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Friday, August 23, 2013

The Best Ways Internet Marketing Can Improve Your Traditional Business

By James Steele


As a "traditional" (often called "brick and mortar") business, you probably see the Internet as something "extra." More than likely you use it for email but not a lot else. Maybe your business even has a simple website. You might feel like it is all working just fine. But what if you want to build your business even further? There is an entire market of people who shop primarily through the Internet that you could be reaching. So what do you do? In this article we'll teach you some Internet Marketing tips that are useful in the building up of an offline business.

If your core business is the sale of physical products, then consider selling them online as well via your company site. You are gaining access to a massive market by allowing people to purchase your products online, who likely weren't able to purchase your wares before and probably didn't even know you were around. You can use a wide range of software programs to manage your inventory and avoid overselling your products. Don't stick just to your local area because there are plenty of other options.

If you do not already have a website, you need to build one. Here is the good news: building a website for your business is pretty easy. There are tools like WordPress and lots of affordable domain name servers and web hosting services that make it really easy to have at least a basic business website up and running within thirty minutes or so. There is no need to have an overly complicated or extensive website--at least not when you're just starting to build. It's okay to set up a basic "here is who we are, here is what we do" site just to establish your presence on the web and then build it from there. Get to know and love Twitter. Over the last few years or so, the popularity of Twitter has gotten super high. These days the majority of businesses out there, even the brick and mortar businesses, have Twitter accounts. If you want to know what people are saying about your business, Twitter is a great way to do that. It's also helpful in terms of quickly fixing any issues that people might be talking about in terms of your services or your products. Using Twitter doesn't cost a thing. It is relatively easy to use. You can even use it for business building by sending a promotional offer or two out to your followers once in a while.

You shouldn't confine yourself solely to your local chamber of commerce's directory because there are plenty of other possibilities. You can join a wide range of online directories, which are free. You can even meet other business owners and build relationships with them because some of these sites operate just like social media platforms. It only takes a few minutes to submit your business and your business's website to these directories and, really, the more links you have coming in to your website, the better, right?

Make sure that your business has its own Facebook page. You may not really like the idea of being a part of Facebook. That is absolutely valid for your personal life. Having a Facebook page for your professional life, however, is seriously important. Facebook is going to give you a way to reach out to people both locally and globally. As your current clientele "like" the page you create, more and more doors get opened to potential clients all over the world. A good way to get people to "like" you is to offer a discount on a future order in exchange for liking you. The World Wide Web isn't just a fad. The truth is that little by little, the web is overtaking the "traditional" business world. Over time, more brick and mortar businesses are choosing to use Internet Marketing Methods both to promote and to increase their bottom lines and profit margins. Use the things we've shared here to start doing the same for your own.




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