Marketing is marketing whatever medium you use. Thus, the only difference between ‘traditional marketing’ and ‘internet marketing’ are the tools, strategies and of course the medium you use. In the internet’s case, more commonly referred now to as the web or web 2.0 – to add a bit of innovation in it, marketing is generally done through two primary methods; through online advertising via ads that appear on websites – and link back to the product/services website and through social networking – what collectively the act of using Facebook, Orkut, Hi5, Friendster, Ning, Myspace is known as.
Through these aforementioned methods, an ‘internet marketer‘ then promotes his/her service or product – since marketing is the promotion of a product or service. If the internet is used effectively, then it can prove to be quite and advantageous tool in that it can provide you with more exposure that a TV ad or a Billboard Ad. Why? How? You may ask these questions. Generally speaking, and as mentioned earlier, your marketing leads back to your website – from where an interested individual can acquire in depth information on what you were initially marketing as well as, in essence, get more information about your other services or products – in case you are offering multiple services/products. Why is is this useful? Think about it.
A TV ad runs for about 20 seconds. The information is dynamic and you cant exactly look at it at will – since you don’t know what ad will be run at what time. Plus, TV ads generally waste your time – and you tend to ignore them. On the other, a web based ad can be browsed at will. You can bookmark (‘Add to Favorites’) the website of the ad and you can then visit it at will.
Additionally, a website has more comprehensive information available – and in cases where the marketers are professional – it will have videos, pictures and what not in it. This is in essence a combination of TV, Newspaper and Billboard ads. But, possibly, the most crucial factor is that a website costs little compared to these other more conventional means. A website can be changed at will – and can be updated as the speed of light (which depends on your internet connection – the marketer). Generally, several firms tend specialize in this area and offer to do the whole amount of work for you. All you have to do is keep in touch with the firm – and inform them of what updates are to be made.
Thus a website is more cost effective. Alas, it all depends on how, what, why and when you do it (wherein it refers to the act of internet marketing). Just as conventional marketing has its ups and downs, so does internet marketing. It isnt a ‘I woke up in the morning and did it’ sort of work that anybody can do – in fact the web is an industry in itself (contrary to common beliefs) and it has its own professionals who specialize in each aspect of the delicate procedure known as internet marketing. Additionally, the web is highly dynamic and changes at quite a high rate – you may never know wether the strategies and tools that work today may stop functioning tomorrow!
