by Kenneth Doyle

Internet Marketing is a now a must do marketing activity for any small business wanting to prosper in the so called Information age. However, with this being said, marketing your small business on the Internet does not need to be expensive, nor does it need to be complicated.

And, just like in the real world, there are many small business marketing options available to you.

Small business Internet marketing can be a very cost-effective way of promoting your bricks and mortar business locally and/ or to the world. All that one does is choose from the wide variety of marketing options available, and then consistently apply them to get measurable results.

So, what are these strategies and how does one apply them?

In broad terms there are THREE main types of marketing strategies, which apply to small business Internet marketing, being…

1. PPC marketing (Pay per click marketing, e.g. Google Adwords), and… 2. Information link marketing (linked via content on a specific topic), and… 3. Educational search marketing (all involving original content that educates).

So, what are the PROS and CONS of these different approaches?

1. PPC SEARCH MARKETING:

The effectiveness of your paid search marketing campaign is directly related to the keyterms you chose to use. The other key factor here is your landing page for you PPC advertisement. In essence, Paid search marketing works a little like the marketing you (as a bricks and mortar business owner) already know and use in the real world. The main difference here is that you pay per click.

The PROS: If correctly targeted, you get prospects looking at what you want to sell and/ or promote quickly.

The CONS: A) This is a specialist skill. If you don’t know what you’re doing you can lose a lot of money, fast! B) Hiring a PPC specialist can be expensive. C) You have to continue to run your PPC ads. D) Competition for commercial keyterms is fierce. This continually drives their cost up, and you only get to play as long as you continue to pay.

2. CONTEXT within CONTEXT LINK MARKETING:

This approach uses other people’s web site content as the platform for your advertising. The links are embedded inside the content on their web pages. This content is usually keyword focused. For example, let’s say that you sell wood heaters. When you engage in in-context link marketing your hyperlinks are placed within content on specific web site articles and/ or web pages about wood heaters.

The PROS: Embedded hyperlinks that are within topic-focused content are not (generally) regarded by the reader as commercial links. They are viewed as links to additional information on the topic. Thus, if you hyperlink from topic-focused content to more topic focused content that gently moves the prospect into your marketing funnel these links can be an extremely effective way to advertise your small business.

The CONS: A) You have little to no control over what web sites your links are placed on, which means that links can be placed within content that doesn’t quite fit sometimes. B) Best results are achieved by driving prospects to especially designed landing pages. Skill is required to set up these sales funnel paths. C) The demand for good, profitable commercial keyterms always exceeds supply, thus pushing up the price for the good terms.

3. NATURAL SEARCH - SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING:

Natural search is where people go to the Internet, type a keyterm into a search engine, and the search engine returns a list of the most appropriate web page on the web with has that keyphrase in it. When done correctly this marketing method has significant benefits for small business marketing their bricks and mortar businesses on the web.

Note: SEO is a term used to describe the optimization of web pages. Search marketing is different (though related). Search marketing integrates SEO and information search paths to better interface with the web user searching for specific information.

The PROS: With natural search marketing, if your business is the creator of the keyword-focused content, you have a distinct marketing advantage on the web. Long term, these advantages will far out weight both the PPC and In-context marketing strategies, because you are building a web business or traffic portal which belongs to you. Your results with natural search marketing are in direct relationship to your own efforts. And, here’s an interesting twist, small businesses wanting to primarily market themselves locally or regionally have a distinct advantage using this natural search marketing methodology.

The CONS: A) Search marketing strategies require more effort than the potential throwing money at the wall techniques of the other strategies. B) It can be a slower approach than the other methods discussed. However it has been proven time and again that search marketing is an ideal and cost effective method for small businesses to use on the net.

So, in summary… Small Business Internet marketing no longer needs to be the mysterious world it once appeared to be for small businesses. However, there is still a great divide between those small businesses that employ smart marketing strategies as the foundation of their online marketing systems, and those that don’t.

About the Author:

Before you invest ONE dime on creating or marketing a small business on the Internet find out about the premier and proven Search marketing system for small business internet marketing called Site Build It.