Internet marketing has given a wide scope for small businesses to explore and develop. With the help of Internet marketing small businesses have the ability to increase their online visibility by applying strategies like SEO, PPC, social media, e-mail marketing, banner ads, etc. Internet marketing has many advantages such as, it is cost-effective, message reaches in a short time, can target potential customers, can connect to people from all over the world, etc.
Whereas in traditional marketing like TV, radio, print ads, direct mail, etc., the process takes time, it is expensive, difficult to target specific customers, etc. There are many benefits of Internet marketing. Some of them are mentioned below.
- Economical: Internet marketing is less expensive when compared to traditional marketing and more effective option for promoting your small business. You can use different marketing methods like SEO, social media, blogs, etc which are cost effective. It gives better return on investment than other form of advertising.
- 24/7 Operation: Over the Internet businesses can sell products/services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all over the year. It helps potential customer reach the business at any given point of time, irrespective of day or night. Whereas in traditional marketing, customers can reach the business only at specific time and it requires staff assistance.
- Measurable: In Internet marketing small businesses can measure the performance of their business. They will get to know the number of visitors that visited their website, on which pages customers are spending more time, how many of them have purchased from your site, etc. When it comes to traditional marketing the performance of the marketing is difficult to assess the direct sales impact for your business.
- Coverage: Internet marketing has no boundaries, no restrictions. It reaches to the local and global market. There is a good scope to reach vast number of customers. Whereas in traditional marketing, it is restricted to limited area or region or country.
- Level Playing Field: Internet marketing gives scope to small businesses to be in par with big businesses, irrespective of its size, type of industry and location. It is all about how you convey your message to the targeted audience. Whereas in traditional marketing small business can’t imagine to compete with big businesses because of its production size, marketing size, revenue, etc.
- Real Time Results: Internet marketing gives real time results on advertising campaigns because it involves in short cycles, real time executions, one to one messaging, etc. Based on the results, small business can focus on customers interest, buying behavior, etc.
- Targeting: Internet marketing helps you to target customers who are interested in your business. This helps the business to know how many customers belonging to a specific area have visited their website. Whereas in traditional marketing, you are not sure if your marketing efforts have targeted the intended audience.
- Speed: Traditional marketing is a time consuming process and for this reason it takes time to reach audiences. Whereas, Internet marketing is available to the whole world the moment you start your advertising campaign.
With the given benefits it is very clear that Internet marketing can be a very effective and affordable method to reach targeted demographic groups and deliver a better ROI.