Forget Offline Marketing! Internet Marketing Is The Way To Go

According to the The Jack Myers Media Business Report online advertising budgets are set to increase by 24% in 2008 and then by a further 28.5% in 2009. The reason for this increase in spending is that companies are finding Internet marketing is delivering real results, while the success of offline marketing is oftentimes impossible to measure. Offline marketing can be like throwing money into an abyss, as they never know where the money is going and whether the marketing campaigns work.

There are so many reasons that companies are spending more on Internet Advertising than ever before and why they are turning their back on traditional forms of Advertising like Television, Print and Radio. The main reasons are as follows:

1. Internet Marketing is Trackable and Measurable

There is no excuse not to measure the effectiveness of your Internet Marketing campaigns; Google Analytics provides free software that allows companies to measure conversions on their websites very easily. For example, E-commerce businesses can see whether it is organic marketing, Google AdWords or affiliate marketing that is generating sales on their website. In turn, this allows the businesses to focus their online marketing activities and budgets on the areas that are delivering real results.

For more information about Google Analytics and web measurement:

• Web Analytics
• What's new in Google Analytics

Email marketing is one of the most trackable forms of online marketing. Businesses can see which customers opened their emails and whether or not they were interested in any of the products or messages it contained. Email marketing allows companies to track:

• Which customers opened the marketing email
• What they did when they opened it – e.g. did they click on any of the information to find out more

We can use a travel agent as an example of how a company can use email marketing to its full advantage. The travel agent sends out information about available holidays and deals to a potential customer base. They then use tracking tools to see which customers opened the email and what types of holidays they are the most interested in. They know which customers click on a link to a holiday destination like the USA, for example. They can then use this lead to follow up with a phone call or another email message talking specifically about special offers to this destination such as trips to Disney World in Florida or New York City.

2. Online Marketing can be far less expensive than offline advertising

In the past only the big corporations could afford large-scale worldwide advertising campaigns. The Internet has made it easy to reach customers around the world through the invention of Google advertising programmes like AdWords and AdSense which allows companies to limit their advertising budget to whatever amount they wish. With Internet Marketing, companies can target only the customer groups that they wish to promote their products to. This targeted approach makes sense, as it is aimed directly at their audience and should also save them money.

3. Budgets can be managed easily and capped

The great thing about Google AdWords and Yahoo Pay Per Click is that companies can set a budget and stick to it. Once the budget is used up, the advertisement disappears and no further costs are incurred. With good management systems in place there is no danger of the online marketing budget spiralling out of control.

4. Internet Marketing campaigns can be set up quickly and easily.

Companies can get their marketing message out to an audience of perspective buyers within a few hours if they wish. This eliminates the time consuming process of design and print that normally takes weeks. This is ideal for special offers, as customers can find out about a good deal on the same day and excess stock can be shifted quickly.

5. Online Marketing can be targeted

This means that companies can only show their advertisements to customers interested in their product or service. Imagine a local Edinburgh domestic cleaning company. They might want to consider a combination of the following approaches to reach their target market of Edinburgh home owners:

• Google AdSense - Advertise on local news websites that appeal to the Edinburgh community
• Google AdWords - Set their campaign to regional so that they are only showing their advertisement to people in the Edinburgh Area.
• Yahoo and MSN – Consider doing regional and national advertising on these search engines. These are less frequently used but also less competitive and pricey. Keywords would probably include the word Edinburgh to minimise competition further.
• Banner Advertising on Local Websites – a banner advertising campaign on websites that appeals to locals would be a real consideration as part of the marketing mix.
• Search Engine Optimisation – Obviously appearing in the free part of Google is the long term goal for many companies and the domestic cleaning company should optimise their website to include keywords like ‘Domestic Cleaner Edinburgh’.
• Online Social Networking – Communicating with the customer base is important and local social networking sites would provide an outlet and a real opportunity to gain trust and win new business.

Companies can’t completely eliminate offline marketing and activities like PR are an important component of the marketing mix. The percentage of the budget spent advertising online needs to be fully determined by what customers are doing – are they spending most of their time online or are they reading offline newspapers or watching television?

At the end of the day the biggest consideration is to decide what is right for your business, however for most businesses embracing Internet Marketing is the right decision.