Internet Marketing

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

The Internet has brought 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 not only refers to , such as, the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media, but also it 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.

Business Models

Internet marketing is associated with several business models:

• e-commerce — this is where goods are sold directly to consumers (B2C) or businesses (B2B)
• Publishing — this is the sale of advertising
• lead-based websites — this is an organization that generates value by acquiring sales leads from its website
• affiliate marketing — this is process in which a product or service developed by one person is sold by other active seller for a share of profits. The owner of the product normally provide some marketing material ( sales letter, affiliate link, tracking facility).
• local internet marketing - this is the process of a locally based company traditionally selling belly to belly and utilizing the Internet to find and nurture relationships, later to take those relationships offline.

There are many other business models based on the specific needs of each person or the business that launches an Internet marketing campaign.

One-to-one approach

The targeted user is typically browsing the Internet alone therefore the marketing messages can reach them personally. This approach is used in search marketing, where the advertisements are based on search engine keywords entered by the user.

And now with the advent of Web 2.0 tools, many users can interconnect as "peers."