Mikes Blog Marketing Tips

That’s a fair question.  And believe it or not, one that has no definitive answer.  But basically, its the selling of a product or a service over the internet.  Internet marketing can take many forms, such as email marketing, search engine marketing and the like.  This type of marketing is unique in that it can provide immediate gratification to the purchaser, depending on the item purchased.  Digital media, for instance, can be immediately downloaded after payment is received.  Internet marketing encompasses several business models, the most common being, E-commerce,  the selling of a product or a service;  Publishing, the selling of advertisments;  Lead Generation,  bringing new prospects or leads for a particular company and finally, affiliate marketing, where companies pay a fee for every new affiliate generated by an existing affiliate.  Affiliate marketing is probably the best known of them all due to a plethora of affiliate marketing programs out there.  Amway, Tupperware, Mary Kay and Avon are all examples of some of the best known predominately off line affiliate marketing programs.  Online, you can find hundreds, if not thousands of different affiliate marketing programs, ranging from the selling of physical items to many forms of digital media, i.e. electronic books and software.  In fact, there’s an entire online marketing niche dedicated to selling different reports in PDF format.

In Search Marketing, the end user is typically alone, which enables the marketing messages to be received personally.  This type of marketing  is found on the results pages of the various search engines and are specifically targeted to the end user based on the search terms  they enter.  This enables advertisers to narrow their focus and target a market based on specific ‘keywords’ a user may enter.   As an example, if you were to type in the words “internet marketing” in a search engine, the ads you see will reflect or target that particular search term.  This approach is often referred to as the “One to One Approach”  because of the narrow focus of a particular search term.

Geo marketing, as it applies to internet marketing, focuses on marketing products or services that appeal to a specific group or a specific interest as opposed to a more broadly based demographic.  Marketers of all kinds are known to segment  markets based on a variety of factors, like age, gender, geography, just to mention a few.  However, unlike their periodical counterparts, internet marketers are not limited in scope to the demographic of the periodical and can use his/her knowledge of the product or service they may be offering to tailor and focus any advertising specifically to whatever demographic would be most interested in their offer.

Marketing a product or a service online is relatively inexpensive when compared with other types of marketing and can extend a marketers reach into the marketplace for a fraction of the costs associated with traditional marketing.  Consumers also benefit by being able to research products or services at their own convenience and thus, internet marketers have the advantage of a medium that has the potential to bring results very quickly.

Another benefit internet marketers enjoy is the ability to measure or track nearly all aspects of a campaign quickly, easily and inexpensively.  Pay for play, pay for click, pay for impression and pay for action are some of the methods an internet marketer can use to monitor a campaign.  Unlike more traditional advertising,  end users must complete an action like clicking on an ad, visiting a website or filling out an opt-in form enabling internet marketers to conduct market research and make necessary changes on the fly almost immediatly.

Of course, there are many other aspects of internet marketing which deal with security and technology, which while significant, do not pertain to us here as they relate to our subject.  Internet marketing is rapidly beginning to outpace other forms of traditional advertising, even as the global economy continues to reel from the effects of global recession and is the now and the future of the marketing industry in my humble opinion.  Easy access to free websites, free marketing tools and a wealth of information found online is beginning to level the playing field, enabling just about anyone to market a product or service effectively.

After it’s all said and done,  internet marketing will be a major part of the solution in this time of economic distress.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 8:49 am and is filed under blog marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.