[By: C. Stroebel]

Marketing can be defined as a range of specialist marketing functions carried out within most organisations. These functions constitute market research, brand and product management, corporate responsibility and customer service.

Internet marketing can be used to support these aims with a prominent web presence. A company website, combined with promotional techniques such as links from other websites could be useful to generate traffic and acquire new customers. The company website must focus on achieving customer satisfaction by making the site user friendly and ensuring effective delivery. It can also develop customer relationships by offering existing customers a subscription service or an inquiry service. Other internet tools commonly used to promote visibility on the net includes search engines, banner advertising, and direct e-mail.

By using the internet for Market Research, the Entrepreneur would look for ways to improve his product or service offering, and possibly gain a competitive advantage. He would be able to recognize new markets and/or customers, and thus pro-actively identify customer requirements.

The internet should be a priority in modern marketing plans since it can be used to support all of the organisational functions and processes aimed at satisfying customers. Businesses should use their websites for relationship-building and service delivery primarily, and mustn't restrict their web strategy to promotion and selling. The web also assists information management, which nowadays is becoming an increasingly important marketing support instrument to strategy formulation and implementation. The future role of the internet should form part of the vision of a company since its future impact will be significant on most businesses.