Is internet marketing worth it?

This is a post more like an answer to my friend Ciprian who challenged me to express my opinion about internet marketing and its efficiency. Well, as you probably observed I chose a diffrent question to answer and I did that because in his post Cip was saying that due to the use of KPIs one cannot compare „apples with pears” as we romanian say. Of course you cannot do that but there are also KFIs and those can help you see if internet marketing campaign really are worth it.

I see that a great deal of polemics are around the fact or the question „is online marketing more efficient than the offline?”. It’s a little bit hazarduos to answer that question but if would really have to give an answer that would be … it depends! It depends on who your consumers are, what they represent, what they like, etc. I know it’s trendy and it’s fun but if doesn’t show the desired ROI, internet marketing is no other than an unuseful way of spending money. Just because a lot of people use it, that doesn’t mean everyone is online. Most of my ex-colleagues who are in sales are never online. They don’t even know what facebook or twitter is, have rarely entered youtube and Bill Gates is still the most important internet related figure. So, if your target is not online, than don’t use internet marketing.

And another thing, internet marketing does not mean only presence online and SEO. It means also how you can convince your audience to spend time online and of course on the desired website. This is why other than being preocupied on bringing people on your website, you should also be concerned about how much time they spend on your website and of course on convincing them to return. Content management and the quality of your texts is crucial.

Last but not least important, there can be no succes for an offline brand only with an online campaign. You must integrate the online with the other media and create a link between the two. Otherwise you’ll find yourself investing a lot of money in a online campaign and there will be no results offline.