The 21st century has seen some remarkable changes, to the face of the world as well as the way we live. Since the turn of the millennia, the internet’s prominence in our lives has grown exponentially and it’s becoming more and more difficult to imagine a life without the World Wide Web. The internet has changed the way we communicate, the way we learn and the way we do business: an estimated 2.2 billion people have come into direct contact with the internet in just 2011 alone. With global business shifting to be online more and more, people using the web to live their lives… Can your business afford to miss out on internet marketing?

One of the main reasons the internet has expanded so quickly and seen such rapid adoption across the four corners of the earth is its flexibility. An internet connection is capable of providing entertainment through music and video, education through articles and online books, communication through email and video chat and collaboration through a variety of different tools. All of these abilities are enabled with just an internet connection and a web browser. The internet has promoted flexibility in allowing people to work in locations that hadn’t even been imagined before and it has provided ways for people to market their own business in completely new ways.

Accelerate your marketing with the internet
Traditional marketing campaigns can take weeks, months and even years to be successful. Target markets need to be captured, analysis needs to have taken place and even then the most inventive and ingenious marketing approach might not be completely successful. Internet marketing, bolstered with services such as internet search engines, web analytics and social media, has emerged as an extremely efficient and fast way to engage with lots of people. Think about how often you might do a digital search: whether looking for your favourite album or a newspaper article on a subject you’re interested in. With 2.2 BILLION annual internet users, internet marketing has never been more important in getting people on board with your product.

The internet never sleeps, and every minute of every hour of every day somebody, somewhere, will be searching for something related to your business. If this was offline, no traditional marketing professional would allow themselves to miss out on this much potential attention, so why ignore all of the traffic related to your business that takes place on the internet? The internet is growing at a breakneck speed and there is no shortage of people looking to get online: people that your business could potentially develop a successful relationship with. Internet advertising and marketing never stops.

Not geeky? No problem
A common misconception of internet marketing is that one needs to be an expert in all things digital in order to capitalise on the enormous potential the internet offers for business. This couldn’t be more wrong! An online market exists in online marketing, with digital search experts in their field. Using advanced techniques such as SEO, or ‘Search Engine Optimisation’, Digital Search can help your company to get the contextual advertising it needs to stay competitive. Websites such as Google, masters of the image search and video search, can regularly put your business in the eyes of the very people looking to buy your products – but only with effective content marketing. Your business can even be at the forefront of an academic search with correct internet marketing; the very optimisation Digital Search provide to an extremely high standard.

Mobile Marketing
Internet marketing is on the bleeding edge of business. The mobile market is one which savvy entrepreneurs and business people are looking to breach, with smartphone and tablet rapidly accounting for rising stakes in online internet traffic. Internet marketing can be specifically tailored to these emerging markets, ensuring that your business remains always one step ahead of the game.

What are you waiting for?
Whether you’re looking to boost your business’ exposure to potential customers, are trying to get ahead of the competition or simply looking to emerge onto the online market, internet marketing is an essential part of any modern, successful business. A number of solutions exist that can be tailored to any variety of company, organisation or individual. The only questions left are: Are you making the most of internet marketing? If not, why not? Invest in internet marketing, ready for this October.

This article was written by Andy Wright on behalf of Digital Search online marketing services company.