Beating the Dead Marketing Horse...All Hail the Power of the Internet

By the time you finish reading this sentence, about ten people will connect to the internet for the first time. That's right, as every week passes, more and more people are turning to the internet to interact and to look for products and services. The wonderful thing is that your web presence stays up 24 by 7 and can be a round the clock information resource for you. Some business owners wake up after a night's sleep much wealthier than when they went to bed as their site collected orders overnight.

There is no question that this medium is getting more and more vital to the success of your business, no matter what you do. If you don't already have one up, I strongly encourage you to do so now. If you need help from a professional, then find it. People are turning to the internet daily as a source for any kind of information, making old ways, such as the yellow pages, obsolete. Very soon a sizable percentage of people will look solely to the internet when searching for products and services. You need to be up and visible.

Being visible means that you can no longer just put the site up and expect traffic. You must be actively engaged in driving traffic (i.e. your target prospects) to it. There are many ways to do this including directories, internet advertising, links, and others. Take the time to learn all the various ways of driving traffic most appropriate for your business.

One significant opportunity right now is in the area of local internet marketing where directory listings from search engines such as Google and Yahoo are free (this is why the yellow pages are quickly repositioning themselves on the internet).

Marketing starts once the prospect comes to the site. "Opt-in" marketing is where the prospect has given you permission to contact them via email for further information such as newsletters. Remember again that it typically takes a minimum of six contacts over time before a prospect buys from you. This is true in the internet arena as well. There are internet-based companies that will assist you in providing this consistent contact for you. Get to know them and how to use that technology.

Each year that you don't use the internet as a strategic tool, you're digging a whole that is deeper and deeper as your competition strengthens their position. Get on it now.