Interactive Marketing refers to the significant shift in marketing strategies from the simple transactional model to one of conversational.

Traditional marketing strategies have been based on the simple process of selling and delivering a product to a customer with little or no communication with the end user.

Conversational or Interactive Marketing involves a significant relationship between the service or product provider and the customer.

This has evolved at a rapid pace and the sales and communication channels opened up by the growth of the internet has been a major contributing factor.

Interactive Marketing has provided the facility for the consumer to have a significant impact on the marketing of a product, a brand image and even the design of a product. Customers have been given a direct opportunity to communicate with the producer by sending comments and feedback online to the company involved. If this facility is unavailable then consumers can use social media sites, forums etc to post their comments and feedback having a direct influence on the success of that product or its marketing campaign.

Companies can choose to ignore this feedback at their peril or act upon it and develop brand loyalty by giving the consumer a sense of ownership and participation in the success of that product.

Today people buy from people and consumers place more weight on the comments of fellow consumers rather than 'the company line'.

This process has changed the dynamics of a number of industries and the companies within it whereby they have had to review their marketing strategies and perhaps focus on a niche area of their industry to achieve a profitable market share rather than take the old 'broad brush' approach.

The benefits for the product or service provider is that they are able to build up a very clear and detailed profile of their targeted customer market and tailor their current and future products to meet their needs.

They are also able to identify and exploit niche market areas with very little competition in order to increase their profits by growing a loyal repeat customer base.

Companies and individuals that have grasped and accepted this concept have moved very quickly to build a strong online presence and sell a large proportion of their products over the internet. This has allowed them to grow an international customer base, benefit from low overhead costs and have the flexibility to operate a 24/7 and 365 business.

Of course the power of the consumer has made them more demanding; more educated in the products before purchase and have higher expectations. However, when they make a purchase and receive an excellent product and first class customer service they will become customers for life.

To conclude, it is clear that every company needs to develop an online presence to interact with their customers. They need to make use of the various social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn etc to provide a platform for customers to provide feedback however, the same media can be used to feed information to customers.

Companies ignoring the rapid shift to Interactive Marketing will be left behind.