The History of Internet Marketing
The amount of money that a business spends on Internet marketing has increased considerably over the past several years. In 1996 the average spend on Internet marketing in the United States alone was around $301 million (around ?194 million, based on the exchange rate at the time of writing). These days the Internet marketing industry sees funds of around $8.2 billion (approximately ?5.29 billion) each year and that number is expected to rise even more with all the new forms of Internet marketing that have been made available over the past couple of years.
As the web became more and more popular over the years, more businesses became aware of its potential as a powerful marketing tool and started to use the Internet to their advantage as a safe, reliable, cost-efficient and highly effective way to spread awareness about their new products and services to the world. Large corporations and small businesses alike have been able to see success from the world of Internet marketing and things continue to get better and better as time goes on.
While Internet marketing has worked very well for many corporations out there, this form of marketing can also backfire if not used carefully. Popular search engine Yahoo saw its customer base fall in early 2000 as many companies had to start tightening their advertising budgets in accordance with the state of the economy. During that time there was also a lot of speculation by some business owners who thought that Internet marketing was not as effective as other traditional forms of advertising.
However with the onset of social media over the past few years, we have seen a dramatic increase in the use of Internet marketing tools and have seen how effective these tools can be. Websites like Facebook and Twitter have changed the way that businesses market their products and services online – for the better. Now there is a helpful way for customers to communicate with their favourite companies and let them know how they feel about the products that they purchase and use every day. This has helped to put social media marketing on the map and it is quickly becoming one of the most popular forms of Internet marketing for many companies, both large and small.
Internet marketing has been around for practically as long as the Internet itself, but it has not always been the most effective form of advertising out there. These days there are so many online marketing tools available and methods to use – such as SEO and PPC – that Internet marketing has become probably the best way for many companies to advertise their products and services. If you have a brand new business that you are trying to get started and are not sure where to begin, it would be in your best interest to start your advertising techniques by using some of the Internet marketing tools that are available to you. This is one of the most cost-effective ways to get the word out to others about the products and services that your company has to offer.
Internet marketing is, in the world of advertising at large, a fairly new discipline. Despite this, the industry has seen tremendous growth over recent years, with many companies offering SEO, PPC and other internet marketing services.