Web Marketing: Strengths and Weaknesses
I work for an online marketing firm, so I tend to spend a lot of my time promoting web marketing in all its many forms. And, although web marketing is a great tool that can radically alter the way a business operates, it does have its weaknesses as well. Therefore, before you decide to spend some money on a web marketing campaign you should consider the strengths and weaknesses this medium has.
One of the major draws of web marketing is how targeted it can be. In a way that’s even more directed than magazine advertising ever was, with web marketing you can be sure that you’re reaching your target demographic in that it lets you personalize advertisements in a way so they show up when potential clients are looking for the exact keywords that relate to your product. You are able to obtain niches that are difficult to target properly via traditional media. You can advertise on a website devoted entirely to bulldog breeders, but you would be hard-pressed to find a channel where you can be positive you are reaching people who enjoy breeding bulldogs.
The second strength goes with the first: cost. Through judicious use of online marketing, you attain a broad audience for a fraction of the price that you would have spent on old media. Television commercials, as you are aware cost thousands of dollars to make and then thousands more to broadcast on television stations in a local market, even more if you want the whole country. And, best of all, with web marketing you can be certain that the people you reach are into your product.
However, one to the negative: the one significant weakness of web marketing is that there is no easy manner that a consumer can interact with your product. If a potential customer were to see a commercial and then travel to a store then they would be to touch the product, feel it in his hand, and even try it on. This opportunity is not available to clients who are being marketed to online. If they are ordering a product online they don’t have the chance to interact with that product and decide if it is right for them.
Therefore, web marketing is best when the product is something abstract, like a trip, or something that isn’t overly personalized, like a novel. If you really do thing that the consumer will only order the product if they can feel it or try it out (makeup, shoes, women’s clothing), then maybe web marketing is not the way to go. However, there are profitable companies that operate in all three areas I mentioned, so it really is up to you.
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