The internet has changed the way we do everything, right from the way we look for information to the way we buy and sell products and services. It has transformed the whole world into a global market-space where businesses can reach out to potential clients all across the world and customers have access to convenient means of comparing differences in quality and price before they buy anything.

The rules of internet marketing however, are drastically different from the rules that governed traditional marketing procedures. As opposed to older marketing strategies that focused on pushing information onto the customers, internet marketing focuses on drawing potential clients towards the product.

Take a look at how internet marketing is different from traditional marketing.

Internet marketing encourages community participation

Internet marketing is based around the principal that customers make buying decisions with their hearts rather than their heads. Providing customers with a platform to interact with each other has a greater impact on their buying decisions rather than attempting to describe the attributes of a product in an attempt to make a sale. Participating in group activities of their brand community increases the odds of clients remaining loyal to the brand longer and increases their likelihood of buying more.

Customers like the idea that they can discuss the product with other members of the community. It gives them the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of the product they are considering buying. Earlier, whatever information the customer got about a product was from advertisements, which were completely one-sided. The customer got to know about the downside of the product only after having bought it.

Internet marketing focuses on listening to customers; not just talking to them

Internet marketing is about a two-way conversation rather than the one-way monologue of traditional marketing where the seller touted his products without letting the customer get a word in edge-wise.

Using social networking strategies by way of blogs, forums and chat rooms, internet marketing encourages customers to come to the website to exchange and share information. Customers tend to stay loyal to a brand longer if they feel they are being heard. They like the feeling that they have a platform where they can hear and also be heard.

Internet marketing is based on instant reactions

There are no office timings, time zones or weekends in internet marketing. Customers want things done yesterday. A comment is posted; it is available for the world to read within seconds. If you do not react instantly to a suggestion or a comment that has been posted, the customer is likely to feel ignored and unimportant. This could open the flood gates of criticism and adverse publicity that can spread around the world in a matter of minutes. Failing to react instantly to customer comments could hurt your business irreversibly. Damage control is almost impossible.

Internet marketing encourages customer loyalty

Customer loyalty can be created by rewarding existing customers and community members with useful and informative content. This can be done by facilitating the discovery and delivery of content so that customers can find it easily and also share it easily with others by means of feeds and links.
 

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