The age of E-commerce and internet marketing

Until the recent decade, the only thing that came to one’s mind when one thought of marketing was a commercial on the television or an ad in the newspaper or a billboard on the highway, but now the marketing efforts of the companies have been primarily targeted on the internet. Primarily because consumers today have very less time for the traditional means of marketing, they spend more time on the internet than all the other mediums put together. Website marketing, also known as internet marketing, refers to promotional activities over the internet. The principal difference between website marketing and any other type of marketing in the medium, the techniques of delivery might also vary, but that depends from product to product. There are several types of internet marketing as well; 1.Search engine marketing: Also known as SEM, it refers to promoting ones’ website through the use of search engines. When a prospective customer searches for a specific keyword the website shows up on the search engine’s result page, thus creating an opportunity for the company to make a sale. 2. Display Advertising: It is probably one of the most popular modes of advertising over the internet. It refers to banner ads placed on third party websites to direct traffic to your website. This can be done in two ways: by paying the other website for placing your ad or by placing their ad on your website in exchange of placement of your ad on their site. 3. Social Media Marketing: Social media has also proved to be great instrument for marketing, and the best example is facebook.com. The primary purpose of the website, for the user, is to socialize and connect with people, but in the process it creates a very productive platform for marketing. A large chunk of website marketing takes place through social media websites, such as facebook.com, twitter.com and myspace.com. The primary advantages of website marketing are that it is comparatively inexpensive and reaches out to a larger target audience for a lesser cost. In addition to being inexpensive, another important feature of web marketing is that is interactive; it is a two-way communication process rather than a traditional one-way process. The customer does not just see a commercial; instead he can respond to it. Most of the banner ads are linked to email addresses and customers can response there and then. A very important element for marketers is to conduct research and know the statistics of the market, and web marketing makes it a process of just a few clicks. Almost all the stats of a web marketing campaign can be recorded, traced and analyzed. It greatly increases the efficiency of the marketing efforts and decreases the time required and personnel needed to do this job. In addition to working as a medium for communication, web marketing also acts as reliable source of income for the websites which put banner ads on their pages. These banner ads are an integral part of the business model of many of the websites, including Google.com, Facebook.com, and Youtube.com etc. The ads shown on websites also may vary depending upon the nature of the website, for instance youtube.com does not usually have banner ads because banner ads have lower click-through rates. Instead they have developed a new kind of ads, which appear once someone plays a video. These ads grab more attention since they appear right in the middle of the video. Also they are more effective because they are not random ads; instead they pop up according to the choice of video that you play. If you search for digital camera videos, you are likely to see ads relating to camera equipment

Effectively managing your website is one of the most important processes if you are looking for internet success, especially in today’s online market. Website marketing is the ideal solution of bringing success to businesses of all sizes.