6. Internet Marketing

The Internet has brought many unique benefits to marketing, one of which being lower costs and greater capabilities for the distribution of information and 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. It includes design, development, advertising, and sale.

Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it not only refers to digital media such as the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media. Internet marketing also includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management systems. Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet.

Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization. Internet marketing differs from magazine advertisements, where the goal is to appeal to the projected demographic of the periodical. Marketers have the luxury of targeting by activity and geolocation.

For example, a company can post advertisements on canoeing websites with the full knowledge that the audience has a related interest. Because the advertiser has knowledge of the target audience, the people who engage in certain activities (e.g., uploading pictures, contributing to blogs) the company does not rely on the expectation that a certain group of people will be interested in its new product or service.