Why is Internet Marketing Important?

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Before explaining why internet marketing is important, one must know the definition of Internet Marketing.  Wikipedia defines Internet Marketing as

“the marketing of products or services over the Internet.”

  Prior to the Internet, traditional marketing techniques included Advertising, Sales and Public Relations in the form of Outbound Marketing.  More specifically, marketers seem to use the following techniques to fill the top of the sales pipeline:

•    Trade Shows
•    Hiring Interns to generate Lead Lists
•    Outsourced Telemarketing Campaigns
•    Email Blasts
•    Cold Calling

Sound familiar?  Not only are these marketing strategies interruption-based and costly, but they are becoming increasingly less effective.  Why are these marketing techniques becoming less effective?  One reason – over time, and with the help of new technology, humans have gotten better at blocking out the proverbial noise.  Advances in technology that have helped us block out interruptions include but are not limited to Digital Video Recording, Caller-Identification and Email Spam-Filtering.    Another reason – Cost!  The cost associated with traveling to trade shows, buying lists, hiring employees to generate lists is expensive!

Enter the Internet and Search Engines.  Search Engines have quickly become the medium which humans use to find answers to their questions, find services that solve their problems/inefficiencies, and find products that satisfy their needs.   According to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm – World Internet Users as of December 31, 2008 is 1.58 Billion People.  Marketers, Entrepreneurs and Business Owners should consider using the Internet to have the 1.58 Billion internet users find their products/services rather than spending heavily to ultimately interrupt potential customers and get less than optimal results.

Let’s do some math.  If there are 1 Billion internet users and 1% of them are interested in my product, then I have 10 Million people in the world that I need to reach on the internet.  Out of those 10 Million people interested in my product, if 1% find my website that would be 100,000 people found my product.  If 1% of the 100,000 people bought my product, at $10/unit, then I would earn $100,000 in Revenue ([.01*100,000]*10=100,000).  Not bad.

As time goes on, humans will continue to find better ways to block out interruption-based marketing methods and smart businesses will leverage Internet marketing strategies to stand out amongst their competitors to get found by their prospects.  Would you like to get found by your customers?  Join me next time when I write about Internet Marketing Strategies.