Internet marketing
Internet marketing refers to marketing of products or services using the internet. While some businessmen consider internet marketing as another tool in marketing, some experts refer to it as another world of marketing. The key aspects of internet marketing are the relatively lower costs incurred compared to the traditional way of marketing and the distribution of information to people at a global level making use of the creative and technical aspects of the internet. An added advantage is that consumer behavior can be studied effectively over a wider range.

Advertising, an important component of marketing has been made easier by the advent of internet marketing. The keywords by which the users usually look for products or services are used for advertising and this has lead to increased traffic in business processing websites.

Internet marketing has made a great impact on several industries, most importantly in the fields of music, film, pharmaceuticals and banking. Considering the music industry, it has been noticed that many consumers have started purchasing and downloading music over the Internet in addition to purchasing music in music stores. Online banking is one of the industries where the concept of internet marketing has been effectively implemented. The number of banks offering to perform banking online has increased. Online banking has interested customers because it is more convenient than visiting bank branches for trivial transactions.

Internet auctions have gained popularity over time. Specialized e-stores sell items ranging from antiques to movie properties. Before an auction, buyers and sellers have started to look at prices on the website. It has become common for vendors to place a targeted advertisement on the Internet for each item they are selling. Lots of people have taken to home business. The effect on the advertising industry has been profound. Internet marketing has also had a growing impact on campaigning during elections. Many electoral candidates have started campaigning through Internet.

Another important term related to internet marketing is Geo-targeting, the process of collecting information on the geographic location of the visitor like his/her country, state or region, city, zip code etc., and sending content relevant to the visitor. This requires information on the visitor which is to be submitted by the visitor in the website before further process. Some geo targeting websites show different sites and articles depending on the country location of their users. Earlier, mails containing relevant information were being sent to the inbox of the visitors manually after collecting required information from them. This slow process has been replaced widely by automating this process. This gives even better reach to the consumers and hence higher profit rates.

In spite of all its advantages, there are some limitations to internet marketing too. Visitors or users using low speed internet find it difficult to access complicated websites. Since the users cannot see the product prior to buying it online, this might sometimes result in dissatisfaction among the consumers. This disadvantage can be overcome if provision for return policies is implemented. Another dissuading fact is that many consumers are hesitant to buy products over the Internet because they do not trust that their personal information will remain private and secure.

Over all these disadvantages, Internet marketing is still preferred by many for its sole aspect of saving a lot of time and money for buyers as well as sellers. With the rapid improvements in technology, further innovative improvements can be expected in this field which has evolved to be a boon for most of us.