The Truth About Internet Marketing
The Truth About Internet Marketing
Lots of small business owners feel like they’re being left behind when it comes to online marketing.
Some have sheepishly admitted to me that they don’t have a website and the longer they don’t have one, the more they feel the pressure that they *should* have one.
Others small business owners have told me that they just plain don’t have time for all this internet marketing stuff – they’re busy enough just trying to be a real estate agent, run a pizza parlor, be a therapist, or manage a small accounting business.
So let’s strip away all the tech stuff – set aside the HTML and PHP coding; cast away all the SEO and SEM stuff; push off the table all the Mobile Marketing, Facebook, Email Marketing, Twitter, Online Reputation Management, and Social Media Marketing (hey, no wonder small business owners are confused, eh?)
Let’s get to the core of what internet marketing really is:
Internet marketing, despite all the fancy terms and technology, is not different than any other kind of marketing; it’s about getting your message across to the people who want and need what you have to offer.
Sounds like a “smack yourself on the forehead” *duh* statement, right? Well, not so much – because the fact is that business owners get all caught up in the flash and glitz of the web, and forget that at the core they’re in business simply to attract and serve customers and clients.
Sure, the web has created amazing new methods of marketing such as Pay Per Click and Facebook demographic target marketing. But those are just methods of getting yourself in front of your target market with a (hopefully) irresistible message.
In the final analysis, yes it’s true that internet marketing continues to evolve at a rapid clip and will continue to do so as far into the foreseeable future as any of us can predict. Are there now and will there be a continual stream of marketing methods?
Of course. But if you’re a small business owner, don’t let that intimidate you or concern you. Look before you leap. Get some good advice and ideas first. Go to a seminar or read some online articles. Decide for yourself which online marketing methods make sense for your business and reaching your target market effectively.
Above all, never let the glitz and glamor or the internet cause you to lose sight of the fact that it’s all about your customer. It always has been and always will be so.
Do you disagree? Think I left out something important? That’s what the comment box below is for.
More soon,
The Internet Marketing Brain.
