subject: Internet Marketing: More Than Just A Trend [print this page] In the last decade, we have witnessed several trends in marketing, Internet Marketing commonly referred as On-line Marketing is one of it. Internet Marketing is not mere a trend that companies follow to promote themselves and their products. Today, it is much more than just a trend, it has become the necessity for the companies to maintain the competitive edge as the traditional way of offline marketing is not enough. Internet platform has become as important for branding & promotion as any other platform especially due to of its vast geographical-reach. Thence the companies are spending fortune to promote themselves on internet.
For companies while exercising Internet Marketing, the first thing that comes under the consideration is the creation of unique digital portfolio. The unique digital portfolio may include a website, blog, social network accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. and these help to create a unique digital identity for any company or product that is further used for marketing & promotion. Nowadays, every company big or small has its website. But, this creates swarming of the sites on internet. In the desire to stand out the crowd companies hire professionals to create such key words which make them easy to identify & provide better place in the navigation list of the various search engines. This site optimization simplifies the navigation process for the companies to reach the end-user.
The best characteristic of the Internet Marketing is its two-way communication feature. In the present era, customers' awareness level is quite high and they have their individual opinion about the products and companies. The internet marketing provide an ample opportunity to the customers to give their feedback and comments on any company or product. The successful companies always strategize to monitor the digital landscape, listen to the customer voice and actively engage with customers to maintain an edge over others.
Internet Marketing itself has vast arena which includes social marketing. Companies are opting social network as an important tool to promote and create awareness among the masses because of its cost-efficiency. The social networking is free whether for companies or for individuals. Online communities are now everywhere there is access and common objectives. Even social networks have interconnected themselves pushing and pulling content across various channels providing a leverage to the companies for free promotion.
Internet Marketing today is not only confined to internet it includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems are also often grouped together under internet marketing.
Mobile Marketing is equally getting popular as an important medium to reach the customers. It is not a one-hit wonder, but rather a robust pyramid comprised of several layers such as SMS, WAP sites, mobile applications etc. that individually and collectively can elevate a brand's awareness and drive positive consumer action.
Like everything else, Internet Marketing has several myths attached to it. In marketing a lot of the ideas are good ones, but once lots of people start using them then they no longer serve to make the business stand out. In reality very few marketers are capable of putting together a winning campaign and making money on the Internet takes effort, knowledge, money, and time.
