Marketers are always looking for new ways to get their product into the public eye. Print used to be the only method, but the invention of radio and television revolutionized marketing. Television has been king for quite a few decades, but there is a new medium that surpasses all others that came before it. The internet isn’t actually all that new, but it is the most recent invention to completely change how marketing works. Internet marketing is booming for a very good reason: it is the most superior form. Here are five major ways that internet marketing easily surpasses other mediums. 
1. Sharing and community
Internet marketing is much more of a communal and social practice than any type of marketing before it. Advertisements on television, radio, and print would simply be there, be seen, and that was the end of it. Now, internet marketing can go viral and become more than just a marketing tool. Well-crafted marketing on the internet gets shared among friends and talked about. In some cases, the marketing can take off by itself and provide huge amounts of interest. The internet allows businesses to be more connected with the consumer through marketing, often leading to a very beneficial relationship.
2. The internet is quicker to change
Some non-internet advertisements will run for years without any change. Seeing the same advertisement ten times does not exactly inspire a person to suddenly go buy the product. People desire fresh new things, and the internet can provide that. Internet marketing can be changed extremely fast to reflect new products, services, or a new marketing technique. It allows businesses to have a lot more freedom and flexibility with their marketing. They can try out a certain advertisement for a while without the huge risk that a television commercial would bring. Which leads into the next point…
 3. It’s cheap!
Internet marketing is extremely cheap compared to other, older types of marketing. Television advertisements can be thousands or even millions of dollars for a simple 30-second ad. With easy-to-use systems like Google AdSense, internet marketing is much cheaper. Depending on the type of ad (static, video, or audio), production cost is often lower. Internet ads are generally more about quantity instead of quality. It really only works because of how the internet itself works. People browse fast and see hundreds of advertisements in a browsing session. Some production value doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t as vital as in other forms of marketing.
 4. More precise targeting
Marketers are always trying to get their product in front of the right people. It’s why beer and Doritos ads are all over the place during the Super Bowl: it fits the audience. The internet allows for much greater precision when marketing. Businesses can target specific websites that cater to the exact product they are selling. For example, videogame ads are all over video game websites. Sites like YouTube and Hulu take it even further by picking their ads to fit each user. After collecting data on specific users or what kind of people watch specific videos, the sites tailor the marketing to fit the demographic. The internet is a great place for precision marketing, especially for products or services that cater to more of a niche market.
 5. Print, audio and video marketing are all possible on the internet
Television, radio and print are all restricted to a certain type of marketing. Television uses commercials, radios have audio ads and print is just a static image ad. The internet has all three. Static image ads are still very popular all over the internet, and video ads are becoming very prevalent on video sharing sites. Audio marketing is often seen in things like podcasts or internet radio. The internet allows marketing a huge amount of creative freedom. They have a lot of choices, which often leads to better marketing.
The internet is such a versatile marketing space, that it is very hard to challenge its superiority. More and more businesses are moving the bulk of their marketing online, and are benefiting from it. The internet is growing at a rapid pace while print, audio, and television mediums are losing steam. Old mediums should not be abandoned, but the internet is where most business should focus their marketing.
John Gower is a writer for NerdWallet, a personal finance website dedicated to helping you save money with financial tips on everything from the marketing tips to info on low interest/zero interest credit cards.
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