Internet Marketing also referred to as web marketing, online marketing, or E-Marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet.

The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs for the distribution of information and media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing, both in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses, is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media; however, Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems.

Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including

?Design,

?Development,

?Advertising, and

?Sales.

Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through

?search engine marketing (SEM),

?search engine optimization (SEO),

?banner ads on specific websites,

?e-mail marketing, and

?Web 2.0 strategies.

Internet marketing is associated with several business models:

?E-commerce - goods are sold directly to consumers (B2C) or businesses (B2B),

?Publishing - the sale of advertising,

?Lead-based websites-an organization generates value by acquiring sales leads from its website, and

?Affiliate Marketing-a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate marketing efforts.

Advantages:

?Relatively inexpensive when compared to the ratio of cost against the reach of the target audience

?Measuring statistics easily and inexpensively Nearly all aspects of an Internet marketing campaign can be traced, measured, and tested. The advertisers can use a variety of methods: pay per impression, pay per click, pay per play, or pay per action. Therefore, marketers can determine which messages or offerings are more appealing to the audience.

?The results of campaigns can be measured and tracked immediately because online marketing initiatives usually require users to click on an advertisement, visit a website, and perform a targeted action. Such measurement cannot be achieved through billboard advertising, where an individual will at best be interested, then decide to obtain more information at a later time.

?Exposure, response, and overall efficiency of Internet media are easier to track

The effects of multichannel marketing can be difficult to determine, but are an important part of ascertaining the value of media campaigns.

Limitations:

?Requires customers to use newer technologies

?Low-speed Internet connections are another barrier

?From the buyer perspective, the inability of shoppers to touch, smell, taste or try on tangible goods before making an online purchase can be limiting.

Security Concerns:

?Encryption is the primary method for implementing privacy policies.

?Threats of information leakage is a big issue.

?Whether or not they will receive exactly what they purchase the major online payment mechanisms (credit cards, PayPal, Google Checkout, etc.) have also provided back-end buyer protection systems to address problems if they actually do occur.