For many of our clients that use our web design services marketing through the Internet does not appeal to them in the least. For some it’s because they are unaware of the potential and for others it’s based on fear or a lack of knowledge as to where to get started. I also speak to clients who look to Internet marketing as the silver bullet that will either save or completely transform their businesses. In my experience, both of these perspectives are very limited and could either constrain or destroy a business’s potential. When it comes to marketing, I believe that the Internet is a critical tool but it should be well balanced and supported by other forms of marketing. Here are 10 tips to either help you use the Internet to build your business and to avoid over-depending on the Internet.

1. There are very specific benefits that web marketing techniques have to offer that are unavailable through traditional forms of marketing. For example, email marketing is probably the most cost effective forms of marketing that has ever existed. You can literally send 100,000 emails for $100 once you have obtained an email list. Pay-Per-Click or Adword marketing is probably the most targeted forms of marketing available - You only pay when someone finds your website and you know for a fact that they are searching for exactly what you are promoting because of the keywords they type in.

2. In today’s market, most of your prospective clients will expect that you have a website no matter what you do. In fact, your website is one of the primary indicators that you are established and professional. In addition, your business will be judged based on your website. That being said, if you are a newer or smaller business it presents an incredible opportunity to appear more established and bigger than you actually are. This can be accomplished by optimizing form and function- having a well designed website that is easy to navigate with features such as video, flash slide shows, professional logo, etc… - Remember that your website is probably the first thing that most of your prospective clients will see and it’s probably the most important place to put your best foot forward.

3. Your website can allow you to quickly connect with and deepen your connection with more people. If you were actively out in your community or cold calling prospective clients you could probably never make contact with as many people as your website could allow you to do. 2 of the best tools that I know of to take advantage of that connection are through video and email marketing. Statistically, more people are searching the Internet for video than any other form of media. People enjoy watching short video clips and will spend much more time on a web page if it contains a video. In addition, it gives them a chance to see you, hear you and learn more about you as a person and as a business owner. In addition, because of YouTube people are totally ok with watching video that is not produced professionally. This makes it much easier and more affordable for the average person to add video to their website. Sending email newsletters is probably the best way to stay in constant contact with a prospective client. All you need to do is to somehow get them to sign up for your newsletter and send it out once a month. Remember that an email newsletter should be educational vs. promotional or your subscriber will more likely than not eventually opt-out.

4. Over 80% of the people searching for any product or service are now using the Internet, so not having an Internet presence could be one of the biggest mistakes that you could make. Getting tapped into the search engines can be difficult especially for competitive markets, but there is plenty of free information available to help you succeed on the Internet. If you can manage to get well ranked in the search engines (especially Google) the benefits could be huge.

5. Probably the most important place to be in terms of having a promotional presence is the first page of Google. Consider these statistics: Of the 80% of the people that are using the Internet to search for your product or service about 65% of them are on Google and 90% of these searchers never leave the first page of a Google search. Getting on to the first page of Google may not be easy, but it is certainly worth focusing on - for at least a long-term strategy - and it could literally transform your business. You could do it either through Google Adword marketing or getting listed on a natural search through search engine optimization. The one thing that I would recommend doing is to focus on keywords related to your business that are both competitive and non-competitive. The competitive ones will either be more expensive or take more time but will be more lucrative in form of results, but the non-competitive keywords could heed results in a short period of time. Be sure to get all of the keywords plugged into the webpage text and meta tags on your website.

6. The Internet in most cases in not a salesperson. Until your brand is reputable, most consumers won’t make purchases or even buying decisions over your website until you have established either a personal or email newsletter connection with them. You should initially not expect to offer your products or services on-line for sale and expect many sales. I would recommend having a toll free number posted in a prominent place on every page and to make yourself as available as possible to handle live questions. In addition, add an incentive based opt-in form on your website to entice your visitors to sign up for your newsletter with some type of give-a-away (free e-book, report, etc…)

7. Just like most marketing techniques, Internet marketing takes longer than you think to bear fruit. Even seemingly instant types of marketing such as Pay- Per-Click advertising typically takes time to learn the process, find the right key words, and to prepare your website for conversions. I would recommend talking to as many people as possible that have engaged in Internet marketing to find out how they have used their websites to enhance their businesses. You could avoid pitfalls that most people fall into.

8. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket by depending entirely on Internet marketing to promote your business. Balance out your web marketing strategies with traditional forms of marketing such as networking or prospecting. You may even find that you can begin to intermingle on-line and off-line marketing techniques by doing such things as adding email addresses of people that you meet to your email newsletter list.

9. Especially in the beginning, your web presence is probably better served by using it as a tool to either get leads for you to follow up with or to add credibility to your business. Once a lead comes in through your website get in the habit of calling them as soon as possible. Treat each lead like gold since it is the only thing that you can convert to real paying client. To that end, I would recommend adding a contact form to your website with a phone number as a required field.

10. Internet Marketing is typically not the easy way out of the slow business slums like some people think it is. In most cases, especially at the beginning it may require more time, money and effort to get the same results as you might expect with more traditional forms of marketing. For most people there is a whole new learning curve and Internet Marketing is still much less predictable because of the unknown factors such as search engine optimization. Be willing to be patient with the Internet and take the time to learn about Internet marketing. As I mentioned before, there is a ton of free information out there in the forms of websites, e-books, e-courses, etc…

Now is not the time to sit back and to wait for business to come to you. A well balanced approach toward marketing that includes both on-line and off-line marketing strategies is almost a must if you want to succeed to today’s market. Take the time to work ‘on’ your business vs. just ‘in’ your business by setting time aside each day to learn about Internet marketing and marketing in general.

Mikel Bruce
WebFlexor Technologies
www.webflexor.com