What is Internet Marketing?

I remember when I began working online around 10 years ago, being asked questions like, “What do you mean you’re in internet marketing?”, or “So, are you the dude that puts pop-ups and junk mail on my computer?” For the first few years, I wasn’t exactly sure how to explain my role as an internet marketer, other than saying “Well, NO! I’m not the guy that spam’s your email, or infects your computers with pop-ups. I’m just the guy that creates the websites you interact with.” People would sometimes ask more questions about who my clients were, or what was involved in making a website, but more often than not, the conversation would simply end. What I realized early on was that, I still didn’t fully understand the meaning of internet marketing either; therefore I couldn’t possibly have given them a meaningful answer. Many of us are aware of websites, and banner ads, and search engines; but most of us don’t know how they can work together to form what could be a successful “internet marketing” campaign. In this post, I’m going to attempt to deliver a message that should help answer that question that’s been burning me for years… “What is internet marketing?”

In contrast to back then, I might now answer the question like this; “Think of the things you do on the internet. You read the news, you check your email, you check the weather, sports scores, stock prices, and who knows what else! None of the sites you visit could stay in business unless they had some strategy to help monetize each visit. Well, my job is to develop the strategies that WILL monetize each visit.”

Sounds simple, huh! Well, it really is. For the sake of offering a layman’s view, let’s break websites up into 2 groups; sites without E-Commerce, and sites with E-Commerce.

We’ll start with sites without E-Commerce. In order for most sites to stay alive, they need to be updated with new content, articles, scores, etc. Updating these kinds of sites takes time and money, but if there is nothing to buy on the site, and there is no revenue being generated by product/service sales, who is going to pay for it? The answer is simple. Advertisers are going to pay for it! Other companies will likely (internet) market themselves on websites that have a user base within their target market. I.e. A bank might be more likely to advertise on the Financial section on CNN.com than they would on the ESPN.com. So, how do they advertise?

Websites will reserve spots on their site for advertisers to place their ads, much like a TV commercial, or a print ad, or a billboard. Many of these sites will get paid every thousand times a banner ad is viewed, or each time their ad is clicked on. This wouldn’t be a massive source of revenue for most websites, but if you have a site that generates 1,000,000 page views per month, and you’re getting $10 per every thousand page views, you’re taking in $10,000 in monthly revenue, and all you’re doing is updating your website with fresh, new, interesting content that keeps people coming back. This isn’t the only way to make money from a site without E-Commerce, but it is probably the most common, by far. You can sell the banner space yourself, or you can go with a publisher, who will supply your site with a constant stream of ads, and a regular source of income, or you can use tools like Google AdSense, which will review the content on a website, and display an ad relevant to that content and pay you everytime the ad is clicked on.

There are also several less common ways to monetize a website that doesn’t sell anything. Many sites like IKEA.com don’t rely specifically on their online store, but rather use their website as a catalogue to drive traffic to their brick and mortar stores. If someone does decide that they would like to buy a product online, they can, but most of their products are only available in store. Subscriptions are also a somewhat common place source of revenue for many sites, but again, these are becoming less common as users cut down on subscription sites, and go to those sites that are free and funded by banners and sponsored ads. Some of these tactics can be used for E-Commerce sites as well; however, the E-Commerce sites are usually the ones buying the advertising on other sites.

This brings us to the 2nd group of websites, the E-Commerce website. (I’ll be semi-brief with this one, as there are a million different ways to monetize these sites. I’ll go into more detail on specific strategies in future blogs). Now, when talking about internet marketing, I find the E-Commerce campaigns to be the most interesting, demanding, and fun. Essentially, the only way many of these sites make money, is by making the sale. So the internet marketing “mix” can be somewhat robust. Essentially, internet marketing can accomplish several different objectives, including generating awareness, influencing research, and capturing the intent to purchase.

The most common way to create awareness of a product is by running display (banner ad) campaigns. You can buy ad space on sites that relate to a target demographic, and create ads to run on this space that introduces their users to the product/brand you’re selling. Much like TV, the conversion rate and ROI is typically low, but the reach can be very high. You can influence research by using other people’s forums, blogs, and articles that relate to the product to introduce your product/brand specifically. Once you’ve created this awareness, and influenced research, the next step is capturing the intent that’s been generated. Online, if a user doesn’t go directly to the brands website, than they are likely searching for it using a search engine before purchase. So, naturally, it is important for the product/brand to be visible in search engines when someone is ready to buy. Search Engine Marketing can be the most efficient driver of sales, and is usually the foundation of any ROI based internet marketing campaign.

So, by now, hopefully you should have a better understanding of what internet marketing is, and I should have a better understanding of how to answer that darn question. Maybe I’ll give this answer a shot. “Give me your money and I’ll show you!”…  On second thought, maybe not.

Thanks,

Joseph McConellogue

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