ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
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.
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
A New Way to Profit From Your Content-Based Website "It's a labor of love." That's how I've always described my content-based website. Until the last year or so, what I meant is that my website paid me in love more frequently than it paid in money. And if visitor compliments and good karma paid the mortgage, that would have been fine. Five Simple Steps To Make Money Online This New Year Most people in a new year make resolutions to make more money and attempt to make money online. However it is also true that a vast majority of people fail to actually make money online. Why is this? Most people in their haste and enthusiasm to make money online go all out and attempt to "try their luck" and go around purchasing advertising to promote and try to sell whatever affiliate program or home based business opportunity that they have with no results to show for it. So not only are they not making money, they are losing money online. Creating Your Internet Marketing Plan For large corporations, a marketing plan is a huge document detailing strategies for the fiscal year. It may include competitor analysis or a sales forecast. While these elements are important to a large business, do you as a small business owner (without a well paid marketing staff) have the time or energy to devote to putting together a huge document? Unless you are trying to get a financial loan, probably not... Tracking & Troubleshooting for Increased Sales So many times, online business owners are confused about where their sales come from. They think they are helpless after a visitor arrives at their site. Nothing could be further from the truth! How Can Multimedia Work For You? Multimedia here and multimedia there. Is it just a flashy thing you don't need or the reason why your competitors are getting ahead? Today's reality is that people live on a fast pace so their time is important. They watch tv going from one channel to the other, get a satellite dish so they can watch their favorite show on a different time schedule after putting the kids to bed, go through mail as fast as you can count up to 3, surf on the web with an average of 55 seconds spent on a web page, read the newspaper by going through the big titles, etc. It is a matter of facts, today's companies and entrepreneurs need to get the best out of every second a potential customer, or current customer, will spend paying attention to their offer. There are many ways to improve receptivity and develop time saving solutions such as using repetivity and faster technologies but how can multimedia work for you? The Undeniable Value Of Differentiation With all the people offering products and services online, what sets yours apart from the crowd? Product Marketing for Home Based Online Businesses If you are like most internet based home business entrepreneurs then marketing your product and driving increasing traffic to your web page is essential to increasing sales. The challenge is to market your products and increase your traffic and to do it affordably or even for free. Internet Marketing Guide If you are considering launching a website for your business or entering the lucrative world of e-commerce by starting an online business, there are a few things you need to keep in mind in order to assure your web site's success. Without taking the time to understand how the Internet and search engines work you will certainly guarantee that no one will see your site. The Internet is a whole new ball game when it comes to marketing. Invest a few minutes in making your website a success by browsing through the tips listed in the Internet marketing guide below. Internet Marketing ? A Maze In A Haze? Internet marketing, website marketing, call it what you will, can be a bit like a maze. You charge off down one route......dead end. Someone sends you off down another route with a big smile on their face.......another dead end. Another route looks promising.......until it fizzles out and you reach another dead end. You can't cheat by looking over the hedge, it's about 20 feet high! A big ladder so you can get a good view? No, they've all been hidden. None left on the planet! Except those in the vaults of the internet gurus, you suspect. I Was at the Point of Giving Up With My Website - Then Something Wonderful Happened! This wasn't meant to sound like one of those "rags to riches" stories but for me, it sure seems that way. Boost Your Sales Copy With One Simple Tweak Do you want an amazingly simple trick to move far ahead of your competition and increase sales? With this free, no- software little tweak, you will be able to put customized information into a web page that is different for everyone you invite to visit. It is incredibly simple; seriously, I promise! All that you need is a very basic understanding of HTML, like how to make hyperlinks, and I will teach you everything else. Sound fair? 10 Sure-Fire Viral Marketing Strategies To Increase Traffic To Your Website "Viral Marketing" is giving something away for free and allowing people to pass it on to others. The main purpose of viral marketing is to spread your message to as many people as possible without having to spend any money for advertising. Highly Recommended Pre-Fab Marketing Business Unfortunately most 'ready-made' business sites don't seem to be very user or customer friendly and are extremely expensive for what is being offered. Most of these programmes have only one way to make you money, you send the traffic and they close the sale!? How to Build an Asset Out of Giving Stuff Away for Free We all do it I guess: give something away for free to stimulate interest in our online promotions, an e-book here; a report there, whatever elsewhere. Five Ways To Maximize Profit In Resale Rights Marketing Product creation is usually one of the first concerns of an internet marketer. Conceptualizing a profitable idea and formulating a marketing plan to sell it is a relatively exhausting task. Not everyone is gifted with the creative juices to come up with a cutting edge concept. Summer?s Internet Traffic Jam Summer is finally here, and while for many, summer implies barbeques, school-break, vacations and trips to the beach; for most Internet businesses, summer implies slower traffic. Making Money Online: What You Really Want To Know So you've been thinking of doing some internet marketing or you've done some and you're not making money yet. What does it really take? Even more importantly, how long does it take and how much does it cost? Isn't that what you really want to know? Finding The Right Internet Marketing Technique For You Finding the right Internet marketing technique that works best for you is probably going to be trial and error. Different web marketers have found their successful by using different marketing ideas. Each person's target market is different as well. You will have to try a variety before you find the Internet marketing technique that works best for you and your web-based business. Here we will throw out a few suggestions to try and see what works for you. My Top 7 Favorite Ecommerce Tools When you make your living on the Internet, you sometimes forget that the resources you use every day (and take for granted) might rate an incredible discovery to anyone who doesn't already know they exist. How to Set Up a 7 Day E-Course Be a Winner! Answer the Challenge! An e-course is a sequence of emails set up to be delivered automatically without any effort on your part after the initial set up. Just set it and forget it. Setting up a free e-course is a great way to keep your services on top of mind and educate people about what you can do for them.
|
|
|
|
|
