Internet marketing continues to evolve as a major advertisement avenue where companies promote, drive traffic, and increase sales of their products. Firms have continued to use internet marketing approaches such as website design, social media, e-mail marketing, online promotions, blogs, and article marketing to promote their products and drive traffic with the objective of improving sales (Nosrati et al., 2013, p.61). Internet marketing, as a rapidly growing advertisement strategy, provides many benefits to marketers that make it a more effective advertisement approach compared to TV ads. What is more, it also presents tremendous opportunities for customers, businesses, and workers in organizations. Workers develop new skills as they use the internet to improve the competitiveness of their business. Internet marketing provides many benefits to marketers, and it is also more effective advertisement avenue compared to TV advertising. In a few decades, internet marketing will completely replace TV advertising as the most preferred marketing medium. Companies are increasingly using the internet for marketing instead of TV ads due to increased product awareness, convenience, low costs, high customer interaction, and the ability to locate the target customers.
Marketing companies achieve increased product awareness through internet marketing. According to Shaltoni (2017), internet platforms such as websites, emails, and social media provide companies with an opportunity to advertise and enhance the consumer knowledge on the existence of a product and the benefits that accrue from consuming it (1010). Internet marketing further achieves quick product awareness because a majority of their target customers use the internet on a daily basis. By posting their goods and services on the internet, more target clients are likely to view them and gather more information that will help them make a purchase. Since consumers purchasing behaviour depends on their prior knowledge of the product, the increased use of internet marketing leads to increased traffic and sales of products. Thus, internet advertisement is used to supplement offline ads (Chaffey, 2009).
Additionally, the internet provides companies with a convenient approach to marketing. Companies use the internet to overcome distance as a barrier to marketing. Online marketing websites are easily accessible by consumers who are located in different parts of the world. The ease of accessing products on sites such as Amazon.com ensures that consumers can purchase goods within and across borders (Lambin, 2013, p. 48). Customers can similarly monitor or track their products during the process of delivery after making a purchase. Although Johansson (2009) argues that understanding customers in other parts of the world may need face-to-face contact and personal experience, online marketing has proved to be convenient to consumers through the elimination of distance as a barrier to buying goods and services.
Also, internet marketing is cost-effective compared to the offline marketing platforms. The physical retail outlets are costly compared to internet marketing because they involve recurring costs such as rent and maintenance (Nosrati et al., 2013, p.61). Stock display in internet marketing requires only a digital display of the product hence no need to purchase stock for display in the store. Social media platforms such as Facebooks and Twitter do not charge companies any fees for marketing. Therefore, online marketing provides low inventory costs compared to physical outlets. Similarly, communication through e-mails and social media is easier and cheaper as compared to the use of printing papers or posters.
Furthermore, internet marketing facilitates the use of personalized offers that increase the sales of companies. Internet marketing allows firms to collect consumers’ data which help in the creation of a profile of the purchase history. Once the purchase behavior and history of clients are established, advertisements and products are tailored to fit the consumer profile. Although this advertisement strategy ensures benefit both consumers and the organisation, most of the consumer privacy issues are neglected (Stephen, 2016). Dahl (2015), therefore, suggested that the privacy of the consumers should be considered by exploring the rights to privacy and other business ethics.
Internet marketing also allows organisations to target any given demographics. Consumer data can be used to locate the direct and exact location of target consumers for a given product. The ability to target audience based on their demography ensures concentration of efforts on a specific region where there is a high likelihood of the need for products and services offered by an organization (Lambin, 2013, p. 18). Internet marketing, thus, enables organisations to understand the customers, their interests, and age which is useful in the tailoring of the products and services to meet their needs. Companies also consider the culture of the customers since it impacts on the marketing strategy (Ocansey, 2017).
Moreover, companies achieve high consumer interaction and relations through internet marketing. Consumer feedback and comments are critical determinants on the success of a business and customer’s satisfaction (Lambin, 2013, p. 25). Internet marketing facilitates communication between consumers and the business. Through social media, customers can be requested to give comments, rate or give their views on particular aspects of a product. Consumers can quickly provide feedback on product pricing, and updates through social media by using comments as compared to the use of survey formats. According to Stephen (2016), decisions made by consumers are influenced primarily by information on social media. The interaction between companies and customers also promotes a good relationship. When organisations send follow-up e-mails to their customers as a way of appreciation after a successful online purchase of goods, it builds a friendly relationship. Furthermore, the use of personalised advertisement through regular emails to customers helps to enforce good relationship.
Extent to which Internet Marketing will replace TV Advertisements
The rise of internet marketing has raised questions about the relevance of TV advertisements in the long run. Over the years, TV advertisements have been considered the most effective form of marketing mainly due to the audio and visual features. However, internet marketing has brought several benefits that cannot be realized in TV ads. Internet marketing is expected to replace TV advertisements because it is affordable entirely, provides more information on products and services and its impacts can be measured.
The internet marketing is cheaper and has larger audience coverage compared to TV ads since internet advertisements only require a stable website with proper Social Engine Optimisation. Pay-per-click ads as an online marketing strategy are also less costly compared to TV ads. Additionally, internet marketing reaches a broader audience compared to TV ads. With the internet marketing information on products and services, it is easily availed to a large population. While TV advertisement may only be done on a single channel hence a portion of the population may not get the information, Internet ads ensure that broad audience is reached (Draganska, Hartmann and Stanglein, 2014). The internet, therefore, provides a large audience coverage compared to TV advertisement. Higher audience coverage ensures a better understanding of what products are offered and thus increased product awareness.
TV ads also provide an effective way to advertise products and attract customers. However, it is challenging to determine its impact on direct sales of a company. On the contrary, tracking on the internet market is easier because of the availability of tracking tags or other monitoring tools like Google Analytics, Graphing, traffic monitoring and sales conversion from the various methods of online marketing are vital in appreciating the profits by a company. Hence considering tracking needs through an organisation, internet marketing is preferable to the use of TV advertisements.
Apart from its effectiveness, internet marketing has higher consumer interaction than TV ads for any company (Chaffey, 2016). With internet marketing, the customers are provided with a platform to share their views and comments on the products and services offered; efficiency of the goods, methods of delivery, timeliness, and their suggestions or preferences. All the information is available on a given platform hence easier for the organisation to understand the market needs, and how to serve the customers to meet their requirements.
Additionally, consumers acquire more product information through internet market compared to TV advertisements. The provision of information to consumers to allow them to review products is a significant way of attracting and retaining customers. Customers would prefer to purchase goods that they clearly understand; hence for TV advertisements, an individual may miss some details during the presentation of an ad (Draganska et al., 2014). Since TV ads are only repeated after a given period, the customer may find it hard to wait until the next time for the advertisement. Internet marketing, therefore, provides an effective way for customers to find out more about the goods and services offered. Internet marketing offers all-time information, which is the best way to serve the customers who easily revisit the data and make their decisions timely.
Conclusion
Internet marketing provides many benefits to marketers, and it is also an effective advertisement avenue compared to TV advertising. As a rapidly evolving marketing approach, the internet is cost effective and convenient. Internet marketing also provides increase product awareness, high customer interaction, and relations. Furthermore, it allows for data collection and personalisation of products based on consumer needs as well as customer’s product targeting. Based on the evolving technology and efficacy of internet marketing, internet-based businesses will increase just like the number of consumers, hence the downfall of TV advertisements and marketing. Therefore, the use of the internet is likely to dominate the marketing field in many organisations and may eventually replace the TV advertisements.
References
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