Marketing Your Business - How Do I Adapt To The Internet?

The way we do business is changing rapidly. From VOIP, video conferencing, email support, telephone answering services, and the almighty internet. As a business owner we are faced with hundreds of decisions our parents and grandparents never had to contend with.

Some of you keep hearing from other business associates that internet marketing is the greatest method of increasing business and building a foundation for customer support. The only problem is, you've just learned how to send emails to people! Never mind learning about SEO, web design strategies, content analysis, pay per click, ROI, etc!

Investing time into your company is what we business owners do best but, in many cases, when it comes to learning new methods we quickly open our wallets to anyone out there who seems like the right person to help with your situation. This is the worst possible decision you can make.

Diving into the internet marketing community with your wallet open will result in a disaster if you aren't properly trained on how to spend your money wisely. The key is not to hire an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) company to take your money and promote your business behind your back. Try finding someone who offers you their "training services" in order to train yourself or someone within your organization to learn more about what is required online, how much effort it entails, and what pitfalls to avoid.

As a business owner, if you blindly search online and pick a company, you have no idea what you could be getting yourself into. There are no secrets to promoting your business online, only a lot of hard work. That being said, anyone with a computer can easily learn how to get their company high search engine rankings. Search engines don't look to see whether or not you're running a scam. No, they are concentrated on delivering relevant results for your search terms.

In the old days (and still practiced today), business owners would devise their own marketing plan through print media, business cards, postcards, flyers, brochures, newspapers, magazines, TV ads, and radio ads. By doing this, the company could track their results by trial and error and really find out what truly works for their industry.

Old fashioned marketing is a simple trial and error process. So is the internet. Unfortunately, all too many business owners don't have a clue how to start their own internet marketing process and they fail to even put their foot in the water. Instead, many business owners simply hire anyone they can find that seems reputable and then turn a blind eye and say; "Here's my budget, you are the professional, you tell me what to do". This is simply preposterous. You've worked so hard to get to where you are now by learning and adapting and as soon as it comes to marketing your business online, you simply shut down.

I hope that this article has awoken some of you. Don't be afraid to dive into the internet's vast realm of marketing potential. So what if you fail the first time around. When we started out, we had no idea what we were doing, 3 years later our website ranks higher than many other internet marketing companies world wide.

T - Try and try again
I - Internet changes all the time
M - Marketing opportunities are around every corner
E - Eventually you too can succeed

Start date - Research only: June 7th, 2005
Hired a website designer - August 31st, 2005
Website Complete - October 15th, 2005
Website launch - October 20th, 2005

Started an internet marketing campaign - November 1st, 2005 Started a Pay Per Click campaign - November 10th, 2005 Made a sale - November 15th, 2005

Increased our website's link popularity - January 1st, 2006 Website gets hit by the Google Sandbox Effect - January 20th, 2006 Increased our Pay Per Click campaign - February 5th, 2006

Made some changes to the website - February 21st, 2006 Increase the website's link popularity - February 28th, 2006 Got listed in the Yahoo directory - March 3rd, 2006

So here you are 10 months out of the gate and your website may still be "locked in the Google sandbox" ( Search for "Google Sandbox" in Google for an explanation). Your link popularity is just starting to grow a little bit. Hopefully you haven't tried to link to everyone you can find and are actually linking to companies that are directly related to your business. Your PPC campaign is doing good. People are finally starting to come through Yahoo & MSN search results. You can sometimes find your company in the 200th spot within search results in Google and you are now wondering why this is taking so long.

This timeline representation from above is just something to show you how "T.I.M.E." is the key of success on the internet and all we are required to do is keep plugging away and keep learning more every chance we get.

For most people who simply open up their wallets, they would have learned nothing in those 10 months and for everyone else starting an internet marketing campaign, those who didn't simply just open their wallets, their websites are probably 10 times further than yours!

Learn more about how to increase your marketing campaign on the internet. If you have to, hire someone in-house who can learn for you and give you updates on everything. If you truly need to hire an SEO company make sure it's for the right reasons like "starting and finishing a marketing campaign with you learning in the process", or "enhancing a campaign that is already in place", or "to revise your website's conversion rate" or "create a impactful key word optimization campaign", etc. Take your time and use "T.I.M.E." to increase your business slowly but effectively on the internet.

Martin Lemieux is the president of the Smartads Advertising Network. Smartads is here to help grow your business online and offline through effective marketing strategies. Visit our network today!

Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article, just make sure everything remains the same.

INTERNET MARKETING RESOURCES:

Do Not Call List: total waste of time

Advertising:- People really loathe telemarketers of any ilk or persuasion, p2pnet posted in September.

EU Services Marks 40th Anniversary

Nov. 19, 2009--FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: EU Services, one of the largest direct marketing production companies on the East Coast, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

FDA Sends Warning Letter to Shionogi Over Cedax Direct Mailers

ROCKVILLE, Md., Nov. 20, 2008-The FDA today posted on its website a Warning Letter sent to Shionogi USA about a Professional NDC Sheet and a Cardinal Health NDC Sheet for Cedax.

Barbour County accident results in three injuries

Wednesday night, three people were injured following an accident on Talbott Road in Belington in Barbour County, WDTV reported.

Do-not-call scam circulating through e-mail

Cellphone providers are warning against a scam circulating via e-mail regarding the CRTC's recently implemented do-not-call telemarketing list.

California's Newer Small Businesses Leverage Social Media to Expand Globally

VerticalResponse, Inc. , the leading provider of on-demand email marketing and direct mail solutions , today releases the results of a survey comparing how startups fare in adoption of social media and online ...

Rogers Disappointed that CRTC will not block unsolicited SMS through Do Not Call List

Rogers Wireless, Canada's leading wireless carrier, is calling on the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to permit Canadian wireless customers to block unsolicited, unwanted text ...

7 Telemarketing Companies Settle With State

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says seven companies have settled with the state for making prerecorded telemarketing calls.

Downsized? Fired? Here are the new rules of finding a job

Company lost its funding. Outsourced. Caught in a merger. Downsized. Fired. It seems like every day I learn of another person who is on the job market.

DMA: Focus on ad ethics, self-regulation

Direct marketers must work together to head off regulatory restrictions, developing cohesive solutions to advertising ethics and direct mail-delivery issues.

Iowa suit aims to clamp down on deceptive charity marketing practices

An Arizona fundraising company used ex-felons to solicit donations on behalf of Iowa narcotics officers and families of missing children, then misled donors to believe the money would go to the organizations, a ...

Transcontinental announces appointment of Brian Reid as President of its Printing Sector

Transcontinental Inc. today announced the appointment of Brian Reid as President of its Printing Sector, effective immediately.

Get creative to cut direct mail costs

Today's marketers want to stay competitive in an uncertain economy, but direct mail can be expensive.

Consider these mailing trends to avoid postal angst

Direct mail doesn't have to be a shot in the dark. There are number of steps that direct mailers can take to make their marketing efforts easier and more effective.

Fight Back Against Telemarketers

Nearly three of every four Americans register their phones with the national "Do Not Call Registry." But the concept comes with many loop holes and exemptions.

PC Mall to Present at Investor Conference

TORRANCE, Calif. - PC Mall, Inc. today announced that it is scheduled to participate in the following upcoming investor conference: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Speakers: You can access the webcast by visiting PC ...

Valassis cuts 100 jobs, '08 forecast

Shares of Valassis Communications Inc. fell to a record low Monday, as the Livonia-based direct marketing firm cut 100 jobs and reduced its profit forecast after posting a third-quarter loss of $5.2 million ...