Online Marketing for Small Businesses

According to the Nielsen Rating Service people in the prime demographic of 18-35 year olds are watching less television and spending more time online. This really not news to most people but what is making headlines is that the decline is accelerating from quarter to quarter and expanding to both the older and younger age brackets. For the small business owner this means that prime advertising is no longer just the venue of the big boys of the world.
The steady decline of television viewership and the rise of the internet have opened the doors for the small business owner to market on near equal terms with the big fish in nearly every field.
Online marketing is more about quality than budget. Web Pages, Blogs and Social Media are now the keys to running a successful advertising campaign. Exposure that would have once cost hundreds of thousands of dollars can be made available at rates that are measured in hundreds.
True, the big guys can afford to hire full time people to develop and maintain web sites and blogs for them but recent studies have shown that Internet surfers are geared more toward the personal touch than the corporate image. This gives the small business person the advantage of caring more about their content than some corporate types ever will.
You can target your specific audience by starting blogs that not only inform your customers about your company but that add value to their lives. If you are not gifted in writing the internet has many sites where you can hire writers at very reasonable rates or you can simply use an ad service that will place your advertisements on blogs containing post relevant to your products or services. Many Bloggers will even allow direct advertising. If you like a particular blog, odds are that your customers will also.
Once upon a time, in the age of television, to reach a massive audience required a massive advertising budget. Thankfully the internet has changed all that. With a small investment of money, time, and energy you, as a small business owner, can play on equal terms with the giants of industry. In fact, your smaller size, and the increased focus you bring could tip the advantage into your court. “The king is dead, long live the king” the new king is on your side.