Internet marketing has gained tremendous importance over the last decade mainly due to the explosion of people using the internet services and where there are large number people the companies are bound to advertise their product or service and that is the reason why internet marketing has been the buzzword in marketing fraternity. Internet marketing in simple words refers to marketing of goods and services over the internet, in order to understand more about internet marketing let’s look at some of the important features of internet marketing –
- The first and foremost feature of internet marketing is that its reach is worldwide and far greater than any other medium of advertising, so a local company situated in far flung area of India or china can market their products or services to consumers sitting in USA and Europe. Hence in a way the internet provides a truly global marketing platform where the sellers can sell their product or service anywhere they want.
- Another feature of internet marketing is that is that it gives many options to the buyers of the product because nowadays one can easily buy the product which is not available in his or her area from the internet without depending on anybody and also at reasonable price. Gone are the days when has to wait for any product to come to local store so as to buy it from there now one can order new product from village also and get it delivered within few days of launch and get the product on par with people living in metro or big cities.
- Cost effectiveness is another important characteristic of internet marketing because as far as the seller is concerned internet marketing is cheaper as compared to traditional sources of marketing like print media, television and so on. It is due to internet marketing that nowadays even small or micro companies are aggressively using this type of marketing to market their product or service. Hence in a way internet marketing has given a platform where small companies can compete with big companies.
- It helps in increasing consumer awareness about the product features and product price. So if you want to buy an LCD television then you can search on the internet about various brands of LCD available in the market and also see the LCD features and lowest price at which it is available online. Hence after researching on the internet when you go to store you can have bargaining power as you know fully about the features as well as the price of various LCD brands and hence in a way internet marketing indirectly helps the consumer in bargaining with local suppliers and sellers.
- Another feature of internet marketing is that results of it can be tracked much faster and more easily than other forms of advertising. So for example, if the seller has advertised his or her product on two different websites then one can easily track which website is sending more leads and how many of those leads are converting into real sales.
As one can see from the above that internet marketing has its own unique characteristics and in today’s digital environment it is a must have the weapon in the armory of the corporate marketing department.