Online marketing is an interactive way of generating timely responses from marketers and stimulating immediate customer response. In this article, you will know the advantages and disadvantages of online marketing. The scope of internet marketing is much wider as it covers all digital media tools such as e-mail, web, wireless media, etc. It also encompasses digital customer database management and Electronic Customer Relationship Management Systems (E CRM).
Major 6 Advantages of Online Marketing
Some of the advantages of online marketing are as follows:
1. Global Reach
An online marketer can compete with the entire global market without considering geographical boundaries. Marketers can attract and serve customers worldwide, apply global strategies, and create global supply chains through the internet.
2. Unrestricted Growth Prospects
Online marketing enables the expansion of businesses without any restrictions, whereas traditional marketing limits various growth prospects of companies. These limitations include physical space, sales force requirements, stock-keeping, etc.
3. Scope for Enhancing Customer Value and Customer Services
Through internet marketing, customers can purchase from a single portal, get customized products according to their needs, and are assured of instant responses. All these interactive factors contribute significantly towards improved customer service and enhanced customer value.
4. Building Strong Relationships with Customers
Like other direct marketing techniques, internet marketing also helps build good customer relationships. It is more effective than other forms of marketing as it provides interactive and one-to-one marketing.
5. Reduces Cost
The cost incurred in creating and handling an invoice is much less in internet marketing than in traditional marketing. Specifically, the total cost involved in receiving the order till the delivery of the product is substantially low when a product is marketed via the internet.
6. Boosts Productivity of Sales People
Most internet marketing operations are internet-based and are performed using desktops. It allows salespeople to focus their time and energy on valuable and important tasks. This helps them to increase their productivity level.
Top 5 Disadvantages of Online Marketing
The disadvantages of online marketing are as follows:
1. Not Suitable for All Types of Products
The concept of online marketing only fits some types of products or services. Therefore, the marketer must wisely select the products to be marketed via the internet and those that must be sold using traditional media only.
2. Involves Large Investments
It is a known fact that online marketing techniques are much cheaper than other conventional methods. However, the marketer must constantly maintain and upgrade the website, which incurs irregular and large investments.
3. Profitability Issues
Although online marketing has shown remarkable progress in recent years, marketers are still stressed about making their businesses profitable and running. One of the biggest issues in this regard is that internet marketing has high potential, but the program’s implementation involves numerous challenges. For example, Amazon, the world’s biggest online market portal, has still not reached its break-even point.
4. Risk toward Customer Information
Several customers do not purchase online products because of their privacy concerns. In recent times, there have been cases where some companies shared customers’ personal information with unfaithful people. However, few companies guarantee their customers that their personal information will remain safe and secure with them.
5. Distrust over Virtual Marketers
A major disadvantage of online marketing is that often there needs to be more consistency between what the customer ordered and what they received. Internet marketers have tried to improve this fault by introducing a feedback rating system and e-commerce bonding solutions. But, despite such efforts, the issue still needs to be resolved with most e-commerce websites.