reading news on Internet revealed that almost 45% of the readers spend at least 1 second on reading the banner ads.
• The eminent magazine Industry Standard projected that Internet Marketing will reach $30.8 billion by the year 2005 from $7 billion in 2000.
• According to IAB (Internet Advertizing Bureau) Internet is the 'fastest growing medium in the history' and 'web ad banners build brand awareness and may be better at generating awareness than television or print advertising'.

Internet User Data:

• Worldwide Internet users: 1.97 billion (till June 2010). 14% rise from the past years
• Asian Internet Users: 825.1 million
• European Internet users: 475.1 million
• North American users: 266.2 million
• American Internet users: 204.7 million
• African users: 110.9 million
• Middle East users: 63.2 million
• Oceania / Australia users: 21.3 million

All the above mentioned particulars account for the fact that Internet marketing can drastically change the way a business operates. With correct and effective strategies a company can create a brand image and get mass recognition. Now that you have ample facts and figures in hand, it is time to get your business online.

Internet Marketing Strategies

A successful online business stands on the cornerstone of effective Internet marketing strategies. With the steep competition in market, setting up a full-fledged company website is not good enough anymore. A complete set of well-thought and comprehensive marketing strategies to promote the site as well as the brand is necessary for any small, medium or large business.

Now the first rule of online marketing is to understand 'Who is your Customer?' and 'What do you offer?' after all at the end of the day what matters is 'Buying' and 'Selling'. If you are able to make out what exactly the customers are looking for and make them understand why they should buy from you and not others, half the job is done.

After you have created an interesting and useful line of products and a well-designed easily navigable website, it is time to chalk out marketing strategies to promote the website to TARGETED customers. The strategies can be segregated into two categories: Short term and Long term.

Short Term Internet Marketing Strategies:

Short term strategies are the ones that temporarily increases traffic to a website. Though they have significant overall benefits for any online business, you cannot actually bank upon them long term. Common short term approach includes:

• Forum participation
• Advertisement purchase
• SEO

Long Term Internet Marketing Strategies:

In order to get steady traffic (targeted) over an extended period of time, you need the long term strategies. Once applied, these tactics will bring in fresh traffic to your websites for years. Important long term strategies include:

• Social networking
• Building opt-in lists
• Social bookmarking
• Free giveaways
• Blogging
• Article marketing

A perfect Internet Marketing campaign must have balanced incorporation of both types of strategies. You might need to change or alter the existing strategies for a particular site from time to time. But the foundation process is the most important phase. Hence do not rush while creating the marketing strategies. Instead, take your own good time to analyze the data and market condition before you take the plunge into the Internet Marketing affairs.

Role of Social Networks in Internet Marketing

Social networks have added a brand new dimension to overall approach of the Internet marketing. Initially the social networking sites emerged as a platform that allows people from all over the world to communicate with their friends and associates online. It also helped in making new friends and acquaintances. But soon the internet marketers identified the huge scopes of promotion and endorsements hidden in these networking sites. Soon they took initiative in developing social media marketing strategies which further facilitates online marketing for brands, products and services.

On a social networking site, an individual can create a community or group of friends to whom they can promote their products. Many of these community members or friends can turn out to be potential buyers. Also one can use the social media contacts for market research and data collection for no cost at all. Popular social networks include Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Digg, Twitter etc. People across the globe have profiles on these sites and thus a business can actually get in touch with the most tech-savvy audiences through the social networks.

There are certain confirmed marketing benefits of social networking which are as follows:

• Social media can be used to provide a business with its online identity. One can create a comprehensive business profile on the websites so that people get to know who they are and what products or services they have on offer.
• Social network marketing actually gives a face to your company. The personalized approach seems more appealing to the audiences. Hence they are able to rely on your as a service provider.
• Social networks make a great platform to launch new product ranges. As the world gets to know your brand new product, they also help you with their feedback and opinions so that you can make out the product's market acceptance. In short you can use social media as a free market research tool.

If you are planning to use social networks as a part of your internet marketing strategies, make sure not to underestimate your audiences. Since they are all veteran internet surfers, it is pretty to convince them for anything. So the product as well as the approach has to be useful and comprehensive to get desired results from the social networking ventures.