Internet Marketing

There are many exceptional benefits that come with using the internet for marketing. Internet marketing involves extremely low costs for distributing information about your product or service to an extremely broad audience spanning the globe. The interactive nature of the internet, which encourages response that can be instantaneous, is in itself one of the greatest appeals of the internet in terms of marketing capabilities.

Using the internet for marketing allows you to combine the technical and creative elements of the internet to use for designing, developing, advertising and selling your product or service. There are many marketing techniques available to you via the internet: search engine marketing, email marketing, interactive or display advertising, affiliate marketing, and viral marketing, are just a few.

Internet marketing can even be used for things other than actually selling a product or service. Customer service, market research, and public relations campaigns can be handled electronically. Internet marketing and electronic commerce have become more and more popular as Internet access becomes more widely used. Over a third of consumers who have home Internet access now use the Internet for making purchases.

Marketing professionals and consumers alike benefit from the instant availability of information. A consumer can go onto the Internet to learn about or purchase products at any time of the day that is convenient for them. Companies using the internet save money because of the reduced overhead. Internet marketing makes it possible for businesses to easily expand a local market into a national or even international market. Above all, entering into the Internet marketing arena is a lot less costly than using more traditional marketing media such as television, radio, and print advertising.

In addition, the elements of electronic or digital media are much easier to track and measure than with offline media. This provides advertisers with more feedback and potential for accountability than with other media. And because of these factors, Internet marketing is growing by leaps and bounds almost daily. Its popularity is rising with small businesses as well as with consumers and even individuals who want to market their blog or website.

Business Models for Internet Marketing

There are a number of business models that are commonly associated with internet marketing. The two main ones are business to consumer, also referred to as B2C, and business to business, or B2B. The first of these business models to arise was business to consumer because it was the most straightforward and direct model. Business to business is a bit more complex, but can also be quite profitable. There is a third and less commonly used model called peer to peer, or P2P involving individuals sharing and exchanging goods and information directly with each other.

Formats for Internet Marketing

There are also multiple formats that can be used for Internet marketing. There is the name your price format used by sites such as Priceline.com. This format allows customers to input the specific price or range that they are willing to spend. Then, they are able to choose from the items available in that price range. Another popular format is the find the best price websites such as BizRate.com or Hotwire.com. On these sites, consumers are able to compare prices to find the lowest available on for the items they are looking for. Online auctions are one of the best-known formats. Who hasn't heard of - or used - Ebay.com, where buyers are able to bid on the items listed there by different sellers.

How Internet Marketing has Affected Industries

Clearly, the advent Internet marketing has tremendously impacted many industries. Banks, flea markets, and the music and advertising industries have found themselves forced to change with the times. Consumers of music, for example, have transitioned largely to buying and also downloading music over the Internet rather than going to stores and buying the CDs themselves. Of course many in the music industry have tried to turn this to their advantage by offering select songs for free and selling the CDs themselves over the internet. New artists, in particular, have used this medium to introduce new consumers to their music without having to wait for the often elusive record contract.

Likewise, Internet marketing has had a major impact on banking. Increasingly, banks are making it possible; and even simple; for customers to perform their banking online. Banking online is appealing because it can be so much easier than having to actually go to the bank. Over 50 million adults in the United States alone are now banking online. This has become the most rapidly expanding activity on the Internet.

As Internet auction sites have gotten more popular, flea markets have been fighting to survive. The kinds of items that once could only be found at a flea markets or garage sales are now easily found on the internet instead. Sites such as eBay have had an impact on the prices. Both sellers and buyers and sellers now tend to refer to prices online first. More and more sellers who previously used flea markets as their sales venue are now simply advertising their items online, which enable them to run their businesses from their own homes.

Finally, the advertising industry has found itself greatly affected. In just a few years, online advertising has developed into a market involving billions of dollars each year. In 2006, US Internet marketing spending was reported at $16.9 billion.

Clearly, Internet Marketing is the wave of the future. Those who learn to take advantage of it have the opportunity to ride it to success.