Online Marketing And Selling

Marketing on the Internet is for the purposes of reaching out to potential customers in the form of advertising. Creativity such as designing, development and technical aspects such as marketing and advertising are required. Some of the different facets of Internet marketing include:

- Affiliate marketing,
- Email marketing,
- Search engine marketing,
- Interactive advertising,
- Sales,
- Public relations,
- Information management, and
- Customer service.

Ever since the Internet arrived, it has been widely used for all kinds of different purposes. As well as the advantages of Internet, it has also helped in doing business, shopping, etc, all from the comfort of your own home. Research shows that a quarter of Internet users actually shop online. The Internet has also assisted in the growth of electronic commerce, with Internet marketing being part of electronic commerce.

There are certain inspirations for Internet marketing that provide direct marketing techniques such as radio and television commercials, mails and newsletters. These involve direct response marketing strategies and are growing rapidly. There are two business models to which Internet marketing can be linked to:

- business-to-business, which is also known as B2B, and
- business-to-consumer, which is also known as B2C.

The first to begin, when Internet marketing originated, were B2C. They are companies that sell directly to the customers. B2B companies are designed to do business with each other.

There is a slight difference between run of the mill websites and those that are meant for Internet marketing. There are websites that are used to exchange products and services between each other, and these are called peer-to-peer modeled websites. There are then websites that are designed, whereby customers specify the price range that they can spend and select products that fall into that price bracket, and these are known as name-your-price websites. A good example of such a website is Priceline. A website whereby customers can find the lowest prices is known as find-the-best-model. And lastly, but certainly not least, are those online auction sites, whereby customers bid for certain items. Ebay is a good example of this.

Internet marketing is an advantage for those companies that use it. Unlike other traditional methods of marketing, companies do not need to use a large amount of energy or time in Internet marketing. National and international markets can be reached by using only a handful of resources. Due to very low investment, online marketing is being used by small businesses. For the purpose of this, websites and blogs have been developed. Customers can receive newsletters, and if by chance those newsletters do not contain the information that they require, they can simply search for their required information online. They can then proceed to make a decision and purchase the product or service online.

However, there are factors that hinder the growth of online marketing, and that is the delayed loading of the page. The consumers' patience will certainly be tested when downloading web pages. In addition to this, the speed will be reduced even more if the business design complex web pages include many graphics and animations. Another negative point to online marketing is that customers cannot feel, taste, smell or try products before making a decision to purchase them. This is the reason why many online stores have created liberal return policies, whereby customer satisfaction is guaranteed.

Identity theft is also another great threat of online shopping. When paying online using credit cards or e-checks, you are susceptible to hackers and information can be stolen and used. There have been many hackers and websites caught who were involved in buying and selling personal information. There are however, many websites that have taken great measures to incorporate good security on their websites. Encryption is one of the best methods. There is the possibility of a hacker intercepting data when it is being transferred between two computers. Therefore, the data is altered by applying an encryption algorithm as it is being sent through the network and when it is being received. It is then that a decryption algorithm is applied in order to bring the data back to its original form.

Many businesses are being influenced by online selling such as banking, advertising, music etc. Rather than taking a trip to the store to purchase cassettes and CDs, music can be purchased online. Bank transactions such as depositing, withdrawing, transferring funds and paying bills can all be performed online. There are billions of dollars invested each year solely for online advertising.

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