Online Marketing Defined

Marketing that uses the internet is online marketing and can be classified into search engine marketing, display advertising, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing, interactive advertising and viral marketing
Search Engine Marketing(SEM) is a mean for promoting a website through search engines.Largest vendors are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.It consists of 3 different methods

1. Search Engine Optimization(SEO) means optimizing a site so that for particular keywords site ranks highest in searches and thus generates maximum visits
2. Paid Placement or Pay Per Click: When a user types a keyword query matching the advertiser's keyword list, the advertiser's ad may appear on the search results page. These ads are called a "Sponsored link" or "sponsored ads" and appear next to, and sometimes, above the natural or organic results on the page. The advertiser pays only when the user clicks on the ad.
   
3. Paid inclusion Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing product where the search engine company charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index. Google however does not provide this service.

Display advertising:This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking them to the web site of the advertiser. The ad is usually a mixture of image and animation and is also called banner advertising
E-mail marketing is a form of direct marketing and consists of

• Sending emails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or old customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business.
• Sending emails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing old customers to buy something immediately.
• Adding advertisements in emails sent by other companies to their customers.

Affiliate Marketing means using one site to drive traffic to another.Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting web businesses (merchants/advertisers) in which an affiliate (publisher) is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts.
Interactive Advertising is the use of interactive media( that allow for active participation by the recipient) to promote and/or influence the buying decisions of the consumer in an online and offline environment.An example would be use of micro sites etc this form is linked to viral marketing.
Viral Marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of funny video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, images, or even SMS text messages.
It is claimed that a satisfied customer tells an average of three people about a product or service he/she likes, and eleven people about a product or service which he/she did not like. Viral marketing is based on this natural human behaviour.
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