The most profound effect of communication revolution that the world saw in the last decade was that it made distances shrunk exponentially, continents became accessible in the matter of seconds, and the presumed response time in every facet dipped, making even few minutes lagged on any interaction a major delay. This is the change the World Wide Web has inculcated in the world of communication, something that was never witnessed or anticipated before. Now internet is synonymous with communication and a web face is an inevitability for most businesses across the globe. But the scope of internet has extended much beyond to encompass virtually every aspect of business from advertising to market research, talent hunt and internet marketing. Here we talk about the latter of the ones mentioned, the internet marketing.

Whichever be the business, in order to market a product, one need to have some sort of interaction with a customer and the success of the entire ordeal depends on how well the marketing person could convince the customer. Generally, the marketing guy manages it through a personal meeting or a phone call. Internet marketing does exactly this marketing but the medium here is the internet or the World Wide Web. And in this globalised world, not giving priority to internet marketing means you are putting your business at a great disadvantage. Conversely, having a strategic internet marketing plan in place is crucial for any business to compete with its rivals in terms of visibility, market penetration and yes, in amassing a solid customer base.

Strategic internet marketing ponders over the planning and execution of an internet marketing campaign in order to maximize the ROI and is the biggest of the challenges in the whole marketing ordeal. It answers questions pertaining to budget allocation, most effective methods to reach to the customers online and in laying down a comprehensive online marketing plan based on the analysis of the current online environment, competitors and the industry and its market trends.

A well managed and closely managed set of five factors that generally works for every type internet marketing can be briefed as seen below,

* Search Engine Optimization

* E-mail Marketing

* Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC)

* Managed Support

Before seeing each of these aspects in detail, let me make clear the difference between Marketing Strategy and Marketing Tactic. A marketing strategy lays down the general approaches a business firm would take to reach to its objectives in hand. On the other hand, a marketing tactic refers to the actions the firm should take in order to bring the marketing strategies to take effect. Offering an email newsletter and submitting /listing the site to targeted search engines and directories come under the latter category.

Now back to internet marketing strategy and its intricacies. The penetration your site could bring about in the customer population depends upon the visibility your site has in the internet. That is, if somebody searches for the site through a search engine, where it gets listed in the search results on the first 10 or 20 or on the last page? Search Engine Optimization addresses this problem exactly. It is an analytic means by which the factors that eventually results in a better list ranking in search results are studied and found out, and the site is then modified or redesigned accordingly. Keyword analysis, dynamic optimization and tactical link exchange program are some aspects worked out in Search Engine Optimization.

Email marketing as the term suggests reach out to the customers through emails. This strategy helps to build a list of opt-in customers and prospects, which can be put into use further in ongoing marketing campaigns by means of direct emails, weekly specials, seasonal discounts, and newsletters, to name a few.

If you are ready to shell out some ready money, then Pay-Per-Click Marketing (PPC) is an effective option. In this method, the money-per-click inspires the search engines to list your name in a most visible format always. There are exclusive pay-per-click search engines like Overture, FindWhat.com and 7Search.com, which return the results of a search depending on how much the advertiser bid for the ad placement.

The most important of all these are the extent of services you as a business - offer to the customers. The final result of all the online and offline marketing efforts are graded on such a backdrop and hence it goes without saying that the managed support or continued service is that what cements confidence in the customers mind. And as long as customers have a larger part to play in the success/failure of a business, one cannot disappoint them, and that is exactly what every marketing strategy should look forward to.