Internet Promotion - Advantages And
Disadvantages
Author: Carla Lendor

The emergence of globalise trade, increase in foreign
investment and cross-border transactions have put many small
businesses under pressure to find innovative ways to continue
to market their products and services. This is especially
difficult given that they often operate on tight marketing
budgets.

In the quest for cheap marketing alternatives, these small
businesses continue to use conventional marketing tools such as
newspaper, magazine, radio and television advertisements,
unaware of the advantages that Internet Promotion offers. All
too often, these entrepreneurs focus on the disadvantages of
Internet Promotion and fail to adequately take advantage of the
opportunities that it presents. Moreover, their preoccupation
with conventional marketing strategies is driven by a
misconception that these are cheaper than Internet Promotion.

To most small business entrepreneurs, marketing or promoting
their products or services via the Internet can be a daunting
task. However, with adequate information small businesses can
benefit significantly from Internet Promotion while minimising
the disadvantages that it presents. In fact, it may prove to be
the marketing strategy that generates the highest return on
investment.

The Advantages

Cost Effective and Enduring Marketing Strategies

The Internet has become the information superhighway for the
buying public. Most persons prefer the hassle free transactions
that Internet shopping can offer. As a result, the Internet has
become the most powerful selling tool. Internet Promotion
offers cost effective ways for small businesses to enhance
their product or service distribution networks. For example,
the use of portals can help create new marketing channels and
logistics, or provide better or faster product access for
customers.

In comparison to other forms of marketing, Internet Promotion
presents the advantage of reduced budget and storage costs,
when compared with printing brochures, producing television or
radio advertisements or managing a call centre. It presents a
fast and cost effective option for penetrating new markets.

Market Penetration

With millions of person using the Internet to search for
products and services, small businesses can penetrate other
markets at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing
methods.

Websites act as virtual storefronts, allowing businesses to
stay open 24/7. Internet Promotion gives a business greater
visibility, thereby creating more opportunities for increasing
its customers at relatively low cost. Never before has it been
easier for an upstart business to be able to reach out to
literally millions of potential customers and to position
themselves for success, without the need for costly
infrastructure and overwhelming marketing costs. Thanks to the
Internet, new businesses can become popular almost overnight.

Low Cost, Instant Communication

Email makes business communications instant, whether the
customer or business affiliate is across the street or across
the globe. It makes it easier for customers to maintain contact
and readily facilitates repeat purchasing. An effective online
strategy can therefore turn a small web business into a virtual
cost saver and income-generating machine. The net result is that
the small business can gain significant competitive advantage in
a given market.

Many online businesses have therefore resorted to the use of
ezines, blogs, pop-up ads and other online marketing tools to
let customers know about new products or services as well as
provide information relevant to their respective industry. The
benefits of this strategy are two fold. Marketers can
effectively heighten brand awareness for relatively new
products on the market whilst strengthening customer
relationships, with shorter time frames.

Content is Timeless

Internet Promotion also provides the advantage of being
enduring. Whereas participation at a trade fair or conference
loses sales impact, once it is over, and an advertisement in a
newspaper or business magazine may quickly lose its sales
generating value within a day or two or as soon as the next
issue is released; Internet Promotion is often timeless. Apart
from the dates and sometimes prices, much of your website
content remains valid years after.

Real Time Statistics For Measuring Success of Promotion
Campaign

One of the most significant advantages of Internet Promotion is
that its success is measurable. Marketers can use tools that
provide real time statistics, on unique visitors, repeat
visitors, click through rates (CTR) on advertisements, thereby
allowing them to evaluate the effectiveness of a promotion
campaign. This enables marketers to determine what works for
their particular market and to make timely changes in their
marketing strategies.

Time Saving

Another important advantage of Internet Promotion is that it
saves time since it generally does away with counselling on
product uses and benefits, service information and sales
administration. Visitors can access "frequently asked
questions" to help themselves, and can buy online, without the
involvement of staff. This saves time and money. So, whether 10
or 10,000 visitors visit the site, the increased cost is
marginal whilst the savings can be immense.

But like any business approach, Internet Promotion is not
without its risks and weaknesses.

Disadvantages

Difficulty in Attracting Customers

Small business may not have the resources to pay for paid
directory inclusion, pay per click inclusions and often have to
rely solely on search engine optimisation or word of mouth to
drive traffic to their sites. With millions of businesses
selling the same product and services, competing with more
established businesses can be frustrating and costly venture
for small business.

On the other hand, larger companies can offer promotions, pay
for directory inclusions, implement pay per click campaigns as
well as employ the "who is who" in internet marketing to
develop campaigns that generate traffic and leads.

Difficulty in Evaluating Legitimacy of Transaction

Another notable disadvantage of doing promoting businesses
online is that it may be difficult for the businesspersons and
consumers to thoroughly evaluate the legitimacy of a
transaction. Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to
thieves using stolen credit cards and stolen information to do
online transaction.

With Internet credit card and identity fraud on the rise, small
businesses are forced to finance costly security measures to
reduce their vulnerability to fraudulent transactions.

Salespersons and Customers are Isolated

Another disadvantage of promotion via the Internet is that the
customers and businesspersons are isolated. There is little
personal contact between customer and salesperson prior to and
after the sales is closed. Thus, the prospect for repeat sales
may thus be diminished. Entrepreneurs are therefore compelled
to adopt marketing strategies to drive online users back to
their site.

From all indications, it appears that the advantages of
Internet promotion, far exceed the disadvantages. With adequate
knowledge, entrepreneur can benefit significantly from Internet
promotion, especially small business owners.

More and more, the growth and outreach of the Internet's, its
ease and accessibility for customers is becoming inevitable.
Small business would therefore be well advised to start their
web advertising function in order to improve their
competitiveness online.


About The Author: Carla Lendor is an Internet Marketing and
co-publisher of eXplosion!, a newsletter which offers guidance
to small businesses and co-founder of
http://www.talkcsme.blogspot.com, a blog which discusses the
challenges faced by businesses in the Caribbean Single Market
and Economy (CSME) environment. More information? Visit
http://www.patantconsult.com