The Importance of Business Marketing

Business marketing is one of the most important parts that your business needs to be addressed with careful attention and proactive thoughts. In last decade or so, the importance of business marketing has increased volcanically, as the advent of Internet and online business has ushered a whole new era in business. It should be noted that the competition and urgency among businessmen has increased due to the fact that Internet has rendered a whole world as a virtual world, and you never know when and from where a potential competitor has entered your territory unnoticed by you. And this is where proper business marketing strategies and sound business marketing plans play their part to make you the choicest businessman for your customers and dealers.

For successful business marketing, you need to develop a proper business marketing plan, and then gauge its performance for your business growth. There are many things that your business marketing plan needs to address and these points may include some of the following:

o What are your business marketing goals

This actually delineates what are you looking for. What goals you have set for your business and what are you looking to achieve through your marketing plans?

o What is your target audience

This is an important point that you need to know beforehand, for, it describes the scope and range of your business marketing plan. There is no advantage of advertising your fashion prone apparels to the old people, for, they are less likely to buy it. You must be very clear about who you are addressing and will your audience generate the leads that you are looking for.

Sometimes, you keep on targeting wrong audience that do not have the need of your products and expertise, and the result is as you can think: you are wasting your money and not getting the results that you have set for your business. So, it becomes utterly necessary to chalk out the group of people that you are going to address and market your business. Business marketing plans often have detailed study of the audience: their liking, their predominant choice, and their habitual circumstances, for, actually audience is the thing for which business marketing is done!

o Deciding business marketing system

As it is already said that Internet has made business marketing a whole new concept, every growing business should address the need of Internet or online marketing. Apart from the conventional advertisement systems in newspapers, magazines, online marketing tools should be incorporated in the business marketing plan, which may include: search engine optimization, e-mail marketing, banner ads, etc.

At the end, we can say that business marketing has grown wide and wild with the added horizons of Internet and online business, and a business owner should be proactive enough to handle the situation steadily and should incorporate all possible techniques for better business marketing plans and strategies.

Business to Business Marketing on Search Engines - A Largely Untapped Marketing Tool

I'm in the business of search engine marketing, so it's sometimes easy to forget that a majority of people don't really know that the industry exists, how useful it is in business to business marketing, and what a valuable marketing tool SEO can be in general. However, the fact is that a disturbing number of business executives could not tell the difference between SEO Outsourcing and REO Speedwagon (although most would probably agree that neither sounds particularly good*). In fact, when I explain that I work at a search engine optimization company that focuses in part on business to business marketing, most people instantly assume that I have a search engine of my own and that I am somehow trying to compete with Google. I'm flattered until I see the pity in their eyes.

Even those familiar with search engine optimization have common misconceptions about the value of SEO in business to business marketing. Frequently, I encounter prospects who understand that achieving a high ranking on a search engine is a valuable marketing tool that can make an impact on the bottom line of a business, but mistakenly believe that this is true only if that business actually sells something online. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While e-commerce companies can and do benefit tremendously from SEO as a marketing tool, there are many factors in search engine optimization that actually favor B2B companies in terms of overall benefit from the channel.

The Technology

Large e-commerce sites have thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of individual product pages. While performing SEO on such sites does not involve (thank goodness) manipulation of each of the individual pages, each of the page elements that will be used for SEO benefit (titles, headers, text, and meta tags) have to be painstakingly entered into a database. It is very rare to find that the existing database a company has for each of its products contains all the elements necessary to use SEO as a successful marketing tool.

Once all of these elements have been added to the database, it is then necessary to make certain that the server is performing as it should. Then, you must ensure that each of the pages can be crawled by the search engine spider, so the linking structure often must be manipulated.

Using SEO as a marketing tool in business to business marketing is typically much easier, as a standard B2B site is usually built using simpler technology, and the individual pages physically exist on the server. In this case, each page is optimized for a few terms relevant to the business. While a good SEO firm will spend more time on the marketing aspects of a B2B campaign (the overall goals of the initiative and the keyphrases that will bring the right kind of visitors to the site), the actual implementation of the elements necessary for SEO success is usually much simpler.

Average Dollar Sale

There is a practical price limit, which varies from industry to industry, beyond which people become uncomfortable buying online. B2B companies typically have a higher average dollar sale than e-commerce websites, which makes it much easier to justify the cost of any effective business to business marketing tool. While a visitor to an e-commerce site might garner $12 in revenue from the purchase of a coffee mug, a visitor to a high-end B2B website is potentially worth millions. It does not take Alan Greenspan to crunch the numbers--the higher the average dollar sale, the fewer visitors you need to actually justify the cost of SEO as a business to business marketing tool (provided that a certain number of visitors actually lead to a sale).

Value of Relationship

The people that run e-commerce sites such as Amazon are incredibly smart, and they know that almost all of the products that they sell online are highly commoditized. This is why they devote so much effort toward enhancing the visitor experience on their websites with tools like personalization and one-click shopping. They are trying to develop lifetime buyers. B2B companies don&t have this problem. By utilizing a successful business to business marketing campaign, the visitor you attract to your site with this marketing tool could be more valuable over a lifetime than thousands of e-commerce buyers. Offline sales require offline relationships, and personal relationships are easier to maintain, no matter how many bells and whistles an e-commerce company might add to its site.

Differentiators

There is another reason that SEO is often even more effective for business to business marketing than for e-commerce sites--no matter how beautiful the website, how secure the checkout process, and how big the company name, price will always be the primary differentiator when items are purchased online. How else to explain the popularity of online shopping comparison sites such as Yahoo! Shopping, NexTag, and Shopping.com (to name but a few)? When it comes to business to business, marketing is crucial. In a world where prices are rarely listed online, a B2B company almost always has the opportunity to differentiate itself on its own terms after the initial contact is made. With the right marketing tool, such as SEO, a B2B company can easily stand out from the crowd.

Using SEO as a Key Marketing Tool

E-commerce companies are more readily embracing SEO as a business to business marketing tool because they are technologically savvy and because their businesses already depend on the Internet to survive. However, e-commerce companies only make up a small fraction of the number of companies that are actually out there. There are many B2B industries where there is currently little or no competition on the search engines, and the ones to move first and use SEO as a key marketing tool will reap the highest rewards.

Developing Your Small Business Marketing Plan

Along with your business plan, your small business marketing plans is only of the most important long-term plans you'll make for your small business. Some small business owners choose to ignore that advice, instead preferring to fly by the seat of their pants, so to speak, to "wing it." While some of those small business owners are successful, they're not nearly as successful as they could be had they laid out a well-defined small business marketing plan.

Small business marketing strategy step 1: Know your market

The first step in developing a successful small business marketing strategy is to make sure that you have a really solid handle on your target market. Ask yourself: Who are my customers? Once you've identified who they are, ask yourself: What are my customers' problems? What are their dreams and aspirations? The surest way to answer those questions, of course, is to ask your customers themselves. Even if you can't afford to hire a small business marketing firm that will conduct focus group tests for you, you can do your own simple survey by hitting the streets and talking to those people you plan to sell to (and make contacts at the same time!). You'd be surprised how powerful that simple task is yet how few businesses do it.

Small business marketing strategy step 2: Know yourself

The second step in developing your small business marketing strategy is to get to know yourself (your business), once you've gotten to know your customers. Ask yourself: What does my business do? How is my business different than my competitors'? How does my business help solve my customers' problems or help them achieve their dreams? Answering these questions will help you to define your unique selling proposition - those aspects that set you apart from your competitors.

That unique selling proposition should become your brand - your business's identity. Your brand is what will pervade all of your marketing materials and what your customers will use to identify you. The importance of diligently developing your brand as part of a successful small business marketing strategy can't be overstated.

Small business marketing strategy step 3: Analyze your competitors' small business marketing strategies

Once you've developed your brand - that unique identity that tells your customers who you are and how you're different - you can begin thinking about how you're going to actually market your business. First, look at your competitors' small business marketing strategies. Are there obvious gaps that you could fill (and thereby stand out among the competition)? For example, if you see that none of your competitors have websites, you could stand out with a small business marketing strategy online.

Wherever you market your business, it must be where your customers are. For example, small business marketing online will be a waste if none of your potential customers use the Internet. Likewise, you may think that writing a monthly column in your local newspaper would be a great way to advertise your services and establish yourself as an expert; but if none of your potential customers read that paper, that small business marketing strategy will fail.

At this point, your small business marketing strategy will not only be defined by where your customers are and what your competitors are doing, but it will also depend on your small business marketing budget. A full-page spread in a national magazine may be the best way to reach your target audience, but if you can't afford to shell out tens of thousands of dollars, it's not the small business marketing strategy for you.

Wherever your small business marketing plan takes you, the careful development of your small business marketing strategy - by knowing your market, knowing your business, and analyzing your competitors' strategies - will be a critical determinant of your long-term business success.

Guide To Business Marketing

Inspired Business Marketing is about getting to the heart of business problems, and solving them with marketing. Business marketing is one of the most important parts that your business needs to be addressed with careful attention and proactive thoughts. Business to business marketing is just marketing to consumers who happen to have a corporation to pay for what they buy.

Small business marketing is a highly creative process that needs to be researched, brainstormed, and nurtured. Effective small business marketing is about creating repeatable processes and systems that consistently apply these principles and strategies. While major corporations have sufficient resources to kick off a thoroughly planned marketing campaign, small business marketing is often on a budget.

Having a marketing strategy can be the life or death of a business. The strategy has three components. Find providers of marketing strategy, ideas and services, resources for small business advertising and business to business marketing assistance. Because with the right marketing strategy, your cash flow will increase. Marketing Strategy strips away the confusion and jargon that surrounds what ought to be one of the most straightforward areas of modern business. If you want your small business to grow, you need a marketing strategy that works.

Advertising is one of the most important investments a company makes for growing its business. Develop a marketing plan and an advertising campaign no matter what your budget. Advertising is a powerful machine for the people to know what's on the market. Deliver your advertising message effectively and right on target.

For any business to succeed there must be skilled office, marketing, sales, financial and management personnel. One of the easiest ways to bump up your sales is to spruce up your packaging. The integration of marketing and sales is imperative for successful business. Don't advertise like a Big Business Big businesses advertise to create name recognition and future sales.

The practice of Business Marketing is essentially the management of value creation and delivery. Clearly, the goal in consumer and business marketing is shared: tn create customers and capture profitable revenues. Inspired Business Marketing is about getting to the heart of business problems, and solving them with marketing.

Small Business Marketing - 9 Work 'On' Your Business Ideas To Stimulate Growth

Running a business requires you to wear many hats, be in numerous places at once, and keep multiple balls in the air. Not only must you keep up with the rigorous demands of working 'in' your business, if your goal is to build a solid, valuable business, you must also continuously work 'on' your business.

Marketing is one of those things that could be considered working on your business. In fact, marketing is quite possibly the MOST important working on your business activity you could be doing. This is mainly because without marketing, it's extremely difficult to get new customers. Without marketing, it's extremely difficult to get more business out of your existing customers. In other words, without marketing you won't be in business for very long.

So what kinds of things should you be doing to continually market your business and keep it moving along?

Here's a quick list to give you some things to think about:

1. Creating and sending out marketing campaigns (postcards, letters, flyers, etc.)

Marketing is a year round activity. In order to keep a constant flow of customers coming to your business, you need to be constantly presenting prospects with your products or services. Sending postcards, letters, or flyers is a great way to build name recognition that will keep a steady stream of prospects flowing your way.

2. Creating and sending a newsletter, ezine, or other communication to your existing customers

The biggest reason a large majority of customers leave a business is not due to poor service, an error, or some other misunderstanding. Believe it or not, the biggest reason customers leave a business results from feelings of apathy. They just don't feel like the business would know one way or another if they left or not.

In order to stop these feelings of apathy from happening, you need to find some way to maintain contact with your existing customers. A monthly newsletter or weekly ezine are excellent ways to keep in contact and remind them how valuable they are to your business.

3. Creating new 'widgets' or packages you can present to new or existing customers

One key to building a solid, long-term business is to continually sell to your customers. If all you're doing is finding new customers, you're leaving boat loads of money on the table.

In order to keep selling to your existing customers, it's critical you continually present them with new products, services, and offers. Creating new 'widgets' out of your existing offerings is a great way to repackage what you already sell.

4. Putting together valuable offers for presenting these 'widgets' to your new or existing customers

You need something to motivate your prospects and customer to buy and there are few things more effective at this than presenting them with valuable offers. Don't just list the services you offer. Present them in a way that excites, interests, and motivates them to take action.

5. Writing articles to submit to local newspapers to enhance your status as the lawn care expert

People love to work with experts because it's easy to put your trust in their knowledge and experience. While you are most likely already an expert in the services you provide, if no one knows it you'll have to work twice as hard to demonstrate just how knowledgeable you are.

Writing articles for your local newspaper or other publications is an excellent way to quickly establish yourself as the local expert. The buying public puts a lot of stock in what they read in the paper and when they see your company name next to an article about your field of expertise, you've bridged a gap with your prospects and customers that will make selling your services infinitely easier.

6. Calling current customers to make sure they're satisfied with your service

As sad as it is, customer service is almost non-existent in today's marketplace. The simple act of picking up the phone to call your customer and find out if they're satisfied will go a long ways towards creating a lasting the relationship.

7. Meeting with other service providers, not competitors, about forming a joint venture

The most difficult part of marketing is capturing the attention of qualified prospects. All around you are businesses providing services to the exact customers you're trying to reach. Getting in touch with these other businesses about doing some cross-marketing is an excellent way to effectively get in front of countless prospects that you may not be able to reach otherwise.

8. Performing service or charity work in order to create some goodwill for your company's name

Just as people love to work with experts, they also love to work with people that are about more than just making money. Performing service or charity work within your community is a powerful way to build a reputation as a company that gives back to others. When your customers and prospects see this, it builds goodwill that will carry over to increased business and profits for you.

9. Learning about direct marketing in order to enhance your knowledge and ability to better market your business

Even more important than providing your product or service is learning how to market your business. With no new customers, you won't have anyone to provide a product or service to. That's what makes learning HOW to market your business vitally important to your ability to reach the goals you've set.

Here's a list of 9 different things you could be doing to help move your business forward. Each one of them individually will surely create positive results. However, done together the results will be phenomenal and you'll soon reap the benefits of these working ON your business activities.

Business To Business Marketing - B2B - All You Need To Know

Business to business means the relation between the two businesses that is a business relation in which the end consumer is not involved. It is more popularly know by its abbreviation B2B. Business to business refers to the relation between more than one business institutes specifically for the marketing. This is in contrast to the other known marketing relations that exist between the business and the end consumer. Prior to the evolving of the term B2B, these kinds of relations between two enterprises are known as industrial goods marketing or capital goods marketing. These terms distinguish it from the business to consumer or B2C type of marketing.

How Does It Differ From B2C Marketing:

There are several major differences between the B2B marketing and B2C marketing. The involvement of so many people in the process of decision making in the case of B2B marketing makes it very complicated. On the contrary, in case of B2C, marketing only one person is responsible for making the final choice and when some special package is offered, involvement of only person facilitates quick buying decisions. Another major difference between the B2B business marketing and B2C type of marketing is that a business makes a buying decision when it needs the thing. On the contrary, the buying decisions of the end consumers are based more on wants.

Growing Competition:

However, there are few similarities also between the B2B marketing and B2C marketing. For both types of marketing, the competition is growing and the resources are reducing. This growing competition is resulting in the loss of market share for most of the small businesses. Along with this, the margins of profit are also going down. This has created a great demand for marketing data for the purpose of business-to-business marketing data, small business marketing research and B2B marketing research.

Importance of B2B Marketing:

To be successful in today's competitive world of business, having a very good product, best available technology and competitive process is not sufficient in itself. They have to focus on business-to-business marketing strategy. This will help them in identifying, locating, quantifying, segmenting and targeting the B2B customers that are really significant for their businesses. Only by adopting this kind of B2B marketing techniques, small business can achieve their set goals.

Eliminate Ineffective Marketing Channels:

marketing, you must concentrate on performance of the different marketing channels. These marketing channels may include a network of resellers, service partners, retailers and distributors. You not only need to develop new channels for marketing but also have to monitor and evaluate their performance on a regular basis. Then you can eliminate the marketing channels that are performing weak and focus on the channels that are producing desirable results.

Business To Business Marketing FAQs

Business to Business or B2B marketing is the selling of services and products to businesses in order to support the operations of companies. Companies use these services to increase marketing, sales, profits and efficiency. With B2B, one should know the requirements, the present situation, competitors, trends, technology and costs involved. Besides traditional offline approaches, B2B uses an integration of online tools such as email marketing, online communities, CPC (cost-per-click ads) and pop-up or banner advertisings.

1. What are the five distinct concepts associated with B2B?

As in any type of marketing, B2B includes the exchange concept of marketing, the turn of production concept, the product concept, the phenomenon of marketing myopia and the sales concept.

2. What are a few business to business marketing features?

In B2B marketing, transactions are made between and within value chains. It has a small numbers of customers who require personalized marketing, including customized products and prices. Selling processes are complex and lengthy, and involve lots of players creating a demand decision chain. B2B is also noted for developing profitable, value-oriented relationships between two companies and several individuals within them.

3. What is a B2B marketing strategy?

It is a set of programs coupled with the target market opportunities in order to achieve organizational goals. Shaping this strategy involves three steps - target market choice, setting marketing objectives and building the B2B marketing program.

4. What are some similarities and differences between B2B and B2C?

B2B and B2C marketing are totally different. B2C or Business to Consumer marketing discloses, sells or markets services or goods to a group or target consumer. It is product driven and maximizes the value of the transaction. Repetition and imagery create its brand identity.

But the marketing programs are same for these two categories. Examples are events, direct marketing, internet marketing, advertising, public relations, word of mouth and alliances. The two categories differ in behaviors such as how the programs are executed, what they say and the product of the marketing activities. Both B2B and B2C have the same initial step in developing a marketing strategy.

5. What is a B2B buyer?

A B2B buyer understands your services or products better than you do. He wants to buy them to help his business remain profitable, competitive and successful.

Business-To-Business Marketing Agencies

Business-to-business or B2B is a transaction or interaction that takes place between two or more businesses. B2B transactions usually involve automated processes between the trading partners. They are performed in much higher volumes than business-to-consumer or B2C transactions. A company that makes aircraft engines would sell their products to an aircraft manufacturer, which is another business entity. In contrast, when a company sells consumer goods such as health care products to customers, the ensuing transaction would be termed as a B2C transaction. B2B transactions also include marketing activities between businesses and not just the final result from marketing efforts. The term B2B is also used to identify sales transactions between businesses.

Business to business marketing is defined as 'the process of planning and executing the pricing, promotion and distribution of goods, ideas and services to create exchanges by one business, usually a professional marketing agency, to satisfy organizational goals of another business'. The goal of a business agency engaged in B2B Marketing is to establish, maintain and enhance long-term customer relationships with other businesses at a profit, so that the objectives of all the concerned parties are met.

The actual marketing generally involves the processes of market research, product development, product life cycle management, pricing, channel management as well as product promotion. However, marketing is not a direct decision maker in these processes. It ensures that products and services are developed according to market requirements and are profitable.

Many businesses produce sophisticated high value products requiring huge financial and time investments. They need accurate information and feedback regarding the product feasibility, desirability, price band, consumer response to their product and similar products in the market. Such businesses prefer to entrust product marketing and related tasks to professional marketing agencies. Many B2B marketing agencies conduct their own marketing on the Internet.

Small Business Marketing Tips

Small business marketing tips are guidelines regarding potential opportunities in small business marketing. They help to plan and implement an effective marketing strategy. Small business marketing faces many constraints such as poor budget and lack of essential resources. Marketing tips serve to overcome these constraints. They help to improvise the marketing strategy with a step-by-step planning process. Tips can be the short cut to utilize and benefit from a particular situation. The ultimate aim of these ideas is to enhance the business. Marketing tips are also a guide of do's and don'ts in the marketing field. Small business marketing tips come up with innovative and practical ideas for a cost effective marketing strategy.

Small business marketing tips attempt to enhance the marketing according to the prevailing conditions. It helps to choose effective resources for marketing, suitable to attract the attention of customers. The tips are available for all the steps in marketing including planning, formulation of the strategy, selection of marketing materials and effective marketing procedures. It enables a product to grab consumer attention and to position itself in the market. Effective marketing tips will generate sales quickly.

Small business marketing tips also aim to maintain product identity. Most of the tips prefer branding of the products for a unique selling proposition in the market. Creative marketing ideas such as newsletters, business post cards and trade booths are provided. It explores alternate marketing strategies such as bartering system, mail outs and offers. Tips suggest that referral marketing is one of the best techniques to highlight a product. Cause related marketing is also harnessed as a marketing opportunity.

Small business marketing tips are usually formulated from the experiences of people. Many provide free tips through Internet sites and newsletters. Books on marketing tips are also available. They impart a fresh perspective on business marketing as a whole.

Reset Your Business Marketing Model and Create Marketing Ease

Combine traditional business marketing and Internet marketing strategies and increase your business revenues.

Business Marketing Works.

Without marketing your business has no revenues. This marketing may be from word of mouth of clients you've served already. Or it may be intentional marketing you create your self. Either way business marketing works. Marketing is the only way to your business success.

Traditional Business Marketing Techniques that Work

Traditionally, we know that ads in magazines, direct-mail postcards, direct-mail sales letters, business networking, telephone calls, and building business relationships all work. In fact, if you're business marketing strategies are not working, take a look at the copy. What does each ads say? Are you tracking the results of the ad? Did the ad generate revenues for you? If not, you may have had an expense as a result of applying the traditional business marketing techniques. It could be costly to run the ad again using different copy until you find the copy that gets the result you want.

Combine Tradition Business Marketing with Internet Marketing Strategies that Work

Putting internet marketing strategies to work in your business can give you an opportunity to test your ads in a cost effective way. Using internet marketing strategies you can discover what works and doesn't work with your ad for little or no cost.

Once an ad is getting results using internet marketing strategies, you can put the successful ad in magazines, postcards and even use it on your business card. With an ad that you know gets results the expense of the more traditional marketing techniques is viable.

Powerfully Effective Business Marketing

The combination of internet marketing strategies with traditional business marketing techniques is a powerful way to move your business forward and increase your revenues. It can take as little as three weeks to 90 days to begin seeing new results in your business.

It's a Magical Combination.

Combining internet marketing strategies with traditional marketing techniques gives you a freedom for expressing yourself uniquely, unlike ever before. Your unique selling point can be easier to create. Your purpose becomes more defined. You are able to attract your ideal clients to your business more easily as a result

Just as business marketing is systematized and repeatable using traditional methods, internet marketing is repeatable and predictable as a clear system to follow. Learn these systems and surge your business revenues forward using the "magical combination" of traditional business marketing and internet marketing.

The Top 5 Small Business Marketing Tips for Budget-Minded Business

When it comes to running a successful business, marketing is essential. For a small business, marketing often seems like a daunting task - especially when it comes to marketing your business on the web.

Many times, budget-minded business owners fear that small business marketing needs to be expensive in order to be effective. Fortunately - this isn't true. Here are five simple tips for small business owners who are looking to save dollars, while still running an effective online marketing campaign.

1. Optimize Your Website

There are three simple steps to take so that you can be sure that your website is working for you.

The first is to use a descriptive title for your site as well as keywords and a description that allows search engines and site visitors alike to know what they will find when they visit your web page. Once that's taken care of, make sure that you are placing keywords appropriately in the text of your website.

Your keywords should be specific to your products and services, and should be chosen with consideration for the terms prospective customers would use when searching with Google or Yahoo or whichever other search engine they use.

Finally, these keywords should also be used in the alt image tags as they relate to the photos and illustrations that you post to your website.

2. Market Your Website with Articles & Distribute Press Releases

Article marketing is an extremely effective way to draw visitors to your website. By creating an informative short article that relates to your business, your area of expertise and your keywords, you can show readers a bit more of what they'll find from your business - which you can link to in your resource box at the bottom of the article.

Online press releases are another effective marketing tool. Like conventional press releases that let local newswires pick up a story about a new staff member or a new product line, online press release distribution will allow you to get the word out to those who publish online newsletters or who review products and services like those that you offer.

Both articles and press releases published online create valuable, relevant inbound links to your website (via the link to your site in your resource box at the end of each article or press release). Search engines place a great amount of value on the number of inbound links you have to your site, so this is an excellent way of building popularity with the search engines, as well as your human customers.

Both article marketing and distributing press releases will enable you to establish yourself as an expert and your company as a source for products or services. Each is effective, and often, submission to article directories is free - that's right, free marketing for your business, all it takes is a little bit of time.

3. Start a Blog

It's a common statement when it comes to Internet marketing: content is king. A blog - short for a weblog - allows you to create fresh content at regular intervals, driving traffic and search engines to your website.

Like article marketing and press release distribution, having a blog allows you to establish your expertise about the products and services that your small business offers. Unlike article marketing and press release distribution, however, a blog allows you to begin to carry on a dialog with your current and prospective customers.

Your blog works like search engine magic for your website. By linking your blog to your website, you draw the search engines to your website. Your site will rank higher and your customers will have a much easier time finding your site.

4. Commit to a Link Building Campaign and Submit Your Site to Directories and Search Engines

As a small business owner building and promoting your business on the web, having quality inbound links is important. Links allow your site to be found by those who visit similar sites looking for the products and services that your company offers.

Links - like those at the end of your articles and press releases, like those that link back to individual products or services from within your blog, and like those from others who have purchased from you in the past - help to improve your site's search engine rank.

By submitting your business' website to relevant directories and even to industry-specific - niche - search engines, you'll begin to generate additional links. More importantly, however, these niche directories are increasingly used by those looking for very specific sites. Having your listing present will make it even more likely that your prospective customers will find your page; that makes them a particularly valuable marketing tool for your business, and, again, it's often free to submit your site.

5. Look for Joint Ventures with Other Like-Minded Business People

It's not uncommon for small businesses to work together - a movie theater and a restaurant offering coupons for a discount if you spend the evening at both places. In my past life working with large corporations I realized that the largest companies grow by means of joint ventures all the time. However, many small businesses do not look into joint ventures when it comes to marketing their businesses.

Is it always easy to find the right joint venture for marketing your business? No, of course not. But it is possible to find like-minded business owners whose customers could benefit from your products or services just as your customers could benefit from those that they offer.

As a result, both small businesses will be better able to extend their outreach and develop a wider customer base. If you are going to enter into a joint venture, search for companies with similar goals and a similar customer base but a different type of product or service. Stay on the lookout, keep an open mind and you just might find the perfect opportunity to market your business to a new audience.

A perfect example of this principle is a recent joint venture I did with a company who specializes in teaching business credit skills to small business owners. This company markets to the same clients that I wish to add to my customer list, but they offer a completely different service. By working together, we were able to market our services to each other's mailing lists, resulting in both of us attracting new customers we would not have had otherwise. The great part about this joint venture was that there was no out-of-pocket cost to either of us - just our time and a little creativity in coming up with suitable promotions to each other's lists!

Taking your business to the web does not need to be difficult, nor does it need to be expensive. By taking a creative approach, small business owners on a tight marketing budget will be able to find traffic and increase their customer base.

Focus on reaching the search engines: use the right keywords and use them appropriately. Let people know that you have the information they need with articles and be sure to get the word out by distributing press releases. Interact with your customers with a high quality blog, and focus on getting great links. Lastly, take advantage of partnerships with like-minded business owners.

Small Business Marketing - The Power of a Market Review

Conducting a market review is one of the most important steps in the small business marketing process as it provides together with a business review the information you need to create a dynamic marketing plan. All big businesses conduct these reviews as they know it can save time and money for their business.

A market review does not have to be complicated and a lot will depend on what information you can source. The important factor regarding a market review is to understand the key elements of your market and how these elements can affect your business now and in the future.

The key elements you need to look at when conducting a market review for your small business include:

Size of Market
Your market is simply the overall industry in which you compete. For example if you sell juice then you compete in the Beverage Market. If you sell holidays as a travel agent then you compete in the Tourism Market. Analyzing the size of your market can tell you whether it is growing or declining, help you to identify growth opportunities and for a new small business can determine if the market is large enough to compete in and operate a profitable business. There are many sources you can use to gather information on the size of your market and these include trade magazines, industry associations, search engines and local government websites and resources.

Market Segment Analysis

Segmentation is a process that looks at the total market and then divides the products or services into broad groups that have similar characteristics. In the examples above, whilst the total market is beverages, the segment that is the most important to a juice manufacturer is the Juice Segment. Looking at the total beverage market today throughout the world the leading soft drink manufacturers have entered many of the market segments such as bottled water to expand their business. Market segment analysis also helps you to determine where your small business marketing efforts should be concentrated.

Distribution Channel Analysis
A distribution channel is the way in which your product or service is made available to your customers so they can purchase it. Examples are supermarkets, personal selling (face to face selling), distributors and the internet. Analyzing the sales of each distribution channel in your market enables you to identify which channels are the most important for you to compete in to grow your business.

Market Trends
A trend is any significant change to your market that your business may need to respond to. Examples of market trends include changes to the economy, changing customer demographics, social and global factors (to name a few). If you conduct business in the USA at the moment or are intending to compete in the USA then the concerns about a possible recession and how it could affect your small business needs to be identified so action plans can be put in place to minimize the impact.

Market Seasonality
If a product or service is seasonal it means that the majority of the sales occur at one or a few times a year. Tax accountants obviously have increased sales when the end of the financial year occurs and tax returns and other government reporting are required. Understanding market seasonality factors can lead to your small business maximizing sales through this period and also may highlight opportunities to spread your sales throughout the year.

Competitor Analysis
Your key competitors need to be analyzed in order for you to identify their key strengths and weaknesses and how they compare to your own small business. Reviewing this area means that you can be smarter with your marketing efforts and be proactive against their weaknesses and of course defend against their strengths. One tip that all big businesses do is to have a competitor file with examples of their marketing activities, products or services.

Big businesses know the value of reviewing the market in which they compete and you can to. Remember you can start slowly and just review one section at a time and then put in place activities or make business decisions based on the review to grow your small business.

Internet Business Marketing - How to Increase Internet Sales

Online business marketing continues to change along with the continuous changes associated with the internet. Any business today should be exploring internet sales to help grow company revenue. Online business marketing was once just thought of in terms of additional advertising. An online marketing system that consisted of classified ads or PPC (pay per click) campaigns. Internet sales have moved far beyond straight paid advertising with online business marketing today.

When you stop to take in all the network marketing avenues available in online business today, there are numerous referral sources you should be applying in your marketing methods to generate new business leads. If you're a business owner and you do not have a presence online, you should be educating yourself on what internet business marketing you should be doing. Internet sales are an extension of income for any business and certainly it's created great opportunities for many home based business entrepreneurs.

Why learn and implement an online marketing system?

There are many internet marketing tips and new business lead education materials available for online based business. Many internet sales can be generated from using free or low cost marketing methods today. Now, not everything is free but the web is full of free information and resources. When you consider internet business marketing is a lead generating system working 24 hours/7 days a week, you should understand the impact of internet sales associated with that type of marketing can produce.

An online marketing system today consists of marketing strategies from traditional offline and new concept online marketing methods. Here is a partial list of methods available for your internet business marketing that will produce new business leads daily:

• Ezines
• Email
• Joint Ventures
• Postcard Mailings
• Pay-Per-Click
• Magalogs (Catalogs That Look Like Magazines)
• Direct Mail
• Spots In Other People's Catalogs
• Radio
• TV
• Press Releases (Online And Offline
• Teleseminars
• Webinars
• Magazines
• Newspaper Classifieds
• Speaking At Seminars
• Writing Articles (Online And Off) (Many free internet business marketing sites)
• Inserts In Newspapers, Magazines Or Mail-Order Shipments (This Is Called "Insert Media")
• Blogs
• Viral Marketing
• Social Marketing (great free resource for internet marketing tips)
• Linking Strategies
• Free Search Engine Listings
• Forums
• Online Videos (very popular for internet sales growth)
• And the list goes on...

Internet Attraction Marketing - Teach yourself the methods and techniques in How To Attract Clients and Prospects to YOU

Taking the time to educate yourself on how these and other marketing strategies will improve your internet sales. Remember to research for helpful internet marketing tips, many you can utilize for free or low cost. Implement them into your internet marketing system and track you new business leads and sales growth. Concentrate your efforts on the strategies producing the highest internet sales or leads. Make adjustments to your online marketing system as needed and enjoy your online based business growth.

Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing

Over the past decade more and more people are getting fired, getting downsized, or getting fed up with their corporate jobs and embark on the journey as a small business owner. Unfortunately, most of the new small business owners fail to consider their marketing plans or strategy. There are many marketing concepts for small business marketing to consider and plan for, but here is our list of Top 10 Marketing Concepts For Small Business Marketing.

Marketing Concept # 1: Consistency

Consistency is the number one marketing concept for small business marketing only because it is left out of marketing concepts for so many businesses. I have worked with a long list of clients, big and small, that are extremely inconsistent in all areas of their marketing. Consistency helps lower the cost of marketing and increase the effectiveness of branding.

Marketing Concept # 2: Planning

Once small business owners decide to be consistent with their marketing, planning is the next major concept to engage. Planning is the most vital part of small business marketing or any level of marketing, for that matter, and so many owners, marketing managers, and even CMOs plan poorly. Put the time into planning your marketing strategy, budget, and other concepts presented here to ensure success.

Marketing Concept # 3: Strategy

Strategy immediately follows planning because your strategy is the foundation for the rest of your marketing activities. In the process of planning, you must develop your strategy: who you will target, how you will target them, and how will you keep them as a customer.

Marketing Concept # 4: Target Market

Target market is also another key concept for small business marketing. Defining exactly who you are targeting allows small business owners to focus on specific customers and reduce marketing waste. A well-defined target market will make every other marketing concept so much easier to implement successfully.

Marketing Concept # 5: Budget

Although it is listed at number 5, budgeting is important throughout the entire process. Creating a marketing budget is usually the hardest and most inaccurate part of small business marketing. Most small businesses owners lack a great deal of experience in marketing, so their budgets usually end up skewed. The most important part of this marketing concept is to actually establish a marketing budget. From there, you can worry about how to distribute your available funds.

Marketing Concept # 6: Marketing Mix

The marketing mix is usually defined as product, pricing, place, and promotion. As a small business owner, you must specifically decide on your products (or services), the appropriate pricing, where and how you will distribute your products, and how will you let everyone know about you and your products.

Marketing Concept # 7: Website

In today's market, a business of any size must have a website. I hate when I see businesses that have a one page website with out-dated information. Customers, be it businesses or consumers, will search the web over 60% of the time before making any purchasing decisions. This marketing concept contains a slew of additional components, but you must at least develop a small web presence of some kind and keep it updated.

Marketing Concept # 8: Branding

Many small businesses owners also neglect this concept. Small business marketing must focus on this marketing concept just as much as large corporations do. Branding consists of the pictures, logo, design scheme, layout, make up, and image of your products and even your company. Branding is how your customers perceive (please place a lot of emphasis on that word!) your products and company. Make sure to pay special attention to what kind of brand you are building through each step of your planning and implementation.

Marketing Concept # 9: Promotion and Advertising

Promotion and advertising is a very complex marketing concept, but must be considered for any type of business and its products and services. Once you engage the previous 8 marketing concepts, you must finally let your target market know about you and your products. Proper promotion and advertising will result in effective brand recognition, and, ultimately, increased sales.

Marketing Concept # 10: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The concept of customer relationship management has become a huge industry in the marketing world. There are many types of software and services offered to help businesses of any size handle their customer relationship management. Since there is so much available, usually for a large sum of money, small business owners usually look at this concept as something they are not big enough for or have enough money to implement. Don't be fooled by the massive industry that has evolved from this concept. Maintaining proper customer relationship management is essential to creating loyal and consistent customers.

This list of marketing concepts should be examined, researched, planned, and implemented, especially by small businesses, in order to be successful. Also, your marketing doesn't stop here. Each business is unique and will have additional components that must be considered, but this list will jump-start any marketing plan.

Offline Marketing Vs Online Business Marketing

This article is really to give you an understanding of the offline business marketing world and how it has now transformed to the online business marketing world. Come with me on a short journey from back in history to modern day and into the future.

Offline Business Marketing:

The world of offline business marketing is soon to be become redundant. Since advertising first began, smart business owners were always on the lookout for that something new that was going to give them the edge over their competitors.

In the beginning there was word of mouth advertising. A vendor sold a product or service to a customer who then went out and spread the word to his personal circle of influence. Word of Mouth Advertising in those days had only two possible endings. One, a positive referral was made that resulted in more customers and more sales. Secondly, a negative referral was made and that resulted in less customers and less sales.

Obviously, knowing the importance of their only advertising medium, good vendors looked after their customers especially well and were rewarded in return. As in today's modern business, those that didn't look after their customers suffered the penalty that followed.

Clever vendors then moved on to Poster advertising. Posters were placed strategically around the areas promoting their products and services. Now they had two modes of advertising. Those that didn't look after their customers so well, were now able to exploit the Poster advertising strategy. The better the Poster, the better the results of bringing in customers and making more sales.

And so the world of advertising and marketing began. Now since those days we have had a host of other marketing and advertising strategies come and go. Some lasted longer than others, while some were so brief they blew out with the next gust of wind.

I won't go in to all the mediums that we have seen over the many years. The important thing to note is this, THERE WERE CHANGES. Those that moved with the changes were able to stay ahead of their competitors, those that didn't took so long to pick up the change that they lost fortunes in their business or lost their businesses completely.

Today's world still has a great deal of off line marketing and advertising. Television, radio, newspapers and magazines would have to be the main form of media used. And in the main, successful for those businesses who have the thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars to pour in to their advertising.

Large multinational corporations have had offline marketing campaigns that ran in to the millions of dollars and obviously their return on investment had to remain high for such colmitments to continue.

What about the small and medium enterprises? What do they pay in advertising and marketing? What is their return on investment? Well let me tell you, they are the business models that are struggling and close to collapse.

Why? Because they are continually paying for advertising and marketing campaigns that are useless.

Here's an example:

If you are a small or medium business, ring your local newspaper and ask to place an ad in the Classifieds Section. What will you get? You will get a consultant on the other end of the phone who will ask what Category you wished to be placed in, how many lines or lines and columns you wish to include.

You will be asked to read your ad content and they will check the spelling, and how you want it to look. You agree and that's it. Do you get to look and preview your ad? You can look and make one minor change, that's it. You then pay for what you get.

There is no consultation about your marketing strategy, your target market, your product or anything that will help give you an edge over your competitor. The consultants are not marketing specialists, they are telephone specialists who fill in a form.

Your ad comes out in the newspaper and you don't like it. Bad Luck, that's what you get.

Cross that over to "The Yellow Pages" advertisements. Depending on the size of the ad, which also means the amount of money you are going to spend with them, dictates the amount of help you receive. Now understand this, the average consultant in "The Yellow Pages" is not a marketing specialist. They specialize in "selling advertising space".

So the question that begs to be asked is," Why would you go to someone who is not a specialist marketing agent to do your marketing?" That's like asking a dental receptionist to do your filling or an extraction. It doesn't work.

Small and Medium enterprises generally have no idea what they are doing in relation to marketing their business, product and service. They have no idea of how to structure a successful marketing campaign to bring their business more customers. Business owners need to go to a specialist who is an expert in that field, someone who knows what they are doing. Someone who is going to build a marketing strategy that is successful in achieving the objectives set by the business owner.

Traditional advertising through "The Yellow Pages", Newspapers and other print media will soon be of little value. The distribution is localised and viewing is random. Any return on investment is based on luck rather than a measured strategic marketing campaign.

People are sick and tired of advertisements being pushed in front of their faces. It is said that an average of 2000 advertisements are placed in front of us every single day. Ask yourself how many you can remember from yesterday through newspapers, magazines, billboards, t.v, radio etc. The answer, probably half a dozen, maybe if you're good.

So, what is happening to your business ad? Nothing.

Online Business Marketing:

Why? One word, internet. The internet has now changed the world of advertising and marketing forever. The trend towards the internet is moving faster than any other medium in history. The younger age groups, Generation X and Generation Y are using the internet multiple times daily. It is now their chosen form of networking and communicating. We now have phones that communicate on the internet.

Guess what? Now the Baby boomers are getting in on the act as well. Just have a look at Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The older generations are now using the internet to communicate with their families around the world. Add Skype and other similar programs that allow F*R*E*E phone and video calls around the world. Any business that is not on the internet now, and not on the internet in the next year or so is seriously in big trouble.

What do you think the modern generation do when they are looking for a product or service? They don't run for the Yellow Pages that's for sure. They run to their computer or laptop and do a Google Search, that's what they do.

What doe this mean for your business? You need to be marketing your business, products and services on the internet.

How do you do this? You need a Website. The Website is your online virtual shop, office or whatever your business front is. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. It is open for business while you are sleeping, on holiday, in your shop or where ever you wish to be. It never closes unless you or your landlord close it down. (Yes, even on the internet we have landlords that you have to pay rent to on a monthly basis)

Your business is open for customers to browse, leave their details for followup, or purchase a product or service. And they do all this without you having to be there, how fantastic is that? That is the power of the internet.

How do people find you? Imagine a highway, any highway. Imagine your Website is a store front on that highway. Now imagine we incorporate strategies that were once the powerhouse strategies of offline marketing. Imagine the Word of Mouth which in internet terms is Social Networking, Poster Marketing which we call Article Marketing, Television Advertising we call Video Marketing, Radio Advertising we call Podcasting.

Just as in your offline marketing, we use all these strategies to drive targeted traffic to your Website. Traffic are potential clients. The difference to offline marketing is that online, only people that are looking for you will find you. That means they WANT what you have. They will get to choose between you and your competitors who they find online. When they choose you, they have already got their credit cards out and sitting in front of them. That prospect is now a customer.

You now have the opportunity to get directly in front of thousands if not tens of thousands of potential customers. To win their business you will first need to be online, and second have a marketing campaign that is successful enough to get you in front of them.

Whether you are a local or international organization, small or medium enterprise or multinational, your marketing campaign will have to incorporate your target market. Your campaign will have to target your distribution and servicing area, so if you only do local stuff that is cool, if you distribute and service internationally then that is cool as well. The internet allows you to advertise globally and locally.

Costs:

How do the costs compare? In our experience an internet campaign could set you back a few thousand dollars to set it up at the start. Most good providers will have a payment plan to suit most people. There are on-going monthly fees anywhere from about $10.00US depending on the sort of campaign package you need.

So let's say it costs you $5000.00US to set up your Website and implement a marketing strategy. Add an average of around just say $100 a month. The monthly fee is equivalent to paying rent for your building and costs associated to that.

Compare those costs to an average Full Page ad in a certain directory which could set you back tens of thousands of dollars per year, add in your newspapers ads which you place weekly, as well as any other limited advertisements. The cost to you is enormous in comparison to an online Website presence.

I hope that you have been able to see the benefits and the obvious need to have an online business presence.

I hope this article has been of value to you. I look forward to being with you on the next article where we will share Marketing Strategies that could save your business literally thousands of dollars. You don't want to miss that.

Here's a tip for you, it doesn't matter what industry you are in, what product or service you provide. Your business is about marketing. If you fail to market your business properly, your business will fail.

Small Business Marketing Plan - Increase Your Business Profit Without Breaking Your Marketing Budget

Most small business owners fail when it comes to their small business marketing plans. They've got excellent technical skills in their line of work, but that just doesn't translate to having effective marketing skills.

As a result, profitability of many small businesses has been declining over the years. Ever increasing competition is making it more challenging in many ways. For those businesses that aren't losing money, most are not producing the profit they could be if they knew how to market themselves properly.

These business owners usually just copy what they see other businesses doing, or they follow the advice of some media sales person. The problem is they copy the wrong types of businesses, and the media sales people typically only know as much about effective marketing as the business owner does.

Without the right kind of marketing system in place, the success of any business is by pure chance. To help remedy this situation, below are seven things a small business can do to increase profits while spending less on marketing.

1. Use the power of free stuff

Everyone likes getting free stuff and you can use that to your advantage. If your business lends itself to giving away free samples of your product, do that. It helps get people hooked on it. Business profits have boomed on this marketing model.

As Chris Anderson author of the book titled, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" says, "You can make make money giving things away."  In his book he talks about how businesses are giving away products and services they used to charge for, and in return, a percentage of their customers are buying something else. As a result, they are making more money than ever.

When you give something away, you often activate a universal law called the "Law of Reciprocity." It says that when people get something free, they feel obligated to do something for you. Obviously it doesn't work every time, but it does work enough of the time.

But there is another way to give away free stuff that can greatly benefit your business. When you do it right you get something very valuable in return: customer contact info...which leads us to the next tip.

2. Start capturing customer contact info and use it

One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is not tapping their current customer base. They let customers visit their business (online or offline) all day long without ever trying to capture their contact info so they can continue to market products or services to them.

You likely know how expensive it can be to get a new customer. But you can market to your current customers for little or no cost. Capturing and using customer contact info can mean the difference between a profitable business and one that barely gets by.

Your business has more customer value in it than a customer can possibly digest in a short visit so if you aren't continually marketing to your customers, you are throwing money away!

You can make customer contact capture easier simply by using the power of free from tip number one. Simply start a monthly drawing to give away something free and print some registration slips visitors can fill out. Also have people register online on your website.

Tell customers they only have to register once for all drawings and you will contact them monthly via email to let them know who won. Of course you will always include an offer for a product or service!

What do you give away? Anything with a perceived value makes a great free item. Free items do not have to be expensive. Buy something on sale at WalMart or at eBay and offer it. You can also offer free informational reports that help people solve their problems. People are always looking for ways to solve problems they are having.

Of course, once you capture this information you have to do something with it. If you're too busy to take on any more work, then the next tip will help you out.

3. Use automated tools to keep in touch with customers

Once you have a customer list, I recommend you send a minimum of 25 "messages" a year to it. A message could be an email, direct mail piece, fax, or phone call.

If you don't use an automated tool to do the work for you, you'll likely be too busy to get the job done. When you automate, your messages go out regardless of how busy you get (the more messages that go out, the busier you'll get).

One tool you can use is an email autoresponder, which is a web-based system that sends out emails when someone signs up. It sends out emails at intervals you set up. You can also set it up to send an email on a specific day, such as a holiday.

The great thing about an autoresponder tool is that you enter your messages in the autoresponder one time, then it automatically sends emails to your list. You can also broadcast messages any time you want.

Using this tool, keeping in touch with your customers is easy and it will help keep the competition from creeping in and stealing your customers because they've forgotten about you and the services you provide.

4. Stop marketing like you're a big business.

Marketing a small business like it's a big business is something almost every small business owner does. They just copy the marketing they see being done at large companies with big brands. This kind of marketing is called "brand identity," "brand building," or "image" marketing.

This is a HUGE waste of advertising money for a small business. You simply don't have the resources you need to support a successful branding campaign.

Brand advertising typically has no "call to action," (they don't ask you to do anything). They just give you features of the product or service, or they entertain you without asking you to do anything.

Brand advertising is usually benefit free. The viewer has to determine if there is a benefit to them. It may contain a list of features and the user will have to assign their own benefit to each feature. It is usually focused on the product or provider of the product instead if the customer.

A successful marketing campaign for a small business is created around direct response marketing techniques.

5. Use old fashioned direct response techniques in new ways

The kind of marketing plan that works for a small business is direct response marketing. It doesn't require a huge marketing budget to use effectively. It can be used for all types of products and services.

And the good news is that you don't even have to hire an advertising agency to do it since it doesn't require creativity. All you have to do is learn the basic structure of direct response marketing and you can easily increase the sales your business makes.

Direct response sales copy always asks the reader or viewer to take some sort of action i.e. "Call in the next 5 minutes, and we'll include a free set of Ginzu steak knives!".

It may ask for the sale directly if a full "sales presentation" was done (one-step advertising), or it may ask them to request more information (two-step advertising). It will at a minimum, ask the reader to take some form of "traceable" action so you know if it is working or not.

There should always be a headline for written advertisements! Never put your company logo at the top of a direct response advertisement. That's brand advertising.

Whenever you create an advertisement in any form always look at them from the customer point of view. Look it and ask "Who gives a crap?" about everything in it. Do you think the customer cares about your logo. No! They care about what you can do for them. Put in benefits and not features. Let the customer know what's in it for them. A successful direct response ad for a small business includes several things:

• An offer to buy something
• Sufficient information for the consumer to make a decision to act now (or directions on how to get more info)
• An explicit "call to action" sooner rather than later
• A clear way to respond such as a telephone number or web page
• A means of tracking the response.

Direct response advertising is not just used for mail campaigns. You use it in all forms of media: print, web, mail, and broadcast. Take a look at all the advertising you are currently doing no matter where it is and start making the change now.

6. Use the Internet to advertise for free

Even though websites as we know them have existed since around the early 90s, only 49%* of small businesses currently have a website *9/08, Barlow Research. It's surprising how many businesses do not understand how powerful this marketing tool is. If you don't have a website, get one because there is no better source of free advertising!

The Internet has hundreds of "Web 2.0" websites where you post "content" for free. The content can be text, videos, or audios you create and it can lead people to your business. Plus, it helps establish you as an expert in your field.

EzineArticles.com is one such place you can post content. There was no charge to post this article. All I had to do is write it, post it, and then you found it.

You can put links in the "author resource" section, to drive traffic to a page on your website. The articles you post in EzineArticles can rank extremely well in Google search results with a little help from you.

You also want to get your business listed in places like Google Local if you do local business. Once again this is absolutely free.

Once you learn how to do use the Internet for promotion you'll have a head start on the future of advertising and you get customers for free!

7. Outsource routine marketing tasks so you can work on the growing your business

One of the biggest problems small business owners have is that they get so consumed by working IN their business, they don't have time to work ON their business. So no growth can occur.

When it comes to marketing yourself on the Internet, there are ways to use "virtual assistants" to do most of the work for you. A virtual assistant is someone you hire on a full or part-time basis who does the work for you.

But a virtual assistant is not a direct employee so you don't provide benefits or have the normal hassles of an employee. They are usually located somewhere in the world that has low-cost wages so they are very affordable. That's the beauty of the Internet and the communication it provides.

Virtual assistants aren't just confined to small business marketing plan tasks though. They can do almost anything for you: reservations, schedule appointments, answer phones, customer service, send flowers, buy a present for your spouse, find someone to fix your car, website development, accounting, software development, writing, graphics, or anything you need.

There are lots of resources on the Internet that can help you find a virtual assistant.

Create Your Small Business Marketing Plan Now!

Use these seven marketing tips to start building your small business marketing plan right now. If you procrastinate, your busy life will get in the way of business growth. Even if you only take a little of the advice you've been given, you'll find it can have a big impact on the profitability of your business.

Business to Business Marketing Internet Company - Tips For Choosing an Internet Marketing Company

Internet marketing is 90% mindset and only 10% technical. Just look at all the technical wizards who live average lives. They know computers and they know marketing but they are part of the 97% who will never live the abundant life. They get their vacation once a year and they might drive a nice car; but they will never drive a Ferrari or vacation every other month at the top vacation resorts in the world.

You want to break out of the prison of mediocrity and live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. How do you do it? Where do you find this elusive "mindset"? It is available to everyone through internet marketing training. You can read books (suggested), you can listen to training calls (recommended), you can take courses (recommended), and you can join opportunities that focus on your education and success (recommended).

What is this mindset?

o It starts with your leadership skills, be the leader that everyone is attracted to.
o Have an abundance mentality, know that the world does not set limits, we set limits on ourselves.
o Know that success is yours for the taking; so take the steps necessary to be successful.
o Establish your mastermind group to develop the synergy that will absolutely launch you to the stratosphere of success.

Very few people ever achieve enough success to pay all the expenses of running an internet marketing business. Join the leaders and get the education and training you need. The return in success will amaze you!

See you on the beaches of the world.A business to business marketing internet company is just what kind of company the title states. They are business's that help other business properly market their business on the internet. Every business is an expert in their own field. Unfortunately, one business can not do it all. At a certain point it will be more cost effective to realize that outsourcing a particular marketing segment is advisable. So a firm might think about hiring a business to business marketing internet company. This will insure that they leave the internet marketing to the experts and it will free up more time for the business to utilize their own expertise.

There is a huge demand for business to business marketing internet company. Because of the huge demand everyone with a website is claiming themselves an expert in the field. So what should do to ensure you get a really good internet marketing company?

Firstly, when choosing an internet business marketing company you should look to see what their current results are. Ask for recent web sites that were developed and what internet marketing plan was implemented. Did they have a blog to attract loyal visitors? Was their plenty of written articles spread out to various article directories? Were clients getting video traffic from large video sites such as Youtube.com?

All these questions are very valid to ask to a business to business marketing internet company. My approach to new clients is a step by step process. What I do is give a free initial consultation, just to see what their current internet marketing plan is. This gives me a good idea of what they are not doing or what needs to be improved on. Then once the initial consultation is completed, I start to research and develop a customized marketing plan for that customer.

The second step is that I typically give a 1 hour presentation over the marketing internet plan. We go over things like creating a main site which deem as the money site. Develop blogs, create email capture forms, and maybe even build an EBAY store. Every business is unique and it is important that a business to business marketing internet company just provides the client a canned template. Not all business needs an EBAY store. Not all companies need to use blogging software.

Pricing to hire a business to business marketing internet company can range significantly. Every internet marketing company establishes their own prices. So it is best for you to get quotes from as many different internet marketing companies you can. But beware that the lowest price is not always going to be the best. There are literally millions of different ways to market your business on the internet.