What are the major challenges of Online Marketing? MP-2009

Online Marketing:
Online marketing is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. It ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising and sales. Online marketing is the process of promoting an organization using online media, typically with the goals of increasing sales and boosting profits. Internet marketing does not simply mean building or promoting a website nor does it mean simply putting a banner ad up on another website. Effective online marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergies a given company's business model and sales goals with their website function & appearance, focusing on their target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design.

Challenges faced by Online Marketing:
Limited consumer exposure and buying: Online marketing still reaches only a limited market space. Web users appear to do more window browsing than actual buying. Only an estimate 18 percent of web surfers actually use the web regularly for shopping or to obtain commercial services such as travel information.

Skewed user demographics and psycho graphics: Online users tend to be more upscale and technically oriented than the general population. This makes online marketing ideal for marketing computer hardware and software, consumer electronics financial prices, and certain other classes of products. It makes online marketing less effective for selling mainstream products.

Chaos and clutter: The Internet offers up millions of web sites and a staggering volume of information. Thus, navigating the Internet can be frustrating, confusing, and time consuming for consumers. In this chaotic and cluttered environment, many web ads and sites go unnoticed or unopened. Even when noticed, marketers will find it difficult to hold consumer attention.

Security: Consumers worry that unscrupulous snoopers will eavesdrop on their online transactions or intercept their credit card numbers and make unauthorized purchases. In turn, companies doing business online fear that others will use the Internet to invade their computer systems for the purposes of commercial espionage or even sabotage, Online marketers are developing solutions to such security problems. However, there appears to be never ending competition between the technology of security systems and the sophistication of those seeking to thwart them.

Ethical concerns: privacy is a primary concern. Marketers can easily track web site visitors, and many consumers who participate in web site activities provide extensive personal information. This may leave consumers open to information abuse of companies make unauthorized use of the information in marketing their products or exchanging electronic lists with other companies. There are also concerns about segmentation and discrimination. The Internet currently serves upscale consumers well. However, poorer consumers have less access to the Internet, laying them increasingly less informed about products, services, and prices.