Internet marketing has emerged as one of the most innovative media for organizations to promote their products and services. The global internet marketing industry is of great value and is growing rapidly. Many of the leading business owners have gained their sales increase as a result of putting their business on the internet and this has prompted many people to follow it. The existence of internet marketing becomes the most efficient method in the service of selling goods and services. However, there are certain challenges that have been shown to be detrimental in effective use.
The advantages of Internet Marketing
- Marketing your business on the internet gives you widespread access from potential customers. It has been estimated that several billion people worldwide use the internet every day. So, marketing the business to a large group just over the Internet.
- The Internet is the only medium capable of crossing geographical and national boundaries. You can place ads on the internet and people from all over the world can view them.
- The cost of promoting your business on the internet is cheaper than any other marketing medium. This makes it easy for small and medium businesses to advertise their products.
- The Internet allows you to stay in touch with customers in real time. If you have a discount, you can easily send emails to customers and they can buy products directly. The Internet also allows you to send multiple messages at the same time, which means that you can send newsletters to each client.
- Internet marketing allows you to get instant feedback from customers. Customers can let you know about their experience after using the product and this allows you to know if you need to make any service improvements.
- Internet marketing saves a lot of time and effort. A person can put all the information about a product or service on the internet, so that customers can find out. The most common way to do this is to have a section dedicated to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the product so that customers get all the necessary information about the product or service.
- Internet marketing allows your business to be available 24/7, which means increased sales and profits.
Disadvantages of Internet Marketing
- Although internet marketing allows a wider range, the initial cost of a site can be high. This includes the cost of the necessary software and hardware, and maintenance costs.
- There are still many customers who use the internet just to have more information about the product and prefer to buy directly. For example, internet marketing allows customers to see how examples of items like phones and technical specifications, but customers prefer to see and buy phones in the store.
- The number of customers who are not proficient in using the internet can cause you to lose customers.
- The growing rules of trade change in internet marketing, and it requires constant attention and monitoring to ensure that your marketing strategy does not look out of date.
- The biggest disadvantage of internet marketing is the vulnerability to fraudulent activity. There are many unauthorized websites that look similar to the original sites and rob the customer's money. Spamming is also one of the biggest challenges for internet marketing and confidential data can be easily stolen by hackers.
- Internet marketing has no direct human touch when customers buy products. This hinders the prospect of building relationships that play an important role in constant sales and word of mouth publicity.
- Internet marketing relies heavily on technology, which is prone to technical errors. For example, if a customer clicks on your ad, but due to a technical error being unable to purchase the product, he can easily become angry and divert his business elsewhere.
While there are some challenges in internet marketing, but internet marketing has also led to increased transparency and ease to buy products. Time is the most important to answer all challenges so internet marketing proves to be really beneficial for all.
