What is Internet Marketing?

Internet Marketing

What is Internet Marketing?
Internet marketing (also known as e-marketing, web marketing or digital marketing) is a term that encompasses everything to market products and / or services online and, like many all-inclusive terms, also means internet marketing different things for different people.

Although the obvious goal of internet marketing is to sell goods, services, or internet advertising, it is not the only goal that an internet marketing company can have. A company can market online to send a message about themselves (build their brand) or do research. Online marketing can be a very effective way to identify a target market or to find out the desires and needs of a marketing segment. (Learn more about conducting market research).

However, Internet marketing essentially refers to the strategies used to market a product or service online. This includes:

• Strategies for website design
• Search engine optimization and search engine submission.
• Online Actions
• Mutual link
• spam
• Social media
• to blog
• Digital advertising
• Article Marketing
• Affiliate programs
• Video / podcasting

It's time for online marketing
If you are not using internet marketing to market your business, this should be the case. An online presence is crucial to help potential customers and the customer find their business, even if it is a small and local company. (In 2017, a third of all mobile searches were local, and local searches grew 50% faster than mobile searches in general.) Online are the eyeballs here, and your business should be here.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce. US consumers spent $ 453.46 billion on Internet retail in 2017, up 16.0 percent from $ 390.99 billion in 2016. Forrester predicts online sales here 2022 will account for 17% of all US retail sales. Digital advertising is also growing rapidly. According to Strategy Analytics, digital advertising grew by 12% in 2017, which is about 38% of total advertising spending or $ 207.44 billion.

This kind of growth explains why online marketers are constantly developing new internet marketing strategies to attract more visitors to their websites and offline businesses and to generate more sales.

How important is internet marketing?
In October 2018, almost 4.2 billion people were active Internet users and 3.4 billion were users of social networks (Statista). China, India and the USA are ahead of all other countries among Internet users. This gives the seller an unprecedented number of customers who can create offers for products and services around the clock, seven days a week. The interactivity of the Internet facilitates immediate communication between companies and consumers and enables companies to react quickly to consumer needs and market changes. "Everyone always has the Internet in their pockets, and that changes everything for small businesses" (Cory Capoccia, Forbes).

Online reviews have become one of the most important elements in consumer buying decisions in North America. According to a survey by Dimensional Research among more than 1,000 participants, 90% of those surveyed stated that positive online reviews influenced their purchasing decisions and 94% would use a company with at least four stars. Interestingly, negative reviews usually come from online review sites, while Facebook was the main source of positive reviews. Forrester Research predicts that by 2020, 42% of in-store sales will be generated by customers who are influenced by the search for web products.

Online journals have therefore become another form of internet marketing that small businesses cannot afford to ignore. Although many small businesses believe that there is nothing they can do for online reviews, it is not. By simply encouraging customers to review their experiences, small businesses can rate reviews online positively. 68 percent of consumers commented on a local business request.

The impact of social networks
According to Statistica, 76% of the American population. UU. It has at least one social network profile and the number of users of global social networks is to reach 2.95 billion by 2020 (of which 650 million in China alone). Facebook is by far the most dominant among social media platforms: At the end of the second quarter of 2018, Facebook had around 2.23 billion active users worldwide (Statistica). Mobile devices have become the dominant platform for using Facebook: 68% of the time spent on Facebook comes from mobile devices. Other popular social media platforms for marketing are WhatsApp, WeChat, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.

From an internet marketing perspective, social networks are becoming increasingly important. However, many companies are not sure whether the introduction of social media has improved the bottom line because it is difficult to relate social media marketing activities to an increase in sales. By Business 2 Community:

90% of adults ages 18 to 29 use social networks (compared to 35% of those over 65)
A third of millennials state that social networks are their preferred means of communication with companies.
84% of CEOs and VPs say they use social media to make buying decisions
The top 100 global brands have at least one YouTube corporate channel, and more than half (27 out of 50) of the CEOs of large global companies have appeared in a corporate video.
Despite the lack of action or lack of management involvement, the percentage of general marketing budgets spent on social media marketing is expected to increase from an average of 10% to almost 25% by 2021.

Put your business online
If you are new to internet marketing and want to connect online as quickly and inexpensively as possible, you can start with a social media platform like Facebook: you can create a Facebook company page in less than an hour. However, if you want more control over your online presence, a personalized website is more appropriate. Ideally, you should have a website and a social media presence, with each link pointing to the other.