subject: Marketing Your Small Business Online [print this page] If you want your small business to succeed, it should go without saying that you need a powerful web presence in order to surpass your competition. One small storefront is much the same as another, and it is the effort that a company puts into their web campaign that can set them apart. That is why finding the internet marketing tool that works best for your business is one of the most important things that you can do in order to guarantee your success.
There are quite a few tools that you can use, and it's all about finding a balance. That is to say that you don't want to try every single internet marketing method that is out there, or you will spread yourself to thin. On the other hand, you don't want to only use one method, or you won't be diversified enough for success. These are the basic tools that everyone should use to get a good base established on the internet.
SEO is where you need to start. This means including keywords on your site and building links from related sites in order to get your company to start ranking higher in the search engines. Search engine performance is still the number one key to internet success, so if you were going to overlook all other methods, this would be the one to keep.
Social media and marketing is becoming an increasingly powerful tool and one that just about anyone that has been on the internet for a few days can learn to employ easily. Tools like Twitter and Facebook have become the easiest way to reach thousands of people at a moment's notice, and if you can learn to build a following on sites like these you can help to guarantee the success of your business.
Paid ads online can also be a very valuable way to start building your presence. Some people need to depend on these less and less once they become established, but they can be a great way to jumpstart some growth. The most common form of online paid advertising is using a service like Google to do PPC or pay per click marketing. That way, you're only actually going to have to pay for something when someone actually clicks through a link on to your website. This can be a cost effective way to drive some initial traffic and start building that following that you need for online success.
