Getting Started with Online Marketing

How do you decide what type of online marketing, if any, is right for your firm, or business?

The first two things you should look at are: (1) who your target customer is, and (2) how would they normally seek out your product or service. If the answer to #1 is a consumer, chances are pretty good that you would stand to benefit considerably from some form of proactive online marketing. Search engine optimization and pay per click are among the most common methods used to reach consumers and should generally be explored before any other types of online marketing. Content and link building are typically tactics that are directly tied to improvement of search results and increase the size of your company's net. As a result, many organizations leverage blogs and other online articles to increase their exposure.

In your company offers products and services to other businesses, the online marketing strategies that work to generate leads are typically less clear. For example, a firm that offers printing services may easily be found online, by a business customer seeking this particular service. However, if the firm offers a novel or unique service (for example, a cutting edge software application for tracking marketing leads), your target audience may not know to seek out this service.

If you are offering professional services to other businesses, as is the case with most defense firms, reputation plays a critical role and it is therefore not likely that a search engine approach would yield meaningful results. However, leveraging online networks to develop relationships and joining groups that your clients are part of may be highly beneficial to this type of firm. Blogging to establish expertise in a particular area of law and sharing this with your clients may also be a highly effective tactic.

If you are uncertain about the online marketing tactics that are best suited for your type of firm, ask an expert. Some tactics will be more effective than others and ultimately you may have to test a few in small doses to see what type of impact they can have on your business