Internet Marketing Online - Advertising

Internet marketing online has become a strong medium to connect advertisers and marketers to customers worldwide. There are a number of benefits of marketing online. However, before you get into any kind of conclusion or seriously consider internet marketing online as an integral part of your advertising strategy, you should know that it is important to remember certain rules that must be applied here.

These rules and guidelines will protect your business and facilitate maintaining the credibility of the Internet as an advertising and marketing medium.

The guidelines mentioned below are prepared by the federal trade commission (FTC) to provide you an overview of some of the laws that it enforces.

• The FTC Act strictly prohibits unfair or deceptive advertising in any medium. To be elaborative, while you advertise your products, you must not mislead the customers, and mention the truth.
• You, as a internet marketer online will be held responsible for claims you make about your products and services.
• Third parties such as ad agencies or website designers and catalogue marketers may also be questioned for creating or disseminating deceptive representations if they are seen involved in the preparation and distribution of the advertising or know about the deceptive claims.
• Advertising agencies or website designers may be liable for reviewing the information used to substantiate online advertising claims.
• If you are a catalog marketer, you can protect yourself by asking for material to backup claims rather than repeat what the manufacturer says about the product.
• You must take care that the disclaimers and disclosures are clear and conspicuous to your customers. The customer must be able to notice, read or hear and understand the information provided by you, the online internet marketer.
• Make sure the demonstration of the product will perform under normal use.
• Refunds must be made to dissatisfied consumers, in case you promised so.

If you are dealing with products that are related to children, you must know that online advertising directed to children raises special issues.

This is so, because children may face greater difficulty evaluating the claims made byinternet marketing advertisements and interpreting the nature of the internet marketing information you provide to them.

• Take care that you don't misrepresent a product or its performance when advertising to children.
• You should contact The Children's advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the council of better business Bureaus, to know the guidelines to follow for children's advertising.

Protecting Consumers' privacy online:

There are number of opportunities and sharing of information on the Internet for consumers. Consumers have very strong concerns about the security and confidentiality of their personal information in the online market place.

The FTC has held a number of workshops for industry, consumers' groups and privacy advocates to explore industry guidelines to protect consumers' privacy online. As an internet marketing online participant it is your responsibility to know and adhere to these guidelines.