Online Marketing is Important in 2010

Online marketing is becoming more important to small businesses these days, especially in a down economy. Online marketing is replacing traditional marketing, like newspaper and broadcast advertising, brochures and direct mail, and even trade shows. As companies cut back on their traditional marketing costs, they're looking for affordable online marketing services to fill in the gap.

This is especially important for small businesses (fewer than 100 employees), since we make up 98.3 percent of companies in America. Small businesses need affordable online marketing services to reach people online. According to projections from Forrester Research, U.S. online retail sales are expected to rise 11 percent to $156 billion this year.

If you're not familiar with what online marketing is these days, it's gone beyond the days of banner advertisements that ran along the top of websites. Now it's blogging, social networking, and even pay-per-click. Each has its own place in your online marketing toolbox, depending on what the focus of your company is.

As you learn more about online marketing, you'll start hearing terms like "relationship marketing" versus "interruption marketing," and people will talk about Generation Y (also called "Millennials"), which are going to become more and more important to your online marketing efforts.

Generation Y are those people who were born between 1977 and 1994 — between 16 and 33 now — don't respond well to traditional marketing services. They're tired of their programs being interrupted by ads (Interruption Marketing). Instead, they want relationships with their favorite companies (Relationship Marketing). And since it seems most of Generation Y was born with a computer on their lap and a cell phone in their hand, online marketing is the most effective way to find them.

That's because new technology has made it easier for Generation Y to avoid being bombarded by traditional marketing. They watch replays of their favorite shows on Hulu.com and YouTube. They get their news from My Yahoo and Google. They play video games for entertainment. They connect with friends on Facebook and MySpace. And rather than using email, they text the bejeezus out of each other when they want to communicate.

In other words, they're immune to traditional marketing, but they're wide open to online marketing campaigns.

Let's say you had a club downtown, appealing to the 21 - 29 crowd, and you want to reach that age group within a 5 mile radius of your club. How does online marketing stack up against traditional marketing?

You could put an ad in the newspaper, advertise on TV, and even put a few ads on the radio station. The problem is traditional advertising is expensive, will only reach people if they're reading, watching, or listening (and they're not always doing that). It's a total hit-and-miss whether you even reach people. You're reaching thousands, if not millions of people, but they're not all in your target market.

Online marketing can change all that, and for a lot less money. What if you could post an ad on Facebook that reached only people who lived in a 5 mile radius of your restaurant, and were between the ages of 21 - 29? Then you're not broadcasting ads to people who live 30 or 40 miles away. What if you could send a text message to people who have been to your club before? Then you're reaching people who want to hear from you. What if you could post 5 minute videos of the DJs or bands playing at your club? Then people can watch them on YouTube and see what they missed. Plus their fans will be able to watch the video, and will know to come to your place the next time their band is in town.

You can reach people who search for your exact product or service online by applying effective SEO consulting techniques and rank #1 on Google, Yahoo, and Bing without paying for keyword advertising. It is called organic search engine ranking. Google estimates that 42% of clicks within search results come from the fist listing on the page. Even if you pay for that listing, through Google Adwords, you don't have to pay Google until someone clicks on your listing and visits your website.

That's the magic of online marketing: reaching only the people you want, talking to the people who want to hear from you, and making the messages as long or short as you want, rather than in small boxes or 30 second bursts.