Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is a component of e-commerce. It is also called online marketing. It may include parts such as Internet integration , information management, PR , customer service and sales.

E-commerce and Internet marketing have become popular with expanding access to the Internet and are an integral part of any normal marketing campaign. The segment of Internet marketing and advertising is growing both in the consumer sector, as evidenced by the appearance of new online stores every day, and in the B2B market.

The main advantages of Internet marketing are interactivity, the ability to target as accurately as possible, the possibility of post-click analysis, which leads to the maximum increase in indicators such as website conversion and Internet advertising ROI.

Internet marketing includes such elements of the system as:

• display advertising
• contextual advertising
• search marketing in general and SEO in particular
• promotion in social networks: SMO and SMM
• direct marketing using email , rss , etc.
• viral marketing
• guerilla marketing
• internet branding
• email marketing
• content marketing
• Programmatic (RTB)

Among the innovative ways to promote products on the Internet are the following:

• the use of non-standard advertising media (promotional games, viral videos, game branding);
• online exhibitions, online auctions;
• web conferencing ( podcasts , webcasting, webinars, broadcasts, webinars );
• vendor interaction systems (VRM);
• website promotion in social media ( SMO - optimization for social media, SMM - marketing in social networks, Social Ads - advertising in social networks);
• mobile advertising (mobile application - advertising in mobile applications)
• augmented reality (AR or augmented reality - these are systems in which the real world is complemented by virtual objects).

Until 1990, the use of the Internet for business was prohibited by the regulations of the US National Science Foundation, but later large companies gained access to it. After the transfer of control over the Internet into private hands in 1992, the circle of consumers and Internet service providers expanded significantly, and the network connected millions of people and computers around the world.

In the same year, the . In 1994, the company opened Amazon , which in July 1995 launched its online store. In October 1994, First Virtual began offering its services for paying for goods on the Internet and became the first electronic payment system. A couple of years in 1996, MasterCard and Visa announced the creation of an open, uniform standard for the protection of payments on the Internet using plastic cards, which was called SET . A little later, the first search engines begin to appear. ^[one]

Now Internet marketing is more than the sale of information products, now there is a trade in the information space, software products, business models and many other goods and services. Companies such as Google , Yahoo , and MSN have taken a new level and segmented the online advertising market by offering local and local advertising services to small and medium businesses. Return on investment has increased, and expenses have been reduced. This type of marketing has become the basis of modern capitalism, which allows anyone who has an idea, product or service to reach the widest possible audience.

The use of the term “internet marketing” usually implies using direct response marketing strategies that are traditionally used in direct mail, radio and television commercials, only here they apply to the business space of the Internet.

These methods have been very effective when used on the Internet because of the ability to accurately track statistics, multiplied by the ability to be in relatively constant contact with consumers, be it B2B or B2C (business to consumer). This possibility of precision analysis is now used everywhere, and therefore so often you can see terms such as ROI - ROI, conversion rate - effective visit rate (also known as site conversion ), as well as instantly get statistics on sales, demand, etc. .

In 2012, according to the results of the RAEC survey ^[2], the advertising market was: contextual advertising - 37, 55 billion rubles, media advertising - 19, 20 billion rubles, video advertising - 1.74 billion rubles. At the same time, the market for search marketing was 10.24 billion rubles, and the social marketing market for SMM was 4.67 billion dollars.

According to forecasts of RAEC for 2013, the volume of the contextual advertising market should increase by 28%, media by 16%, video advertising by 72%. Search marketing by 19% and social by 32% ^[2] .

Internet marketing is associated with several business models . The main models: business to business ( B2B ) and business to the consumer ( B2C ). B2B consists of companies that do business among themselves, while B2C implies direct sales to the final consumer. The first model appeared B2C. The B2B scheme turned out to be more complex and began to operate later. The more rare models include the consumer-to-consumer model ( C2C ), where ordinary Internet users change among themselves and sell goods to each other. An example is the international auction eBay or the file-sharing system Kazaa . As well as C2B models - the seller of the goods or services is an individual, and the consumer is a commercial organization .

Internet marketing primarily provides consumers with the opportunity to get information about products. Any potential consumer can, using the Internet, get information about the product, as well as buy it. Although, if there is no information about one product, or he does not find it, then, most likely, he will get another product from a competitor. Also, the consumer has the opportunity to purchase experience of using the product (through AR) before purchasing a product, which increases the likelihood of making a purchase.

The use of Internet marketing methods is aimed at saving money (on wages of sales and advertising staff), as well as on expanding the activities of companies (transition from the local market to the national and international market). At the same time, both large companies and small ones have more balanced chances in the struggle for the market. Unlike traditional advertising media (print, radio and television), entering the market via the Internet is not very expensive. The important point is that, unlike traditional marketing methods of promotion, Internet marketing provides a clear statistical picture of the effectiveness of the marketing campaign.

Compared to other types of media marketing (print, radio and television), internet marketing is growing very fast. It is gaining increasing popularity not only among businesses, but also ordinary users who want to promote their effective website or blog and make money on it. However, in developed countries, internet marketing and advertising costs account for about 5% of total advertising costs.

Internet marketing constraints create problems for both companies and consumers. If a consumer has a slow Internet connection, this leads to difficulty in using animated commercials, presentation films and high-quality graphics in advertising, although, in principle, the problem with speed is a matter of time, every day there are fewer “slow” users. The dial-up is occupied by high-speed Internet.

The next disadvantage is that Internet marketing does not allow the consumer to test the product before making a purchase. But most consumers solve this problem simply. They get acquainted with the goods they are interested in in a regular store, and make a purchase in the online store. Germany, for example, passed a law in 2000 (Fernabsatzgesetz, later merged with BGB ), under which any buyer can return goods purchased over the Internet without any explanation and receive a full refund. This is one of the main reasons why online trading is so developed in Germany.

The problem of the buyer’s inability to “touch” a product can also be solved in other ways, for example, some owners of online stores use photos of high quality goods and resolutions, trying to convey all the details and features of their products in images. The use of special photo-technology for digitizing pictures of goods in 3D format (three-dimensional image), which gives the visitor of the online store to view goods from all angles, is also gaining popularity.

Another inhibitory factor is the limited payment methods that consumers trust. But, in principle, all these restrictions apply only to B2C.

Security issues are very important for both companies and consumers involved in online business. Many consumers are afraid to shop online, as they are not sure that their personal information will remain confidential. There have already been cases where companies that were engaged in online business, were caught on the disclosure of confidential information relating to their customers. Some of them have declared on their websites that guarantee the confidentiality of consumer information. By selling information about their customers, such companies violate not only their declared policy, but also the laws of several states at once.

Some companies buy information about consumers, then offer the consumer for money to remove this information from the database . One way or another, many consumers do not know that their private information is disclosed and cannot prevent the exchange of this information between unscrupulous companies.

The issue of security is one of the core issues for companies that take business seriously on the Internet. Encryption is one of the main methods used to ensure the security and privacy of transmitted data on the Internet.

Internet marketing has had a tremendous impact on a number of business areas, including the music industry, banking, the market of portable electronic devices (mobile phones, players, etc.), the so-called “flea market” and, most importantly, advertising.

In the music industry, many consumers began to buy and download MP3 music from the Internet instead of buying a CD .

Internet marketing has also affected the banking industry. An increasing number of banks offer their services online. Online banking is more convenient for the client, as it eliminates the need to visit the bank or its branches every time. In the United States today, about 50 million people use online banking services. Online banking is one of the fastest growing online business sectors. Increasing internet connection speeds play a crucial role in this. Of all Internet users, about 44% use Internet banking services.

Online auctions have gained popularity, flea markets are struggling to survive. Unique items that used to be found in flea markets are now sold at online auctions, such as eBay. Also, the development of auctions greatly influenced the prices of unique and antique items. If before the price information was difficult to find, now you can see the price for a similar thing at the auction. And to have at least a general idea of ​​the value of the goods, as you can always find out for how much this or that thing was sold. More and more sellers of such goods do their business online, sitting at home.

The effect on the advertising industry has been and remains truly enormous. In just a few years, the volume of online advertising has grown rapidly and reached tens of billions of dollars a year. Advertisers have begun to actively change their preferences and today Internet advertising already occupies a larger market niche than radio advertising (in developed countries).

Today it is difficult to find a large industrial enterprise that does not promote itself in the network. Growth trends can be easily seen in the constant expansion of online shopping sites, as well as an increase in their number. Online trading platforms have long ceased to be bulletin boards, from which they have grown. Today, some of them have become large corporations providing a range of marketing services. Growing prices for participation in such sites (meaning privileged membership), despite the fact that their number increases.

Internet marketers improve their search engine optimization strategies by continuously offering new content and tracking its distribution across the site.

Advertising in mobile applications is developing rapidly. Google found that 72% of mobile phone users prefer mobile version sites. They spend 86% of their time using applications from mobile devices, and 45% of all mobile advertising campaigns offer applications for users to download. 85% of smartphone owners prefer independent applications to mobile versions of sites. .

To attract customers, retailers must move from a one-way, linear marketing approach to a value-sharing model, mutual dialogue and benefit-sharing between the supplier and the consumer. ^[3] Distribution of information can occur through numerous channels, such as numerous blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vkontakte and a number of other platforms. Internet communities and social networks allow people to easily create content and publicly publish their opinions, experiences, thoughts and feelings on many topics and products, which speeds up the dissemination of information. ^[four]

As part of the Nielsen Global Connected Commerce global survey, interviews were conducted in 26 countries to find out how consumers use the Internet to make shopping decisions and on the Internet. Buyers are increasingly seeking to make online purchases abroad, more than 50% of respondents who have bought online in the last six months, say they bought abroad. ^[five]

Using omnichannel strategy is becoming increasingly important for businesses that need to adapt to changing consumer expectations, which require ever more complex offers throughout the purchase process. Retailers are paying more attention to their presence on the Internet. Over time, this may lead consumers to buy online products that meet their needs, and sellers will not need to take inventory inside the physical location of the store. Some online retailers, on the contrary, move from the Internet to the real world in order to open relevant outlets for the provision of personal services, professional assistance and tangible experience in working with their products. ^[6]

The omnichannel approach not only benefits consumers, but also benefits businesses: research shows that customers spend more than twice as much money when they buy through an omnichanal retailer compared to a single channel. This may be due to the ease of purchase and the wider availability of products. ^[6]

In order to comprehensively develop a unified communication strategy for all channels, there are a number of models. One of them is the PESO model ^[7] . In its title, the main groups of information distribution channels are encrypted - Paid, Earned, Shared, Owned.

Customers often conduct online research, then buy in stores, and also browse various options in stores, and then search for these products or analogues on the Internet. Online customer research on products is especially popular for more expensive products, as well as for consumer products, such as food and cosmetics. Consumers are increasingly using the Internet to search for product information, compare prices and search for offers and promotions. ^[eight]

There are several ways that brands use online marketing, which are beneficial in promoting on the Internet. Internet marketing in the modern world not only allows firms to sell their products and services, but also provides online customer support through round-the-clock services to make customers feel valuable. Using interaction on social networks allows brands to receive both positive and negative feedback from their customers, as well as determine which media platforms work well for them. Thus, Internet marketing has become a more significant advantage for brands and businesses. Currently, consumers often publish reviews on the Internet through social networks, blogs and websites about their experience with a particular product or brand. ^[9]

Word of mouth communication at the same level often has a greater impact on customers. Customers are also more likely to trust the experience of other consumers. ^[10] As an example, social network users share their experience in going to different shops, restaurants, highlighting certain brands and franchises. A survey was also conducted on Instagram, according to the results of which experts noted that teenagers who use this social network post images of food-related events in their accounts, thereby providing free advertising for products. ^[eleven]

It is more profitable for companies to use social networking platforms to communicate with their customers and create dialogues and discussions with them. The potential coverage of social networks is confirmed by the fact that in 2015, there were more than 126 million unique users on Facebook every month, and more than 97 million on YouTube. ^[12]

Easy access

The key task of Internet marketing is to attract customers and provide them with the opportunity to interact with the brand through the service and delivery of digital media. Information is easily accessible at high speeds thanks to the use of the Internet. Users with access to the network can use a variety of online media such as Facebook, YouTube, forums, email and others. With the help of Internet communications, he creates a multi-channel communication, where information can be quickly transmitted around the world to anyone. ^[13] Social separation plays no role through social media due to the lack of personal communication and the dissemination of information among the electoral audience. This interactive nature allows consumers to create dialogues in which the target audience can ask questions about the brand and get acquainted with it, which traditional forms of marketing cannot offer. ^[14]

Competitive Advantage

Using online platforms, enterprises can create competitive advantages in various ways. To maximize the potential of Internet marketing, firms use social media as their primary tool for creating an information channel. Thanks to this, a business can create a system in which it will be able to accurately determine customer behavior patterns and respond to their needs. ^[15] It is shown that this method has a greater impact on those who have a long-standing relationship with the company and with consumers who are relatively active users of social networks. In this regard, the creation of a page in social networks will further enhance the quality of relations between new and existing consumers, as well as the consistent strengthening of the brand, and thus increase the awareness of the company name. Although there may be inconsistencies with product images; maintaining a successful social network presence requires that the business be consistent in interaction by creating a two-way flow of information. Firms view their content based on feedback received through this channel; this is the result of a dynamic environment due to the global nature of the Internet. ^[16] Effective use of digital marketing can result in relatively lower costs compared to traditional marketing tools. As this will lead to lower costs for external maintenance, advertising, processing, costs for interface development and control. ^[17]

One of the main changes in traditional marketing was the emergence of digital marketing, which led to a rethinking of marketing strategies to adapt to this major change in traditional marketing (Patrutiu Baltes, Loredana, 2015).

Since internet marketing depends on technologies that are constantly evolving and changing rapidly, the same functions should be expected from the development and strategies of internet marketing. This part is an attempt to identify or highlight the prominent highlights that exist and are currently used.

• Segmentation: more attention is paid to segmentation in the framework of Internet marketing, to cover specific markets in the B2B and B2C sectors.

• Influential marketing: important sites are identified in related communities known as influential individuals. This becomes an important concept in digital targeting . You can contact influential people using paid advertising, such as advertising on Facebook or a Google Adwords campaign, or using sophisticated sCRM (Social Customer Relationship Management) software.

• Behavioral online advertising is the practice of gathering information about a user's activity on the Internet over time, “on a specific device and on different, unrelated websites, to provide advertising that takes into account the interests and preferences of this user.” ^{[18] [19]}
• A collaborative environment. A collaborative environment can be created between an organization, technology service provider and network advertising agencies to optimize effort, share resources, reuse and communication. ^[20] In addition, organizations invite their clients to help them better understand how to serve them. This data source is called “ User Content ”. A lot of information is acquired through the company's websites, where the organization invites people to share ideas that are then evaluated by other users of the site. The most popular ideas are evaluated and implemented in one form or another. Using this method of collecting data and developing new products can stimulate the relations of organizations with their customers, as well as generate ideas that would otherwise be missed.

• Advertisement based on data: users generate a large amount of data at every stage of their journey to the customer, and now brands can use this data to activate their well-known audience through software purchases of media data. Without compromising customer privacy, user data can be collected from digital channels (for example, when a customer visits a website, reads an e-mail or launches a brand’s mobile application and interacts with it), brands can also collect data about real customer interactions, such as visits brick and mortar stores, as well as from CRM datasets. ^[21]

• Remarketing. Remarketing plays an important role in internet marketing. This tactic allows marketers to publish targeted advertisements in front of an interesting product category or a specific audience that either searched for these products or services or visited a website for some purpose.

The new digital era allowed brands to selectively target their customers who might be interested in their brand or based on previous viewing interests. Companies can now use social networks to select the age range, location, gender, and interests of those to whom they would like to show their ad. In addition, based on the recent customer search history, they can be “watched” on the Internet, so that they can see advertisements for similar brands, products and services. ^[22] This allows companies to target specific customers that they know and feel that you can get the most from them.

Ways to improve the effectiveness of Internet marketing

Increase the effectiveness of Internet marketing allows the use of content marketing . ^[23] Content marketing can be briefly described as “providing content in places your audience is looking for.” Found that content marketing is widely represented in digital marketing and is a very successful means to increase efficiency. This is due to the fact that content marketing makes the brand more relevant and visible to target consumers.

Marketers also consider email to be an effective strategy when it comes to internet marketing, as this is another way to build long-term customer relationships. Listed below are some points that need to be considered for an effective digital media campaign, and aspects that help create an effective email system.

Interesting letter headers distinguish one ad from another. This separates advertising from clutter. Differentiation is one of the factors that can make advertising successful in Internet marketing, because consumers are drawn to it and are more likely to see advertising. ^{[24] [25]}

Establishing customer exclusivity: a list of customers and customer information should be stored in a database for follow-up actions, and selected offers and offers of deals related to the previous buyer's behavior can be sent to selected customers. This is effective in Internet marketing because it allows organizations to build customer loyalty via email.

Low technical requirements. In order to fully utilize the possibilities of Internet marketing, it is useful that advertising campaigns have low technical requirements. This prevents some consumers from understanding or viewing an advertising campaign from their devices.

Awards: profitable offers will always help to make an advertising campaign more successful. ^[25]

• Monetization
• Search marketing
• Internet branding
• Drip marketing
• Lead generation
• Video Marketing
• Grow hacking

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