What is Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing refers to marketing that occurs only online. In other words, marketing efforts that businesses do solely over the Internet. Internet marketing involves several methods to drive traffic to the advertiser’s website.
It also includes marketing efforts to drive traffic to websites where consumers can purchase the advertiser’s products.
Table of Content
Digital marketing is similar, but also includes some non–Internet electronic marketing. Marketing over the Internet is a rapidly growing business as people use Internet daily and more often. It is also expanding rapidly because more people are purchasing goods and services online.
Although the aims of traditional marketing and online marketing are the same, marketers’ actions are quite different. Before the advent of the Internet, marketing moved at a much slower pace than it does today.
Internet marketing – SEO
SEO, is Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of getting more internet traffic. Specifically, getting more traffic because a website is good rather than paying for it. With a successful SEO strategy, a website’s ranking with search engines improves in Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Bing.
They have primary search results, where web–pages and other content are ranked according to what they consider most relevant to users. Other content includes videos or local listings. SEO comes under the field of internet marketing. It involves improving a website rather than selling more products.
Online Advertising
Online advertising has been around for more than two decades. It forms part of Internet marketing and refers to using websites and other online venues as an advertising medium. In other words, online advertising means advertisements on the Internet.
Advertisers place promotional messages on the screens of smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and televisions. We refer to televisions with internet access as ‘Smart TVs.’ We also use the terms web advertising, digital advertising, online marketing, and Internet advertising with the same meaning as online advertising. “
A major advantage of online advertising is the quick promotion of product information without geographical boundary limits.” “A major challenge is the evolving field of interactive advertising, which poses new challenges for online advertisers.”
The adverts may also appear in mobile apps, i.e., apps people have in their smartphones. The Internet has changed the way we work, learn, interact with others, shop, and have fun. It has also changed the way marketing people work.
Advertising channels – ‘places’ or locations where advertisements appear are :
Text ads
A text ad consists of some written text with a hyperlink. If clicked on the hyperlink or link, it will go to specific website – called web– page the advertiser’s landing page. Text ads generally appear within the texts of blog posts. For E.g. – Online news articles may have text ads. A text ad may also appear on its own, i.e., as a stand–alone piece of text.
Display ads
Display ads appear next to online content. They may, for example, appear next to a news article. Display ads are common in web– pages, apps, and emails.
Banner ads appear prominently on web–pages. In the early days of Internet marketing, they were extremely popular than today as advertisers overused banner ads. In other words, banner ads lost much of their effectiveness because advertisers overused them.
Native ads
Native ads are subtle pieces of writing that look like part of the online text. They may look like, for example, part of a news article. However, they are paid ads that the advertiser places. On most blogs, the native ad has an indication that it is an ad. Next to the text, for example , one can see the phrase Sponsor’s Message
Affiliate links : Affiliate links are specific Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) that have the affiliate’s username or ID. An advertiser typically uses affiliate links to record traffic from promotional campaigns.
In affiliate marketing, advertisers recruit affiliates to sell their products or services online. They also recruit affiliates to send leads to them. ‘Leads’ means potential buyers. There is a difference between URL and Domain Name. A domain name is part of a URL.
E.g. :
{– – –Domain Name– –}
http://www.xxyyzz.com/domain–names/online/index.xhtml
In–app ads \
These advertisements appear in software apps. They may appear in the form of display ads, text ads, or native ads. Advertisers may also use a combination. Over the past five years, this type of Internet marketing approach has become increasingly more popular.
Video ads
Before watching a video footage online, we may have to sit through a ten–twenty second ad. Online video ads are more advantageous than TV ads for advertisers because they can monitor their effectiveness more easily. When somebody has watched a TV ad, the advertiser is unaware about it. On the other hand, with online video ads the advertiser knows when the viewer has clicked on it.
If the person has clicked on the ad, the advertiser knows whether they bought anything. The advertiser also knows how long the viewer remained on the landing page. Having more data about consumer behaviour is one of the main differences between Internet marketing and traditional marketing. With Internet marketing, you have much more data.
Email ads
An email ad may appear either as a display ad, native ad, or text ad. For the promoter of the product, having a direct line of communication with specific individuals is great. That is why, in the world of Internet marketing, email advertising is the most effective form of advertising there is.
Social media marketing is a powerful way for businesses of all sizes to reach prospects and customers. If the customers are already interacting with brands through social media, and if there is no interaction directly with audience through social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, then the business is surely missing out something useful.
Great marketing on social media can bring remarkable success to the business, creating devoted brand advocates and even driving leads and sales.
Social Media Marketing, is a form of internet marketing that involves creating and sharing content on social media networks in order to achieve marketing and branding goals.
Social media marketing includes activities like posting text and image updates, videos, and other content that drives audience engagement, as well as paid social media advertising.
Social Media Marketing can help meet Marketing Goals :
- Increasing website traffic
- Building conversions
- Raising brand awareness
- Creating a brand identity and positive brand association
- Improving communication and interaction with key audiences
The bigger and more engaged your audience is on social media networks, the easier it will be to achieve marketing goals. How to choose the Best Social Media Platforms for Marketing Social media should be used for marketing according to each platform’s unique user base and environment.
Facebook’s casual, friendly environment requires an active social media marketing strategy – starting with creating a Facebook Business Fan Page. Special attention is to be given to layout, as the visual component is a key aspect of the Facebook experience.
Pinterest is one of the fastest growing social media marketing trends. Pinterest’s image–centred platform is ideal for retail, but anyone can benefit from using Pinterest for social media purposes or sales–driving ads.
Pinterest allows businesses to showcase their product offerings while also developing brand personality with eye–catching, unique pin boards. When developing Pinterest strategy, it is to be remember that the social network’s primary audience is female.
Twitter lets broadcast the updates across the web. Mix up of official tweets about specials, discounts, and news with fun, can do wonders with brand–building. One has to be sure to retweet when a customer has something nice to say.
LinkedIn is one of the more professional social media marketing sites. LinkedIn Groups is a great place for entering into a professional dialog with people in similar industries and provides a place to share content with like–minded individuals. It’s also great for posting jobs and general employee networking.
YouTube is the number one place for creating and sharing video content, and it can also be an incredibly powerful social media marketing tool. Many businesses create video content with the aim of having their video “go viral.”
Blog Marketing
A weblog, also called a blog, is a journal that is maintained by a blogger and contains information that is instantly published to their blog website. Blogging is a very popular activity. The number of online users creating and maintaining blogs continues to increase dramatically.
The number Internet users who read these blogs has also shot up, with some blogs boasting thousands, even millions of daily dedicated readers. Blog marketing is any process that publicises or advertises a website, business, brand or service via the medium of blogs.
This includes, but is not limited to marketing via ads placed on blogs, recommendations and reviews by the blogger, promotion via entries on third party blogs and information across multiple blogs.
Blog Advertising
Ads on blogs can be in the form of banners, text links, streaming video, audio clips, flash animation and even plain text. Most blog– based advertising involves payment in some way or the other to the blog owner. Owners of popular blogs will typically capitalise on their readership numbers via a combination of ad formats and Google AdSense ads.
A recommendation from a trusted blogger can result in considerably higher sales. Trusted figures in industry, popular product reviewers and critics often maintain blogs where they provide information about their experiences with some products and services.
Readers tend to trust these reviewers and critics more as they are often unbiased. Businesses, however, do pay popular bloggers to review or mention their products.
Advantages of Blog Marketing
- New content : to draw people, and offer a way for consumers and businesses to interact.
- Inexpensive to Start and Run : only the cost of a domain name and web hosting.
- Easy to Use : many a times it is just copy, paste, type, drag and drop, and upload.
- Builds Website Traffic : Offering tips, updates, and other new content
- Improves Search Engine Ranking : Google, in particular, likes to find and rank new content. For that reason, many entrepreneurs use blogging specifically for SEO.
Disadvantages of Blog Marketing
- Can Be Time–Consuming : creating new content and updating.
- Needs a Constant Stream of Ideas : thinking of new content ideas.
- It Can Take Time to See Results : it will not necessarily get traffic immediately.
- It Needs to Be Marketed Too : for it to work, people need to know about it, which means one has to find target market and lure them to the blog.
Social media influencer marketplace can be split into four categories : Mega–influencers, Macro–influencers, Micro–influencers and Nano– influencers.
Mega–Influencer
Mega–influencers are the highest–ranking category of social media influencer, they typically have more than a million followers. They often have a very diverse audience with different topics of interest. Their relationships with the individual members of their followership tend to be more distant.
They are not necessarily subject matter experts but they definitely provide a lot of reach in one hit. In having a substantially large following, mega–influencers provide brands with a notably greater reach, but at a very high cost. Mega influencers do not have real converting influencer power.
Macro–Influencer : Macro–influencers are a level down from mega–influencers. Macro– influencer followers’ count is between 100,000 and one million followers. Macro–influencers usually gained fame through the internet itself – through blogging, or by producing funny or inspiring content. If there is specific type of customer, but still want to reach the masses, then a macro–influencer might be more useful than a mega– influencer.
Macro–Influencer
Macro–influencers are a level down from mega–influencers. Macro– influencer followers’ count is between 100,000 and one million followers. Macro–influencers usually gained fame through the internet itself – through blogging, or by producing funny or inspiring content. If there is specific type of customer, but still want to reach the masses, then a macro–influencer might be more useful than a mega– influencer.
Micro–Influencer
A micro–influencer is someone who has between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. Micro–influencers focus on a specific niche or area and are generally regarded as an industry expert or topic specialist. Micro–influencers often cost far less than macro–influencers. At the same time, micro–influencers that have high levels of engagement, especially on Instagram, charge a hefty fee.
Micro–Influencer : A micro–influencer is someone who has between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. Micro–influencers focus on a specific niche or area and are generally regarded as an industry expert or topic specialist. Micro–influencers often cost far less than macro–influencers. At the same time, micro–influencers that have high levels of engagement, especially on Instagram, charge a hefty fee.
Nano–Influencer
Nano–influencers are a relatively new breed of influencer. They tend to have a smaller number of followers in comparison to micro– influencers, less than 1,000 followers. A nano–influencer is someone who has influence within their community, local neighbour–hood.