Internet marketing now requires innovation.(Brief Article)

What is a rational approach to using the Internet in a marketing mix these days?

It's a valid question. In the heady days of dot-com excess, a lot of companies overspent on ill-conceived efforts such as untargeted banner ads and glitzy Flash-driven corporate sites without an idea of when, or how, they would get a return on their investment.

And recent Internet trash talk makes it unlikely that new Internet marketing ideas at any size business will be warmly embraced by the bean counters.

The backlash against spending on Internet marketing is so widespread that it's even hurt books on the subject. My own "Internet Marketing for Dummies," the renamed and thoroughly revised second edition of "Marketing Online for Dummies," until recently was outsold by its somewhat outdated 3-year-old predecessor. I …