The Advantages of Online Marketing

Where is the first place you turn when you need information on products or services? – the Internet. That’s where your customers turn as well. So you need to be able to create an online presence that they will see and easily find when they need to find you. That’s why you need an internet marketing campaign.

In the past, when people would think about internet marketing, they think about banner ads and spam, but today it’s much more than that. Internet marketing encompasses a number of tactics and strategies and includes specific advantages for reaching your intended audience, potentially giving you some great ROI.

Advantages

1. Better targeting – one of the reasons internet marketing is so great is because it can get so granular. For just about every niche market you can think of, there is a website that exists to inform and connect people who are interested in that niche. Internet marketing is effective because you can specifically target your core audience.

2. Location based – not only can internet marketing specifically target your core demographic, but you can target potential customers based on location. You can set up banner ads or other advertisements that appear when a user visits a site from a specific location. Also, did you know that 86% of users who search for local service online follow up with a call or location visit? And 61% of those will purchase from local vendors. If you use Google local search as part of your online marketing efforts, you can optimize your business for local search results so potential customers in your area can find you more easily.

3. Lower cost – online marketing comes at a fraction of the cost of other advertising solutions, like billboards, print ads, and television commercials and it can reach a more targeted audience.

4. Global reach – other forms of advertising, like print and television, can only reach customers in a certain city, state, or country. But online marketing is global. If you have a global business, online marketing can provide you with the reach you need to communicate with customers all over the world at a fraction of the price of other advertising solutions.

5. Trackable – with traditional media, you’ll never know how many people looked at your newspaper ad or how many listened to your radio commercial—and you won’t know exactly how many of those decided to purchase your products and services based on those efforts. Online marketing allows you to track just about everything. You can track how many people saw your advertisement, how many clicked it, how many purchased your products as a result, and more. Not only does this give you valuable data and feedback for future campaigns, but it holds online marketers accountable for their efforts.

Disadvantages

1. The Internet has limitations – clearly, if you focus all your efforts on online marketing, you will inevitably miss a segment of the population that is not internet savvy or does not have regular access to the internet. But considering that roughly 80% of the US population has internet access, chances are you’ll be able to target any demographic or niche through online marketing.

2. Lack of the physical – the other disadvantage that internet marketing has is a lack of physical display or demonstration. If your product is something that needs to be felt, touched, smelled, or tasted, internet marketing can hold some disadvantages, but these disadvantages are easily overcome through great website copy, videos, testimonials and more.

Takeaways

Overall, internet marketing holds major advantages for just about any product or service whether it is a local shop or a global brand. And since the cost of internet marketing is much lower than the cost of traditional media advertising, maybe it’s time for you to give it a try and find out for yourself how online marketing can benefit your business.