Back when the dotcom boom first began, internet marketing was the buzzword that every company owner wanted to cash in on. In fact, up until a few years ago, it was all the rage as well. However, these days, trade forums and business advice columns are telling business owners that they need to get on the social media marketing bandwagon ASAP to boost revenue. For someone who hasn’t studied the technical aspects of the two types of marketing, deciding which one to use could be a tricky question. We examine what both these terms mean and which one of the two online marketing methods generates more revenue.
What does internet marketing mean?
Internet marketing, to put it more plainly, is simply the practice of using the World Wide Web to promote a business. This includes the use of online ads, sales leads generated from visits to websites, e-mails that directly promote e-commerce, informative websites, promotional ad and e-mail campaigns and search engine optimization.
How does internet marketing generate revenue?
Internet marketing generates revenue through the following means:
1. Paid subscription for access to premium content
Some sites have a special paid section that is accessible only to paying members.
2. Pay per View access to files
Companies that provide access to digital content like music files, video or documents etc. ask users to pay for individual files that they want to down and this is counted towards the revenue generated by the site.
3. CPM display advertising on site
Cost per Mille or cost per thousand is a charge that advertisers pay to site owners to have their ad shown to inbound unique visitors. Third party services like Google Ad Sense are used for these services.
4. CPC advertising
Some advertisers like to pay site owners based on the number of clicks that text ads get on another site.
5. Sponsorship of site sections
Some advertisers like to buy ad space on a particular section of a site (home screen, just below the company’s banner, etc) for a fixed fee.
6. Affiliate revenue
Commission based revenue from affiliates is another great way to using Cost per Acquisition to generate revenue.
7. Subscriber data access for e-mail marketing
Some companies ask permission from their customers if they can use their data to send them emails about promotions from their own site or from their affiliates. This usually helps companies generate a lot of revenue.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is a type of internet marketing which primarily uses social media platforms to promote businesses. By forging business relationships with customers through their social media profiles, companies are able to add a personal touch to business-centric marketing.
How does social media marketing generate revenue?
Social media marketing, being a part of internet marketing itself, basically aims at promoting and supplementing existing internet marketing based revenue generation sources. However, the exact revenue generated by social media marketing efforts exclusively can be gauged via the following metrics:
1. Leads
2. SEO efforts that generate website traffic
3. Unique website visitors
By analyzing what portion of revenue through online marketing is being generated by social media marketing, you can gauge its usefulness to your particular line of business.
Does social media marketing generate more revenue than internet marketing?
Certainly not. Social media marketing, as we have examined above, is merely a part of online marketing and thus, it contributes only a fraction of revenue in comparison to the revenue generated by the wider internet marketing campaign.
