…Identifying a customer base is a critical element of successful marketing. Typically, customers can be divided into two camps: existing clients and potential clients. Marketing staffs build campaigns based on the four pillars of product, pricing, promotion and placement.

Advances in technology are always opening new avenues for marketing. Internet marketing brings the placement of products and services to the information superhighway; allowing companies to expand the reach of their communications at a lower cost than more traditional methods. The interactive nature of the Internet also increases the ability for the end customer to respond quickly.

The business of marketing online has expanded with the growth of the Internet. As in traditional business marketing, companies target specific audiences with a comprehensive strategy using their own Web sites; as well as banner advertisements on other sites to spread the word about products and services. E-mail marketing is where businesses send e-mails to customers. It can be an effective way to reach out directly to a company's target audience; so long as the company does so in a way that is not perceived as Internet spam. Internet spam is unsolicited emails in one's inbox. Spam is well known for some of it's more colorful language and sometimes profound poetry (designed to defeat spam filters), but is mostly considered obnoxious in Internet culture. Internet marketing also allows businesses to effectively track customer response via click activity or page views.

Marketing whether done using the Internet or via more traditional avenues is a vital factor in a company's success. No matter how great a product or service is, nobody is going to buy it if they don't know it exists.