by Ronald Manalastas

Created on: January 18, 2011

Online marketing is the process of promoting and selling products or services over the Internet, a ubiquitous technology that provides borderless, high-speed communication connectivity to about 2 billion users, or 29% of the world’s population of 6.8 billion people. At an average annual usage growth of 445% in the last 10 years, the Internet has proven to be the single, fastest-growing market ever experienced by mankind.

Today, no business can afford to ignore the power of the Internet as a marketing medium. Online marketing is no longer an option but an important precondition to business success. It is a strategic and functional requirement that existing businesses, regardless of sizes, products, and markets, must comply with for the following reasons and benefits:

1. Immediate access to global markets

As a global medium, the Internet allows buyers and sellers from different parts of the globe to communicate and come to agreement, in a matter of minutes, on what product, price, and terms one party is willing supply and what the other party is willing to accept. Even without their physical presence, online marketing makes possible the meeting of the minds of transacting parties.

The Internet levels the playing fields between small and big companies across the online environment. Even a small online trader, without any brick-and-mortar facility, can transact and capture good business over the Web for as long as the needs and expectations of the distant buyer are satisfactorily met.

2. Enhanced business-building capability

The Internet serves as a powerful business enabler that provides online marketers with the needed connectivity tool (i.e. wired or wireless broadband capability) in creating the desired level of market awareness about the product, services, and values the marketers promote and sell. The propagation of carefully worded messages and eye-catching graphics assumes critical importance in building and increasing website traffic and market awareness.

An Internet-based marketing campaign can help the marketer instantaneously acquire new customers as online visitors are given the flexibility to buy products or services of their choice by a simple click of the purchase button. An existing business cannot capitalize on this online advantage if it remains fixated to traditional marketing, where it takes more time and money to build a broad community key prospects and new customers.

3. Target marketing / competitive advantage

Although the Internet

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