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Internet marketing is not defined by:

You know the saying, “One bad apple spoils the bunch”? Well, the same can be said about internet marketing. Only, I’m talking about spammers who spoil the bunch. When I mention I do internet marketing for a living, many people respond with, “Oh you’re the person who spams me with Viagra emails!” Uh, no. To me, that’s the equivalent of accusing someone who claims to be in marketing as “the one who interrupts my dinner with telemarketing calls.”

Internet marketing, like traditional marketing, consists of a near-endless range of marketing tactics that may or may not include a tactful approach. Some methods are invasive and unsolicited, but many are not. You may not even realize you’re being targeted. And you may even be sold on something without knowing you’ve been sold. Behavioral analysis and geo-location is enough data for paid search marketers and advertisers to target someone online. An individual can’t be personally identified and tracked for statistical purposes (yet) but trend data can be recorded and is very useful to marketers.

Have you done a search recently on Google and clicked on a sponsored link? Have you surfed MySpace or LinkedIn and clicked on a banner ad or text link? Do you use the internet?! If you answered yes to any of these questions, there’s someone on the other end of those clicks that is using this data. Is it creepy? Some people think it is. But it’s not harmful or invasive. It’s as if you’re shopping at the mall, and someone is standing outside the window with a clipboard, jotting down the items you pick up, try on, put back, and/or purchase. It’s better than receiving a thousand emails in your inbox relating to penile implants and prescription medications, yes?

Where the heck am I going with this? This is just my declaration that my job in internet marketing is not defined by Viagra, or spam emails, or annoying banner ads, or any one thing at all. Internet marketing is much more than that. It’s like traditional marketing, only using a different medium. It’s all about driving targeted traffic to a desired place in the world wide web. Where the marketer wants you to end up and the methods they use to get you there depends on the marketer. The internet is a pretty big space, and it’s too bad some people with lesser methods ruin it for the rest of us!

[This post was inspired by a conversation I had with Gary (and by comments from friends) where he remarked that he now uses colorfully descriptive language to avoid the use of the term “internet marketing” when asked about his career. It’s just easier that way.]

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