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Rebecca Levinson

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Online Marketing Gives Small Businesses Big Bank on Their Bucks

Three Cost Effective Online Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

Rebecca Levinson

April 28, 2009

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Saving Business Cents Makes Sense

In a sea of competing businesses online marketing gives small businesses branding opportunities. Solopreuners, small to mid-size business owners and even large corporations are replacing traditional marketing venues like direct marketing by use of newspaper advertising, bulletin boards, magazine ads, postcards, and cold calling, for the newly improved internet methods found in web 2.0 offerings. It's no wonder with the number of warm handshakes these businesses receive from their consumers online that small business owners wouldn't migrate to online offerings.

Now with all generations active online it makes good use of business cents and is business common sense to create online marketing strategies. The recent statistics provided by The Pew Internet and American Life Project Study Survey- December 2008 prove that online advertising is integral to a business's marketing plan regardless of the age of your target market.

Here is the breakdown of the generations online noted in the study,

93%- 12-17 Year Olds
89%- 18-24 Year Olds
85%- 25-29 Year Olds
87%- 30-34 Year Olds
85%- 35-39 Year Olds
83%- 40-44 Year Olds
80% 45-49 Year Olds
78% 50-54 Year Olds
71%-55-59 Year Olds
62%-60-64 Year Olds

Clearly when it comes to online usage age IS nothing but a number.

Three Effective Methods of Social Media Marketing

Each business should develop an online marketing mix that suits its current goals and objectives. Small businesses who take internet marketing seriously develop strategic media marketing strategies that incorporate several facets of interactive (web 2.0) online marketing or sometimes only a few based on the individual business's needs.

Here are three examples of effective Social Media Marketing mediums.

Blogging

You don't have to be a penned wordsmith to be a good blogger . Blogging comes in many formats and the key is that blogging is conversational. You can try traditionally penned blogs. You can record audio tracks which is known as podcasting. A third method is microblogging and a popular platform for this is twitter. In 140 characters or less microblogging allows you to engage prospects and carry out easy conversations.

Blogging is a critical component of social media marketing because it allows businesses to provide information through the use of fresh, relevant content. Incorporating blogging as par of a company's internet marketing strategy provides the company with a good opportunity to be found in the search engines for the company's desired markets.

Social Networking

One of the most popular and highly addictive web 2.0 mediums for online consumers are the social networks. Social networks allow consumers and business professionals to network among friends, strangers, acquaintances, and professionals all in one place. If small businesses keep an open mind and keep their networks open they have the potential to grow their networks exponentially by allowing other consumers into their fold.

Social networks also allow businesses to update the public on new improvement in product lines, what an average day is like at xyz company. Social networks are varied in purpose and the amount of social networks can be mind numbing, but the most popular platforms determined by marketing research about consumer online behavior are currently Linked In, Twitter, and Facebook.

Syndication

Social networks and blog platforms are relatively low on cost investment, but they are far from maintenance free marketing endeavors. To blog and create viable weekly online content the time commitment involved is a minimum of 5-10 hours a week. How can you effectively communicate online through providing fresh and relevant information AND then market that information to all of your contacts across all of the social networks? The answer is syndication.

Syndicating content allows your message and your information to be reached across the worldwide web. You can syndicate your content by using an online social service that will broadcast your updates across the social networks. You can also use lisiting syndication your marketing collateral by using a service that will syndicate your flyers across social networks.

There's No time Like the Present Online

The thing most online travelers love about the internet is the ability to peruse stores and services as well as to interact with people online anytime. More importantly, anytime means on their time in online marketing. If your business has not yet engaged heavily in online marketing there is no time like the present to get started. The reach small businesses have online is global and timeless.