Internet marketing, as a career, often allows you to work from the comfort of your home or anywhere in the world that has a connection to the Internet.
The most appealing aspect of internet marketing is that you can take an idea that you have and experiment with it without spending a great deal of money. If you want to set up a traditional business you have the initial expense of premises, rent, heating, inventory and staff. You then may have to work long hours to ensure that your business is successful.
If the business does not work out, what then?
With Internet marketing you have no overheads, you are open for business 24 hours a day and you can respond to changing trends very quickly. You can adapt your strategy or go in a completely different direction if you want.
The one thing that all businesses have in common whether it is online or offline is that they need customers. An offline business would want to have their premises somewhere where there are a lot of potential customers and not hide down a back alley where no-one can find them.
An online business is the same. But instead of physical brick-and-mortar premises they have a Website, and that website needs to be found to ensure that the business can operate. Search engine optimisation is vital in this case.
You may have the best website in the world, but if no one knows where you are then it is completely useless. Search engine optimisation, when done properly, is the equivalent of positioning your shop or premises in the prime spot on Main St, only in this case your shop is a website.
For example, if you specialise in selling Ford car parts, you want your website to feature highly in the Search engines results for Ford car parts. People looking for Honda car parts are of no interest to you. Search engine marketing is therefore very important to your business.
Search Engine Marketing enables you to pick as many keywords as you like and be featured highly in the search engines for each one provided you have the resources to go after all of them. There is very little expense involved in the set-up and once you have your website optimised properly you can reap the benefits for a long time. Search engine marketing allows you to target the exact customers that you want without wasting time and money on others.
The traditional methods of marketing such as billboards, newspapers, etc. are like the equivalent of buckshot whereas search engine marketing gives you a laser guided approach to getting the attention of the customers that you want.
Internet marketing is the direction that all companies are going and search engine optimisation as well as search engine marketing are vital components of this. The speed of change on the internet means that you have to be able to adapt and unlike brick and mortar businesses you can do this very inexpensively on the web. You can also diversify or go into a completely different market if you so choose without spending a lot of money at the outset.
Karen Barney wrote this article for inSegment. She is recommending inSegments Internet marketing, Online Marketing, and Boston SEO services for those who are in interest.