Internet Marketing for Small Business

You’d think that the best place to find information about internet marketing is, well, on the internet. Right?

For some brands, this is true. But for some brands—such as small businesses, independent service providers, and non-profit organizations—the best internet marketing advice is practically non-applicable.

For example, you can find dozens of articles that highlight “Which 13 Social Networks Should You Be Using?” when in reality your small business probably doesn’t have the resources to effectively maintain more than 3 social networks. Some better advice would be to master what you can handle, but focus on the networks used most often by your core audience.

If you were to follow internet marketing advice as it applies to internet based businesses, you’d be digging yourself a hole to get buried in. Case in point- when you auto-respond your tweets based on Facebook updates then you shouldn’t even bother having a Twitter. Re-cycled information is actually pretty useless and it gives off the impression that your brand really doesn’t have anything unique or original to say.

Small brands have to take a different approach to internet marketing, because most of the strategies are based on brands that cater to a larger audience. From bigger corporations to e-commerce sites, the core market is more web-based.

On the bright side, you have the advantage when your audience is within a local geographic region. You’ll rank higher on search engines, in fact you can place on the front page of Google very quickly, simply by focusing more on areas served as opposed to targeting the search phrases / keywords that would put you in a bigger lake with more fish.

Whether you are the owner of a small business or you are an internet marketer who wants to help a client achieve their goals… the best strategies for building a web presence for smaller brands is specifically different from the strategies listed in most articles.