Internet Marketing information

Internet marketing is also known as web marketing, online marketing, or eMarketing, and is the marketing of products or services using the Internet.

The Internet has added many unique sales benefits to marketing, one of which is lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a truly worldwide audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, offering instant response and encouraging rapid responses, is unique to the medium.

Internet marketing is often considered to have a wider scope than traditional marketing because it includes digital media such as the Internet, email, web banner advertising etc. However, Internet marketing also includes gathering digital customer data and developing customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Internet marketing brings together many of the creative and technical elements of the Internet, including design, development, visual creativity, advertising, and sales. Internet marketing does not simply cover building or promoting a website, nor does it simply mean placing a banner advertisement on a website.

Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive integrated marketing strategy that emphasises a company's business targets and sales goals with its website usage and appearance, focusing on its chosen target markets through the considered choice of advertising options, media, and design.

Internet marketing also means the carefully considered placement of media during the different stages of the customer engagement cycle, using methods such as search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimisation (SEO), banner advertising, email marketing, and web strategies. 

The Seven Ps of Marketing

As well as the traditional four Ps (Product, Pricing, Promotion and Placement), services marketing calls upon an extra three, making seven in total and they are known together as the extended marketing mix. These extra three are:

People: Any person coming into contact with customers will have an impact on overall satisfaction. Whether as part of a supporting service to a product or involved in a total service, people are very important because, in the customer's eyes, they are generally inseparable from the overall service . As a result of this, they must be appropriately trained, well motivated and the right type of person. Other customers are also sometimes referred to under 'people', as they too can affect the customer's service experience, (eg at a sporting event).

Process: This is the process involved in providing a service and the behaviour of the people involved, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction.

Physical evidence: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it an intangible item. This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive that there is a greater risk when deciding whether to use a service. To reduce this feeling of risk, and improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential cnew ustomers the chance to see what a service would be like. This is done by offering and providing physical evidence, such as case studies, testimonials or demonstrations.