Online Marketing

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Web advertising provides greater convenience and broader reach than any previous form. Broadcasts are limited by range, posters and billboards limited by proximity and ; online advertising offers a global reach.

The value of individual online advertising methods is a subject of some debate. Some believe average CPM of banner advertising relative to television and radio is too high, others think it's too low. Few, if any, challenge the idea that online marketing is growing rapidly.

Unlike broadcast commercials, online advertising can be targeted to individual users' tastes, potentially increasing the efficacy of an ad campaign per impression. Television commercials can be focused to the average viewer of a program, but all viewers receive the same ads. Online marketing doesn't necessarily face this limitation.

Web marketing can also avoid interrupting a user's experience. Commercial breaks still exist in the form of pre- and post-roll advertising, and ads can be thrust onto a surfer's screen with the use of pop-ups, but ads can also remain in view as a visitor interacts with content. These ads may be absorbed peripherally, but are everpresent during a user's experience. Banners have the added ability to offer direct links to selling opportunites reducing the time between a customer's initial interest and his or her buying decision.

The internet also opens the doors for new types of viral and social marketing that take advantage of interactivity and community. These new kinds of marketing both expand on and offer relief from some of the more incidious and annoying traits of marketing. Our society has grown a strong cynicism towards the sales efforts we are increasingly exposed to over the previous century. Fortune will likely favor the bold as rules are defined in the coming years.