What is Internet Marketing???

Internet marketing or Online marketing refers to a set of powerful tools and methodologies used for promoting products and services through the Internet.Internet marketing includes a wider range of marketing elements than traditional business marketing due to the extra channels and marketing mechanisms available on the Internet. Internet marketing is growing business mainly because more and more people use the internet every day. Popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo have been able to capitalize on this new wave of advertising. 

This type of marketing uses various online advertisements to drive traffic to an advertiser's website. Banner advertisements, pay per click (PPC), and targeted email lists are often methods used in Internet marketing to bring the most value to the advertiser.

 The term Internet marketing or Online marketing can mean a variety of things. At one time, Internet marketing consisted mostly of having a website or placing banner ads on other websites. Today, Internet marketing, or online marketing, is evolving into a broader mix of components a company can use as a means of increasing sales - even if your business is done completely online, partly online, or completely offline. The decision to use Internet marketing as part of a company's overall marketing strategy is strictly up to the company, but as a rule, Internet marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of nearly every company's marketing policy.

Internet Marketing Components

1. Setting up a Website- Website consisting of text, images, audio and video elements used to convey the company's message online, to inform existing and potential customers of the features and benefits of the company's products and/or services. The website may or may not include the ability to capture leads from potential customers or directly sell a product or service online. Websites can be the Internet equivalents of offline brouchers or mail order catalogs and they are a great way to establish your business identity.

2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)- SEM  is marketing a website online via search engines, either by improving the site's organic ranking through search engine optimization (SEO), buying pay-per-click (PPC) ads or purchasing pay-for-inclusion (PFI) listings in website directories, which are similar to offline yellow page listings.

3. Email marketing- Email marketing is a method of distributing information about a product or service or for asking feedback from customers about a product or service through Email. Email addresses of customers and prospective customers may be collected or purchased. Various methods are used, such as the regular distribution of newsletters or mass mailing of offers related to the company's product or services. Email marketing is essentially the online equivalent of direct mail marketing.

4. Banner advertising- Banner advertising is the placement of ads on a website for a fee. The offline equivalent of this form of online marketing would be traditional ads in newspapers or magazines.

5. Social media marketing(SMM)- SMM involve social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and social bookmarking sites like Digg.

6. Blog marketing- Blog Marketing is the act of posting comments, expressing opinions or making announcements in a discussion forum and can be accomplished either by hosting your own blog or by posting comments and/or URLs in other blogs related to your product or service online.

7. Article marketing- Article Marketing involves writing articles related to your business and having them published online on syndicated article sites. Article marketing can result in a traffic boost for your website, and the distribution of syndicated articles can promote your brand to a wide audience.