Mediaboss Marketing

Credit: Anjana23121985 | Getty Images

ByRandy Duermyer

Updated November 21, 2017

In the grand scheme, Internet marketing are promotional strategies and tactics you use online to reach your home business' target market. While at one time, a business could choose to be online or not as part of its marketing strategy, but today, most consumers search for business resources, get referrals, and seek reviews online before buying or hiring a business, and as a result, all businesses should have an online presence as part of its marketing mix.

Essentially, Internet marketing is using the Internet to do one or more of the following:

There are many ways to promote your home business and reach potential buyers online including:

Internet marketing is effective and very affordable, and as a result, it should be part of yourbusiness planand yourmarketing strategy. However, Internet marketing is so vast that it's nearly impossible for a single-business owner to do it all. But, there are certain online marketing tactics that all business owners should have. At the very least, a home business should have:

1) A web presence. Depending on your home business, this can be a website or blog, or as basic as a squeeze page. You need a central place to send all your prospects that you own. While many people have turned to sites like Facebook to create their web presence, because you don't "own" the space and Facebook can (and often does) change it's rules, you should have your own site.

2) Email list. Many new home business owners put this off, which is a mistake. While some people might think social media replaces email, it doesn't. People who connect with you through email have made a greater commitment and are more likely to see your messages, than simply following you on social media. Further, research shows that email marketing has one of the highest ROIs of marketing strategies. Email marketing gives you one of the best results for the cost in time and money.

Beyond the website and email list, you need to decide what strategies will work best for you. That starts by knowing your target market, where it can be found, and how to best attract their attention. For example, social media is a great free way to connect with people, but if your market isn't on Twitter, maybe you don't need to Tweet.

Some great free options that don't require a great deal of time but can offer results include:

1) Keywords and SEO. Whatever you have online, whether it's a website or social media profile, make sure you use quality keywords so that you can reap the benefits of search engines.

2) Social media. While social media can take too much time if you don't control it, with a good plan and the right tools, social media can allow you to find and connect with potential customers, as well as the opportunity to build a community around your business. Consumers like to know the businesses they work with and social media is a great way to show people who you are.

How much of your marketing strategy should be handled online and which Internet marketing elements you use depends on the nature of your business, your budget, your time, and your goals. Many home business owners do it all themselves in the beginning, but as their businesses grow, they begin to pay for services or outsource work to a virtual assistant that can help them with online marketing.

Using Offline Elements with Internet Marketing Strategies

Unless you transact business only online, for example, if you are an eBay reseller, you will probably want to include some traditional offline marketing elements in your overallmarketing strategyin addition to the elements in yourInternet strategyin yourmarketing mix.

But while online marketing is affordable and effective, no business, even 100 percent online businesses should ignore offline marketing options. Ultimately, your marketing should involve any tactic that allows you to reach the people who want to buy, whether that's through Twitter or a business card you tacked to a bulletin boardin your community.

Many online marketing strategies, such as social media are free. However, some of the most effective and professional looking options aren't.

While you can get free webhosting, it's not recommended. Ideally you should buy webhosting and a domain name. Fortunately, you can buy both for less than $100 a year.

An email list service is another expense you should be open to taking on. MailChimp offers free email list management up to 2,000 subscribers, but you'll want to price out other options to see what might be the most affordable in the long run, and offers all the features you want.

Beyond that, you'll want to consider your market and budget for other marketing options. Paying for advertising, such asPay-per-click advertising(PPC), likeGoogle AdWordsor Facebook ads, can be effective, you can write an ad that has people clicking and following through (clicks alone won't build your business. They need to buy too.)

Content marketing is very effective, but time consuming to create. In that case you can hire writers or buy private label rights to articles and other content to use.

Whether your marketing strategies cost money or not, they all take time. You don't want to waste time or money on tactics that aren't delivering results, which means you need to track what's working. There are many ways to determine what efforts are producing and those that aren't. You can study your website's analytics through your web host or by using Google Analytics. Most social media sites provide analytics (although you might need to use its paid options to get them) or you can use tools such as HootSuite to get your social media analytics. Your email list will provide you with information on the number of opens and clicks to your emails.

When you find something that isn't working, take some time to find out why before ditching it. For example, if people aren't opening your emails, can you improve your subject lines?

While it is possible to see results from your marketing efforts quickly, the reality is that marketing, especiallythe type that generates long term results and referrals, takes time. You're competing in an increasingly crowded and loud marketplace. The better you can connect with your ideal market and develop a relationship with it, the better your results will be. And if you provide a great product or service, and are attentive to your customers, your customers will provide you with positive reviews, referrals, and testimonials that will help you stand out in the crowd.

This article on Internet marketing is just one in a collection of articles available in the Online Marketing Guide.

Read more:
Internet Marketing 101 for Home Businesses