Why is Internet Advertising and Marketing Important?

The Internet is a tool enabling businesses to reach literally millions of new customers each month. The Internet is redefining the relationship between businesses and consumers, for the first time in history a small to medium sized company now can reach all over the globe to share information about it's products and services. Now your business can advertise and reach customers on a global scale that just a few years ago was available to only a hand full of large corporations. One advantage to advertising on the internet  is the fact that the it is always on. Your businesses image is shared 24 hrs a day 7 days a week. Shoppers can visit your site at their Convenience from the comfort of their own homes. It is like having your doors open 24 hrs a day 7 days a week.

 Another advantage is the Internet is enabling consumers to purchase from companies outside their geographical location; many items that were once available only in certain areas now are available worldwide thanks to the Internet. I believe the Internet will dramatically change the way we purchase and use the products and services we use daily. But don't take my word for it here is a recent quote from Alan Greenspan to the senate Budget Committee

"A significant part of the distribution of goods and services in this country is going to move from conventional channels to some sort of Internet system -- whether it's retail goods or services."

Alan Greenspan
Federal Reserve Chairman
Report to Senate Budget Committee
January 28, 1999

• According to a recent study (Stanford Poynter Study) done at the Poynter Institute on how people read the news on the Internet, it was found that 45% of subjects look directly at banner ads and they focused on them for an average of one second.
  
• The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) confidently states in a recent article that: 
  • The Net is the Fastest Growing Medium in History 
  • Web ad banners build brand awareness and may be better at generating awareness than television or print advertising 
  • Internet Demographics are a Marketer's Dream.
  
• As Jeffrey Graham writes in his article In Defense of the Banner for ClickZ.com: "Good online advertising integrates into the user experience and offers relevant, compelling information just as any other form of advertising does."
  
• According to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers Internet Advertising Revenue Report for the 3rd quarter of 1999, "Internet/online advertising revenues surpassed the $1.0 billion quarter for the first time, totaling $1.2 billion for the third quarter of 1999" and that this was a "148 percent growth over the 1998 third-quarter total of $491 million."
  
• The Industry Standard magazine shows projections for online advertising to reach a staggering $30.8 billion dollars by 2005 - up from $7 billion in 2000.
  

(SOURCE:  Industry Standard  - March 19^th, 2001 Vol. 4, No. 11)