internet Marketing

Scope of Internet Marketing in India
The dawn of the internet era opened up amazing new possibilities. Impossible is not a word anymore! India has also joined the bandwagon and the numbers themselves do all the talking. The latest statistics* reveal that 400 million people access internet regularly in India and that is jump of 700% in last six years. And, here comes the best part; the internet users as of now comprise of only 3.6% of the population. Now you can imagine the scope of internet marketing in India!

Now that we have come to terms with the tremendous scope of internet marketing in India, we have to understand that marketing through the internet can be an entirely different ball game. In fact it is a potent combination of technology and marketing acumen.

If you too want to hop into the online business bandwagon, the first aspect is developing/ hosting of your website. Then you can employ any one or all of the internet marketing techniques mentioned here and they are:

Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
Search engine marketing has of late become one of the principle tools in the armory of the Sauvé internet marketer. This prominence of SEM is owing to the fact that the search engines like Google, Yahoo etc. are being used by more and more people as their principle method of searching for relevant information. And, you can hope to sell through them if your website is visible on these search engines. The principle techniques employed in SEM are:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
A set of practices employed to get ranking for WebPages on relevant keywords (search queries). SEO does this by improving a websites structure and content.

Pay per Click (PPC):
PPC takes the sponsored route to drive relevant traffic to a website. The positioning of Ads is determined by a competitive bidding structure.

Paid Inclusion:
In paid inclusions, you can pay your way up on to the natural listings of search engines. As of now, Google has stopped its paid inclusion program.

E-Mail Marketing:
As the name suggests, e-mail marketing is promotion through e-mails. If used effectively it can assure you maximum returns on each penny you spend. It can be used for acquiring new customers, enhance the relationship you have with your existing clientele.

Advantages:
Cheap, instant, easily traceable and if used properly the return on investment can be astounding.
Disadvantages: Due to the overdoing of the e-mail campaigns by online companies, they are now being categorized as Spam mail. Thereby reducing the chances of it actually reaching the intended person.

Banner Advertising:
Banner marketing involves placing your advertisement on any third party website. This Ad will link to your website, this way if the potential customer clicks on your banner, he will be directed to your website. It can be a good way of attracting relevant traffic to your website.
Interactive Advertising:
It involves the use of interactive media applications to promote products online. It in fact involves the right use of text, images, Flash animations, AV clips etc. The interactive advertising platform in a way intends to send across a personalized message by giving the readers/ viewers a visual treat.

Blog/ Article marketing: Articles and blogs can be used effectively to propagate a marketing campaign. By submitting in various directories like Ezine and Go articles, you can hope to generate traffic through the link you have placed on the article directing towards your website.

Moreover, in my personal opinion in a country as diverse as India, the real action in a few years of time would lie in localization. Websites which will do business in Hindi and other local language would do well. It’s simply because contrary to the claims, for a major chunk of Indians English is still an alien language.

That’s why the scope of internet marketing in India lies in localization of websites. Talking to people in their own language does have its positive attributes. The indigenization of the web for the real Indians and the correct application of the mentioned internet marketing techniques is truly the way forward.