Internet Marketing for Small Businesses

The article I found last week deals with online marketing methods out there for small businesses to utilize. Unlike traditional business environment where you had to post your contact number in the phone book, people are reachable via various sources such as e-mail, social media, search ads, pay-per-click marketing, etc. However, as I read through the mail there were some key touchpoints that needed to be addressed early on in order for these online marketing activities to be effective.

1. A well-developed website and online presence is required to turn the initial contact/interest into tangible marketing results. Although people may pay attention to the ads via various sources cited above, you need to have an established online source of your business for these visitors to turn into customers. Otherwise, all the marketing efforts have just succeeded in creating a temporary increase in web traffic.

2. Marketers need to understand that there is no one-stop solution into allocating marketing budget between various advertising methods. Especially with the n-screen platform people are consuming media, the complexity in ad performance measurement is increasing. Therefore, in order for marketers to understand their activity and performance, consistent testing and evaluating the marketing 'experiments' should be conducted to develop marketing insights that is customized for the business.

3. Although I've stated that there is no one-stop solution to budget allocation, there is a sure sign of waste/failure. Cutting off a certain marketing effort, or even worse, only using a single means of online advertising does not result in a successful marketing campaign. Small business have to be aware that not all advertisements are focused on creating instant transactions, but there are brand awareness that is also created via advertisement, which could lead to a delayed transaction later in the future.

The article attached below mainly deals in the various marketing methods for small businesses, but I thought the article could also be applied to businesses in general.

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7235-internet-marketing-a-buyer-s-guide.html