Advantages and Disadvantages to Online Marketing

Everyone seems to be jumping on the online marketing bandwagon lately. In the race to get their business online, many successful businesses forget to ask themselves some tough questions about what they are doing, what their expectations are and what their plan is to meet those expectations.The internet can be a powerful tool

that can put you on solid footing with bigger companies. On the other hand, the other companies may have more money to pay for advertising. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind as you analyze your online marketing strategy.

Examples of advantages of online marketing as follows, your store is open, 24 hrs. a day, 7 days a week. Further, your customers are worldwide in reach, and can shop anytime that they want to that another example of online marketing. Advantage to online marketing is Updating your subscribers can be done almost instantly through email. Visitors to your website can get up to the minute information on each visit. If you are having a sale, your customers can start shopping at the discounted prices literally as soon as they open their email. The last advantage to online marketing is if you have an information sensitive business, such as a law firm, newspaper or online magazine, you can deliver your products directly to your customers without having to use a courier.

Next I am going to go into the disadvantages to online marketing. The first disadvantage to online marketing isOnline marketing is not free. The cost of software, hardware, wed site design, maintenance of your site, online distribution costs and of course, time, all must be factored into the cost of providing your service or product. Another disadvantage to online marketing is slightly over 50% of households shop online. While that number will continue to grow, you are reaching less than two out of three households. The next disadvantage of online marketing is the internet is still regarded as a source of information gathering for the majority of your customers. Of the number of visitors to your site, the vast majority of visitors who are motivated to buy will do so in person.

Many people prefer the live interaction when they buy. If you have a small business with one location, this may deter customers from buying.Easier to have outdated information on your site, thus timing of updates is critical.There is no replacement for good old fashioned customer service. The majority of internet marketers lack customer service and inquiry response programs. As a result, many online visitors to your site will already have painted your site as poor service before they have even contacted you. The majority of websites also have poor navigation, which makes it difficult for your visitor to find what they are looking for. Many sites were created with a marketing view, not a customer service point of view.There is many other pros and cons of internet marketing.

It’s important for you to consider each when creating your online marketing strategy. Each of the disadvantages can be overcome, but only if you view the customer experience from the eyes of your customer, not as an online.