How to Market Your Small Business Online

Internet Marketing is a now a must do marketing activity for any small business wanting to prosper in the so called Information age. However, with this being said, marketing your small business on the Internet does not need to be expensive, nor does it need to be complicated.
And, just like in the real world, there are many small business marketing options available to you.
As a small business owner you just need to choose from the variety of Internet marketing options available to you, and then consistently apply these systems and strategies to get measurable results. In fact, small business Internet marketing can be a very cost-effective way of promoting your bricks and mortar business locally and/ or to the world.
So, what are these strategies and how does one apply them?
For the average small business there are only THREE approaches to Internet marketing that one needs to consider, being…
1. Paid search marketing (Pay per click marketing, and its numerous variations), and… 2. In-context link marketing (being commercial links within content on a specific topic), and… 3. Natural search marketing (SEO, content marketing, blogs and its numerous variations).
And, what are the benefits/ costs (pros and cons) of these approaches?
1. PPC SEARCH MARKETING:
The effectiveness of your paid search marketing campaign is directly related to the keyterms you chose to use. The other key factor here is your landing page for you PPC advertisement. In essence, Paid search marketing works a little like the marketing you (as a bricks and mortar business owner) already know and use in the real world. The main difference here is that you pay per click.
The PROS: If correctly targeted, you get prospects looking at what you want to sell and/ or promote quickly.
The CONS: A) Hire a specialist or do it yourself. If you DIY you can lose a lot of money, fast! B) Skilled specialists are expensive. C) You continually pay to play with this model. D) High demand keyterms are very costly (thus eliminating most small businesses).
2. IN-CONTEXT LINK MARKETING:
This approach uses other people’s web site content as the platform for your advertising. The links are embedded inside the content on their web pages. This content is usually keyword focused. For example, let’s say that you sell wood heaters. When you engage in in-context link marketing your hyperlinks are placed within content on specific web site articles and/ or web pages about wood heaters.
The PROS: Embedded hyperlinks that are within topic-focused content are not (generally) regarded by the reader as commercial links. They are viewed as links to additional information on the topic. Thus, if you hyperlink from topic-focused content to more topic focused content that gently moves the prospect into your marketing funnel these links can be an extremely effective way to advertise your small business.
The CONS: A) Competition for commercial keyterms is fierce. This continually drives your costs up. And, you only get to play as long as you continue to pay. B) You have limited control over where these hyperlinks are placed, because it’s the In-Context advertising system that places these links in the participating publisher’s content for you. C) To get best results here one needs to utilize specific landing pages for the clickthroughs from your different ads. This is called the search path, and again it’s a specialist skill that’s needed to set up good search path landing pages.
3. MIMICKING NATURAL SEARCH MARKETING:
Think about this. How do YOU use the web? I’ll guarantee you that if you’re looking for a solution to a problem that you do what millions of other people do everyday. You go to your favorite search engine (usually Google) and type in your problem (a.k.a. keyphrase). Then, your search engine presents you will likely answers. When a small business interfaces with the fundamental reality of the way people use the Internet THEY win.
Note: SEO is a term used to describe the optimization of web pages. Search marketing is different (though related). Search marketing integrates SEO and information search paths to better interface with the web user searching for specific information.
The PROS: With natural search marketing, if your business is the creator of the keyword-focused content, you have a distinct marketing advantage on the web. Long term, these advantages will far out weight both the PPC and In-context marketing strategies, because you are building a web business or traffic portal which belongs to you. Your results with natural search marketing are in direct relationship to your own efforts. And, here’s an interesting twist, small businesses wanting to primarily market themselves locally or regionally have a distinct advantage using this natural search marketing methodology.
The CONS: A) Search marketing strategies take longer to mature than the other methods discussed, however the cost-effectiveness and long-term results are better. C) The commitment must be to the continual addition of fresh content to the keyword-focused, theme-related content systems developed. However, for any business owner who knows their business and loves it this is never an onerous task.
To summarize… Marketing on the Internet for small businesses no longer needs to be seen as a mysterious event. There is still be a great divide between those businesses who are using the web properly, and those who don’t. However, armed with this information, you now have a choice.