Search Engine Marketing - PPC Management Services

Internet Promotion - Advantages and Disadvantages

The emergence of globalise trade, increase in foreign investment and cross-border transactions have put many small businesses under pressure to find innovative ways to continue to market their products and services. This is especially difficult given that they often operate on tight marketing budgets.

In the quest for cheap marketing alternatives, these small businesses continue to use conventional marketing tools such as newspaper, magazine, radio and television advertisements, unaware of the advantages that Internet Promotion offers. All too often, these entrepreneurs focus on the disadvantages of Internet Promotion and fail to adequately take advantage of the opportunities that it presents. Moreover, their preoccupation with conventional marketing strategies is driven by a misconception that these are cheaper than Internet Promotion.

To most small business entrepreneurs, marketing or promoting their products or services via the Internet can be a daunting task. However, with adequate information small businesses can benefit significantly from Internet Promotion while minimising the disadvantages that it presents. In fact, it may prove to be the marketing strategy that generates the highest return on investment.

The Advantages

Cost Effective and Enduring Marketing Strategies

The Internet has become the information superhighway for the buying public. Most persons prefer the hassle free transactions that Internet shopping can offer. As a result, the Internet has become the most powerful selling tool. Internet Promotion offers cost effective ways for small businesses to enhance their product or service distribution networks. For example, the use of portals can help create new marketing channels and logistics, or provide better or faster product access for customers.

In comparison to other forms of marketing, Internet Promotion presents the advantage of reduced budget and storage costs, when compared with printing brochures, producing television or radio advertisements or managing a call centre. It presents a fast and cost effective option for penetrating new markets.

Market Penetration

With millions of person using the Internet to search for products and services, small businesses can penetrate other markets at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods.

Websites act as virtual storefronts, allowing businesses to stay open 24/7. Internet Promotion gives a business greater visibility, thereby creating more opportunities for increasing its customers at relatively low cost. Never before has it been easier for an upstart business to be able to reach out to literally millions of potential customers and to position themselves for success, without the need for costly infrastructure and overwhelming marketing costs. Thanks to the Internet, new businesses can become popular almost overnight.

Low Cost, Instant Communication

Email makes business communications instant, whether the customer or business affiliate is across the street or across the globe. It makes it easier for customers to maintain contact and readily facilitates repeat purchasing. An effective online strategy can therefore turn a small web business into a virtual cost saver and income-generating machine. The net result is that the small business can gain significant competitive advantage in a given market.

Many online businesses have therefore resorted to the use of ezines, blogs, pop-up ads and other online marketing tools to let customers know about new products or services as well as provide information relevant to their respective industry. The benefits of this strategy are two fold. Marketers can effectively heighten brand awareness for relatively new products on the market whilst strengthening customer relationships, with shorter time frames.

Content is Timeless

Internet Promotion also provides the advantage of being enduring. Whereas participation at a trade fair or conference loses sales impact, once it is over, and an advertisement in a newspaper or business magazine may quickly lose its sales generating value within a day or two or as soon as the next issue is released; Internet Promotion is often timeless. Apart from the dates and sometimes prices, much of your website content remains valid years after.

Real Time Statistics For Measuring Success of Promotion Campaign

One of the most significant advantages of Internet Promotion is that its success is measurable. Marketers can use tools that provide real time statistics, on unique visitors, repeat visitors, click through rates (CTR) on advertisements, thereby allowing them to evaluate the effectiveness of a promotion campaign. This enables marketers to determine what works for their particular market and to make timely changes in their marketing strategies.

Time Saving

Another important advantage of Internet Promotion is that it saves time since it generally does away with counselling on product uses and benefits, service information and sales administration. Visitors can access "frequently asked questions" to help themselves, and can buy online, without the involvement of staff. This saves time and money. So, whether 10 or 10,000 visitors visit the site, the increased cost is marginal whilst the savings can be immense.

But like any business approach, Internet Promotion is not without its risks and weaknesses.

Disadvantages

Difficulty in Attracting Customers

Small business may not have the resources to pay for paid directory inclusion, pay per click inclusions and often have to rely solely on search engine optimisation or word of mouth to drive traffic to their sites. With millions of businesses selling the same product and services, competing with more established businesses can be frustrating and costly venture for small business.

On the other hand, larger companies can offer promotions, pay for directory inclusions, implement pay per click campaigns as well as employ the "who is who" in internet marketing to develop campaigns that generate traffic and leads.

Difficulty in Evaluating Legitimacy of Transaction

Another notable disadvantage of doing promoting businesses online is that it may be difficult for the businesspersons and consumers to thoroughly evaluate the legitimacy of a transaction. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to thieves using stolen credit cards and stolen information to do online transaction.

With Internet credit card and identity fraud on the rise, small businesses are forced to finance costly security measures to reduce their vulnerability to fraudulent transactions.

Salespersons and Customers are Isolated

Another disadvantage of promotion via the Internet is that the customers and businesspersons are isolated. There is little personal contact between customer and salesperson prior to and after the sales is closed. Thus, the prospect for repeat sales may thus be diminished. Entrepreneurs are therefore compelled to adopt marketing strategies to drive online users back to their site.

From all indications, it appears that the advantages of Internet promotion, far exceed the disadvantages. With adequate knowledge, entrepreneur can benefit significantly from Internet promotion, especially small business owners.

More and more, the growth and outreach of the Internet's, its ease and accessibility for customers is becoming inevitable. Small business would therefore be well advised to start their web advertising function in order to improve their competitiveness online.

Carla Lendor has been involved in Internet Marketing from 2000. She is a co-publisher of eXplosion!, a newsletter which offers guidance to small online businesses. She is the co-founder of http://www.talkcsme.blogspot.com, a blog with discusses the challenges faced by Caribbean businesses in the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) environment. Visit http://www.patantconsult.com for more information.

MORE ARTICLES:

New Investor Education Newsletter, ?The Warrant Report? from PreciousMetalsWarrants.com, the Internet Leader in Investor Education
Dudley Pierce Baker is once again breaking new ground in bringing information to the novice investor and the most seasoned analyst alike with the introduction of the free newsletter "The Warrant Report"

SEO and Internet Marketing
A critical element of any Internet marketing strategy is search engine optimization or SEO. So much can be gained from SEO in terms of Internet marketing and advertising and that is why it is so important to use these strategies. A considerable loss in terms of free advertising which is essentially gained from ranking well with search engines if you fail to optimize your website for search engines. Some insight into SEO follows and will explain why Internet marketing requires at least some degree of SEO.

New Marketing Podcast Targets Social Networking for a Consumer Perspective
Leo Burnett and WebmasterRadio.FM present "The Future of Marketing in the Eyes of the Consumer." Addressing social networking and a changing consumer perspective, the September 13th Internet radio show asks, "Shouldn't we just call consumers people in the first place?"

New Web Site from SDP/SI Makes It Easier to Buy Over 100,000 Mechanical Components Online
A newly redesigned Web site from SDP/SI makes it easier to buy over 100,000 mechanical components online. The new site features the ability to request 8 comprehensive product catalogs plus a CD-ROM for free delivery, via mail, for individuals anywhere in North America.

Document Imaging Services are an Alternative to Buying Expensive Equipment
To explore document imaging services, you should first understand what document imaging can achieve.

ITBrix Launches a New Enterprise 2.0 Web Publishing, Collaboration and Content Management Solution Called WordFrame Community Platform v1.0
ITBrix has now launched its version of the platform branded as WordFrame Community, an enterprise 2.0 solution combining blogs, wikis, social networking, RSS feed aggregation and online file management. It is aimed at the general market as a start, with pricing and functionality improvements to suit small and medium enterprises. As well as covering the group collaboration functionality of the current product, ITBrix plans to functionally and graphically enhance WordFrame to accommodate the increased demand for Social Media Platforms that can be managed and maintained by the users themselves.

7 Great Reasons To Get A Company Logo
CREATING A POSITIVE BUSINESS IDENTITY

Faraci Lange, LLP Spins off Selected Legal Services to Form Second Firm
Faraci Lange, LLP, (www.faraci.com) one of the region's oldest and most respected personal injury law firms, is pleased to announce the formation of a new law firm, Moyer, Russi & Randall, LLP. The new firm will take over the administration of the firm's legal service plan business (employee legal benefits paid by employers) as well as provide general practice legal services to clients.

Contextual Advertising - The Popular Internet Marketing Option
There are different faces of Internet Marketing. Advertisers generally use the most relevant and beneficial advertising program to get maximum possible revenue or traffic onto their websites. Contextual advertising is a part of affiliate marketing programs, which is very much popular and widely used on websites these days.

The Benefits of Hiring a Moving Company
It is estimated that some 4 million American citizens move home every year For many of these people the task of packing the furniture and personal belongings and beginning the tedious task of loading the car time after time and driving backwards and forwards can become exceedingly laborious and time consuming

Creating A Professional Image While Working From Home
While working from home can afford you the luxury to work at home in your pajamas, I wouldn?t necessarily recommend it. It may be nice to sit with your feet on the desk, munching on Twinkies, and twirling the cord while you speak with your client on the phone, but it?s not very professional.

Internet Marketing Home Business Opportunities ? Starting Out With Affiliate Program Providers
If you are a beginner to internet marketing and don?t have a lot of money to start, a great way to start is to do affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing? It is simply partnering up with another site selling there products and collecting a commission on every sale you make. I know you might be saying why should you do all this work to sell someone else?s product. Well as a newcomer this will allow you time to learn about internet marketing while still making some money.

Information on the Best Tutoring Services and Opportunities
Advice on the Best Tutoring Services and Opportunities

The Secret to Reliable Computer Networking Services
Did you know that you can reduce your company expenditures by one-third simply by investing in reliable computer networking services? Think about how nice it would be to have extra time and money to invest in innovative projects that move your business forward, rather than having to allocate those valuable resources to cleaning up messes along the way. Just imagine being able to execute innovative business models, new marketing campaigns, and focus on cultivating business relationships, rather than throwing away such valuable resources on IT infrastructure problems that recur over and over. Besides, your computer network support team is supposed to be a revenue-generating asset, not a resource-draining burden.

Macon Marketing Group Acquires 50,000,000 Iraqi Dinars Held at Warka Bank
Macon Marketing Group, Inc. Speculation Investment Portfolio Acquires 55,000,000.00 IQD (New Iraqi Dinars) divided equally between dinar denominated bank accounts and dinar denominated securities at the ISX Exchange mostly held at Warka Bank for Investment and Finance, a Baghdad-based Bank. Also, 35,000,000.00 VND were added to the portfolio.