Internet Marketing Strategies

Internet marketing strategies encompass a range of approaches that organizations use to promote and sell their products or services online. The Internet has transformed marketing by providing cost-effective platforms for businesses of all sizes, facilitating direct communication with consumers, and enabling the analysis of consumer behavior through data mining techniques. A successful Internet marketing strategy typically involves three key components: developing a unique product that meets customer needs, designing a user-friendly website that effectively converts visitors into customers, and implementing both short- and long-term marketing strategies to attract and retain a target audience.

Short-term strategies might include online advertising and social media promotions, while long-term initiatives can involve building opt-in email lists or providing valuable content to maintain engagement. The Internet allows businesses to market globally, reaching diverse consumer bases and offering them the convenience of shopping anytime and anywhere. Companies must carefully navigate the opportunities and challenges presented by the online environment, ensuring their marketing efforts outperform traditional methods. By leveraging the unique features of the Internet, such as interactive content and instantaneous feedback, organizations can significantly enhance their marketing effectiveness and customer relationships.

Published in: 2023

By: Gould, Marie

Subject Terms

Internet Marketing Strategies

Abstract

This article will focus on Internet marketing and the strategies used to make the efforts successful. The Internet poses both opportunities and threats to the field of marketing. When developing a strategic marketing plan, organizations will need to determine if and when Internet marketing will be utilized. The success of the Internet as a medium for marketing depends upon how well the system outperforms alternative systems. This article will also explore how an organization can establish a customer base with site-centric and symbiotic marketing approaches.

Overview

The use of the Internet has become ubiquitous in the United States and around the world. People spend a lot of time on the Internet because there is a wealth of information to be found. In addition, by the 2020s, most consumers felt comfortable purchasing online and valued the Internet's capacity for providing information about different products and services. As a result, Internet marketing has blossomed and become a key part of many companies’ advertising efforts. The Internet has reduced costs associated with starting and running a small business (Boaze, 2004), which allows these companies to have an Internet presence because the medium is affordable. Several websites exist to help business owners create and run their own sites, which are akin to virtual small businesses. Companies have also found the Internet to be an effective communication tool for customers, potential consumers, and other businesses, and the advent of social media further enabled companies to connect and interact directly with consumers.

As a result, marketing has experienced significant changes in how it operates. The Internet poses both opportunities and threats to the field of traditional marketing (Lemoine, 1999). When creating a marketing plan, organizations must determine if the tool is useful for marketing their products, which products can benefit from Internet marketing, when it is best to use traditional marketing, Internet marketing, or a combination of both, and what pitfalls need to be avoided so organizations do not experience failure when using Internet marketing. Internet marketing research has provided years’ worth of valuable findings (March & Durand, 2022). The Internet has forever changed the way that organizations, governments, and individuals conduct business. Therefore, companies have responded by changing the way that they market their products.

Opportunities for Internet Marketing. The Internet opened many new avenues for companies to market new products and provided opportunities to restructure how they were marketing their established products. Benefits of the Internet include its ability to market globally, provide a free market without regulations and barriers to entry, and determine which products sell well in an online format. Companies can decide which products are best to sell online. In addition, they can determine whether they want to sell on their own site or sell products through online retailers such as eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. The Internet provides opportunities and challenges for the four Ps of marketing (price, promotion, product, and place) by being an unpredictable distribution channel, a powerful marketing communication and promotional tool, an effective marketing research tool, and an efficient tool for segmenting and targeting consumers and customers (Lemoine, 1999).

The Internet can be considered an integrated marketing communication tool. It has the capability to combine the efforts of direct marketing, advertising, and public relations.

Direct Marketing: Companies can communicate and promote products and services to a target market by using email, customized pages, and promotional systems. For example, a company can offer a free product if members of a target market go to a particular survey link to answer questions. The feedback can be used to customize a promotional opportunity for that particular market. However, if the company uses email as a mechanism, the company must ensure that its promotional emails are not considered spam—unwanted marketing messages—by their recipients.

Advertising: Companies can target global markets and make sure their ads are seen by consumers who will buy their products. Organizations are able to track the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns by tracking how many people see their ads and how many people visit the site based on a particular ad. In addition, the cost of online advertising is typically cheaper than traditional advertising methods such as print or television advertising. In some cases, a company may pay for an advertisement only when a user clicks on it; this system is known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

The Internet also allows advertisers to take advantage of data mining if budgeting allows. Companies can use different tactics, such as cookies, to track the sites that people visit, the music they listen to, the things they shop for, and more online. This information, once analyzed by algorithms, can then be used to offer ads targeted more specifically to these users.

Public Relations: Companies may also use the Internet to provide corporate information about the organization and its products. Potential customers will be able to find information such as names and backgrounds of the senior management team, investor information, history, and product information. Using social media, companies can respond to complaints or other customer concerns quickly and effectively, thus managing their online reputation and establishing rapport with consumers.

The success of the Internet as a medium for marketing depends upon how well the system outperforms any alternative systems. The features of the Internet must be better than any of these alternative systems, and consumers must be able to benefit. Studies have indicated that the Internet is, in fact, one of the best venues for marketing products and services. These studies include one that distinguishes online and traditional retail formats regarding the costs and benefits for consumers (Alba, Lynch, Weitz, Janiszewski, Lutz, Sayer & Wood, 1997) and another that illustrates how the Internet shares some of the same characteristics as other mediums but also offers new and unique features (Peterson, Balasubramanian, and Bronnenberg, 1997). Some of the unique features of the Internet are:

Ability to store larger amounts of information at lower costs
Ability to provide information that is instantly interactive and can be customized for precise customer targeting
Provision of power and inexpensive ways to search, organize, and distribute information
Provision to perceive (i.e., 3D image and video preview)
Capability to serve as a transaction and distribution tool for certain products
Establishment of a presence at a low cost leading to a better return on investment

Consumers tend to focus on formats that provide them with the most benefits. The Internet provides consumers with many benefits, such as accessibility to goods that are not in the local market, lower prices, the availability of different alternatives within the same product category, and the ability to shop at any time (Wharton Online, 2019).

Internet Marketing Strategies. Developing a successful Internet marketing strategy is necessary if an organization wants to make an impression online. A successful strategy should include a great product, a website designed to sell, and an outstanding marketing strategy (Lowery, n.d.). All three of these areas are important and must be developed. If one area fails, chances of success may be reduced. Lowery suggests a three-step process for ensuring the success of an Internet marketing strategy.

Step 1: Develop Product — A company should create a unique product that gives potential customers what they want. The product should fill a void in order to overcome the threat of competition. The company must also develop a target market. Researching the market is key. The company will need to find out what people want in order to develop a unique, quality product presentation.
Step 2: Develop Website — The website should be designed to sell the product(s). The purpose of the website is to convince the consumer to buy the product. Therefore, words become important. Although graphics are impressive, words mean more. Consumers seek information and want to find out about the product and whether they should buy it. The objective of this step is to create a website that provides information to potential customers that would lead them to purchase the product.
Step 3: Develop a Marketing Strategy — The marketing strategy is the final step in the process and should include short- and long-term planning. The purpose of short-term strategies is to temporarily boost traffic to the site. Some examples of short-term strategies are purchasing advertising and optimizing the site for search engines. Promoting the site on social media either through a business account or the use of Internet influencers has also become a popular short-term strategy. The purpose of long-term strategies is to bring a steady flow of targeted traffic over a period of time. Examples of long-term strategies include opt-in email lists, free gifts, and content.

Borgeon (1999) provided additional tips to take in order to make a site successful. These suggestions include:

Feature new products regularly because it encourages repeat business
Invite feedback and follow-up to those who contact the site by email
Select products that speak to the target markets
Build an easy navigation system on the web pages
Present the website with a professional look
Do not rely on "one-shot" outside expertise to build the site

Application

Building a Customer Base on the Internet. Having an Internet presence does not guarantee a successful venture. There must be a significant number of people visiting the site and buying the product. To achieve success, businesses must be able to attract customers and establish a solid customer base.

"If websites exist in a market-space that is so vast that their existence is not a sufficient condition for gaining traffic and the development of a viable Internet venture requires customers, the building of a customer base becomes a key component of any company's marketing strategy toward the Internet" (Lockett & Blackman, 2001, p. 49). “In addition, the development of a customer base will benefit other functions in the marketing process such as market research and testing” (Lockett, Blackman & Naude, 1998). Therefore, having an Internet customer base is essential for an Internet marketing strategy.

Developing an online customer base can be done through two approaches: site-centric and symbiotic marketing. The two models can be viewed as opposite approaches; however, some organizations have used techniques from both approaches. The site-centric model relies upon the use of a central site that offers a specific product and solicits traffic. The auction site eBay is an example of a website that uses the site-centric model. If a person is looking for a particular item, he or she may search for the item using a search engine such as Google. One search result may be a link to eBay if the product is available on that site.

In the site-centric model, customers are interested in a particular organization's brand that meets their requirements. The central site focuses on attracting and retaining customers, so it invests in building strong brand recognition for the organization. The site-centric approach utilizes an umbrella strategy that has a variety of techniques. All of the techniques have the same theme—attract customers to the company's own website. According to Lockett and Blackman (2001), some of the techniques include:

Portal sites — A portal site is either the first site a user sees when logging in or a search engine used to identify other sites. The default portal site may be operated by the Internet service provider (such as Yahoo!) or the provider of the browser (such as Google, provider of Chrome). Examples of search engines include Google and Bing. Companies may develop their own portal links and purchase prominent links in existing key portal sites.
Purchase advertising — After the customer purchases the product from the central site, a direct link is provided so that the customer can pay immediately at the organization's site. The large portal sites have advantages in selling targeted advertisements. Some of these advantages include:

Keywords can be used to select an appropriate banner advertisement
Advertisements can be presented on Internet pages with related topics
Regional-specific advertising can be provided on regional-specific search engines
Detailed information can be collected in order to assist buyers with determining the success of specific banner advertisements.

Direct email: Registered users or subscribers to email services— Customers can agree to receive regular emails or newsletters when the company has new products.
Direct email: Junk mail or spam email

Issues

Symbiotic Marketing. There are different strategic options for organizations to consider as they attempt to build a customer base on the Internet. As the traditional site-centric approach continues to be plagued with increased costs and decreased effectiveness, alternatives are being sought. An alternative strategy is the symbiotic marketing approach, which is based on the concept of mutuality (Lockett & Blackman, 2001).

Symbiotic marketing assumes that it is not impossible to protect content such as intellectual property and concentrates on what needs to be done in order to build and defend a customer base. The model works under the assumption that by making the service available to a multitude of sites, the probability of new customers finding the service is increased. "This strategy seems to be appropriate for business-to-business markets since the most important site for a service to be referenced is their own company's Intranet site or access page Internet coverage of the service" (Lockett & Blackman, 2001).

The symbiotic marketing model has a centralized site, but other sites are asked to incorporate the service on their own sites. “The service is taken to the site the customer wants to use rather than the customer having to go to the service provider’s central site” (Lockett & Blackman, 2001). An example of this is Amazon. Amazon encourages other sites to become associates and provides Amazon services on their sites, and the companies have a number of different ways to link to Amazon’s site.

The symbiotic marketing model is the best strategy to use when building a customer base if “the service is based on changing data;” “the service is viewed as adding value to the host site and not seen as a competitive threat;” “the service is simple for other sites to implement;” and “the feedback from clients can be immediately used to enhance the service” (Lockett & Blackman, 2001). In addition to the above-mentioned scenarios, the nature of the targeted service market may be a factor in an organization deciding whether to use the symbiotic marketing model. Lockett and Blackman (2001) highlighted three examples of situations where this model may be the best strategy. These examples include:

“Where markets are fragmented and there are no big established dominant players in the industry.”
“Where market segments have had traditionally long product development cycles.”
“Where the customer base is in a business-to-business rather than a consumer context.”

One of the disadvantages of this model is that building links requires time, and it may be more time than some companies are willing to commit. In addition, the model may be difficult to implement in a large organization with a well-developed marketing strategy. The symbiotic strategy is cheap, is slow to generate results, and has the potential to impact the brand value of an organization. An organization evaluating this method would have to evaluate the features mentioned above to determine if it is the best choice.

Conclusion

The Internet will continue to play a significant role in the field of marketing. Social media is another area in which companies can take advantage of marketing opportunities—Facebook ads directly targeting users is an example of the expansion of Internet marketing. Many will need to further their studies on the benefits and drawbacks of Internet marketing. Theorists may gain new ideas about the Internet and evaluate whether existing marketing theories can continue to be applied to the study of the Internet. Practitioners may continue to conduct market research to determine what consumers want, and policymakers must address topics such as security, consumer protection, and taxes (Hou & Rego, 2002).

As the field of Internet marketing explodes, there still will be a need for traditional advertising. Internet marketing does not threaten the existence of traditional marketing techniques. Rather, it complements the efforts. Although Internet marketing provides valuable assets such as an increased awareness of brand names, traditional marketing efforts can still address some of the disadvantages of online shopping. For example, traditional marketing efforts can promote brick-and-mortar shopping experiences based on the opportunity for social interaction and allow consumers to actually see and physically touch a product before purchasing.

Two popular Internet marketing strategies are site-centric and symbiotic marketing. Although the site-centric model has the central site as its foundation and base, the techniques can be expensive and unaffordable for small businesses. The symbiotic marketing strategy is more cost-effective and provides organizations with an avenue to develop “a presence on the key portal sites in the business-to-business market” (Lockett & Blackman, 2001). However, it has its downside, especially for large organizations. There tends to be a need for a longer lead time, and it may require more persistence than the site-centric model.

Terms & Concepts

Advertising: Persuasive form of communication that is paid for by various sponsors to aid in the selling of products, services, or ideas.

Commerce Service Providers: Organization that develops the components necessary for e-commerce websites.

Direct Marketing: Product advertisement or promotion that is specifically focused on a particular group of consumers.

Internet Marketing: The advertising and selling of goods and services on the Internet; includes search-engine marketing (both search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising), banner advertising, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and interactive advertising.

Marketing Channels: The multitude of organizations taking part in the creation and distribution of a product or service to customers.

Marketing Strategies: Methods by which a business promotes and advertises products and services.

Public Relations: Formal communication aimed at fostering public understanding, acceptance, and support.

Site-centric Model: The use of a central site to direct traffic and sales of a certain product.

Spam: Unsolicited commercial emails that are sent widely and indiscriminately to various individuals.

Symbiotic Marketing: The process of one organization selling its product to another organization that already has market share and established distribution channels to facilitate increased sales.

Bibliography

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Internet Marketing Strategies

On this Page

Subject Terms

Internet Marketing Strategies

Abstract

Overview

Application

Issues

Conclusion

Terms & Concepts

Bibliography

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