Internet marketing involves sellers who persuade customers to purchase their goods and services through the World Wide Web. This persuasion is done by displaying media stuffing that include search engines, banner advertisements and electronic mail marketing. Customers need to be pulled rather than be pushed. Conventional media such as radio, magazines, and television tend to push advertisements to customers without any form of interactivity. On the other hand, the World Wide Web provides users with opportunity to select the site they would like to visit. In this sense, companies have embraced the internet as a marketing tool.
Internet marketing has been adopted by many organizations due to its efficiency in delivering message to intended customers within the shortest time possible. Advancement in technology that has been witnessed in the recent past has drawn many people to the use of internet not only for communicating but also to do business.
The emergence of software that help in detecting the physical location of an internet user has enabled dealers to narrow their intended customers in order to increase chances of reaching them. This is because advertising at random may not convey the message to people who need specific services and items. Sellers are able to specify their intended customers depending on their sex, age, state and other categories where necessary. It is perceived that customer requirements vary depending on their gender, age and location.
First and foremost males and females have different interests thus internet sellers should watch what they intend to introduce to both sexes because they may not match. Females usually refer to the internet for learning purposes whereas males use the internet to mingle with their pals and also for leisure purposes such as downloading movies and music. This information is useful to internet sellers because it helps them identify the most convenient web spots for their advertisement that is mostly preferred by people of a particular sex.
Business on the internet follows a particular trend based on friendship which then is extended to doing business. It is advisable to establish friendships on the internet because the very same friends will turn in to be regular customers. This can be done by driving conversations through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, thus giving customers the opportunity to such for specific products and consequently pull them to a company’s products.
Sellers should not insist so much on selling their services and commodities in their first encounter with a potential customer. They should seek to familiarize themselves with their newly acquired friends and should not drop the issue of doing business until the time is ripe for them to do so.
Internet sellers should keep in touch with these friends regularly and as time moves by they can introduce them to their services and items because by now the said friend has developed a sense of trust and confidence towards them due to the regular mingling between the two concerned parties.
Thus, it is important for internet marketers to withhold their interest. For instance if an internet business executive sends an email with details about his or her business prospects to a new friend without the consent of the intended recipient it might result in termination of friendship because the recipient might feel he or she is being monitored. For friendship to be fruitful it has to be well taken care of; hence sellers should listen to their potential customers to know their interests which can be used to determine what products might best suit them.
The internet presents many advantages that can be experienced by advertisers which are non existent to people who advertise their products and services offline. Organizations and individuals are considering sensitizing their potential customers about their products and services through the internet because it is cheaper in the long run. This is owing to the fact that advertisements can be rephrased as opposed to offline which require advertisers to design a new presentation from the scratch if the current one is not satisfactory. This means that the advertiser has to pay more money for the amendments to be applied because offline advertisements are very laborious in designing them.
Marketers should design an Internet marketing strategy that can be able to drive web sites that sell. In internet advertising if the owner of a given advert wishes to add more contents or erase some information contained in an advert corrections are done swiftly at the click of a button because its only a matter of typing or deleting text.
In the World Wide Web, the advertisers can monitor the progress of their advert by looking at the number of people who have actually responded to their advert. It is possible to identify respondents of a given advert and the exact time that they did so. In traditional advertising, monitoring consumers’ response is very demanding because it relies on calls that are made on inquiries pertaining a given product or service.
The Internet provides many vectors that are reliable in conveying advertiser’s message as opposed to offline advertisement which is limited to television, radio, newspapers and magazines. These vectors include blogs, audio, social networks, emails, videos and journals. These vectors allow potential customers to give their opinions and make inquiries instantly which can help an advertiser to understand the needs of his or her customers. Securing a possible sale is very fast online because the process of buying and selling is computerized hence there are no papers involved.
Social websites provides a pool of potential customers thus advertisers should consider exhibiting their products and services in these sites. The sites include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace which are very popular among people of all ages. Politicians such as Barrack Obama has proved the effectiveness of advertising using these social websites and since his success story, other people are following his foot steps.
Joining social sites does not guarantee that sales will increase within two days therefore once one has become a member of a social site he or she has to stick around for his efforts to be realized. Being on and off the social site means one is not entirely concerned with pulling potential customers.
One of the major requirements in internet marketing is to have a web portal that attracts the attention of users. This means that even if a website is featured as a sponsored link it will be very appealing to customers. It is certain the growth of a web portal can be enhanced by promoting search engine marketing and paid per click. PPC involves paying internet users who respond to ones activities online.
If an individual or an organization can not socialize on the internet it is better to hire somebody who can establish friendship with the customers on behalf of the individual or the organization. A business portal on the internet should be much customized to meet the various demands of customers. This means that a business web site should provide customers with several options when they want to purchase items listed on the web page. For instance, there should be several modes of payment because customers have different tastes and whereas one mode of payment may be convenient to a particular shopper it might inconvenience another customer at the same time.
Research has indicated that customers may be willing to purchase an item listed on the website but then they may be discouraged by the available modes of payment because they don’t apply in their geographical location. Currently there are several major modes of payment, which include bank wire transfer and PayPal among many others. Most people prefer to pay the purchase of services and items through bank wire transfer because it’s very first hence more reliable. The layout of the website should reflect the personality of the person or the organization that owns.
People judge a website not by its attractiveness but the contents that are presented. People prefer to shop from virtual shops that are known hence it is good to list testimonials from previous customers. If the testimonials are from public figures such as prominent musicians the better it is for the advertiser.
People trust websites that have a valid telephone number of the owner because they know incase something goes wrong there is someone to attend to their problem. The telephone contacts should be complimented by physical addresses. By limiting contact details available on the internet the advertiser implies that he or she does not care what happens after a sale has been closed hence customers tend to ignore such sites.
In essence, through internet marketing, companies have been able to pull customers towards their products and services; with a lot of finances placed on internet strategies. Great products, reliable web site, and strong marketing strategy are the major components of successful internet marketing strategy.
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