Marketing Essentials for the Beginners

Author: Robert Bassett
Online marketing is often seen as an easy and cheap way to promote your business. However, if you are a beginner, there is only so much you can do to use online marketing without needing help of a specialist. But these little steps are certainly worthwhile considering if you don't want to loose out in such a competitive world.
1. Email
When surfing the web I still find many companies using a generic email address such as mybusiness@yahoo.com or similar. If you want to use your email to contact customers or to be contacted, one of your first steps should be to set up a domain name and an email address with your business such as sales@mybusiness.com.
There are many providers on the internet, so you will have to search and compare cost and support service provided. But to do so is vital as an email address with your company name instils trust in your business and will increase the number of people choosing to contact you.
2. Website
A website does not have to be large and expensive. If you can get it designed interestingly and have resources to maintain it regularly, that's great. But the least you should have is a small website such as www.mybusiness.com with a short description of the products and services you offer and your contact details.
When potential customers are searching for a supplier on the internet (and this is increasingly being done both by businesses and consumers) you have a chance to be found. And if they think you are suitable they'll be happy to contact you by email or phone for more details. If you don't have a presence on the web, they might not even know you exist.
Over time you can think of expanding your website and using professionals to improve your search engine optimisation (SEO improve your ranking in search engines).
3. Listings
The simplest use of online marketing is to use it to be found. You can register on free sites or on sites that cost you money to list your business. Again, the better the site you are listed in ranks on search engines the better the chance that a potential customer will find you.
One tip to consider is the yellow pages you might already be listed in them. For an additional payment you can feature in the local search in Google. E.g. enter "plumber yourtown" in Google and a map with local suppliers will come up these is pulled from yell.com and a great and cost effective marketing tool for small businesses targeting consumers.


4. Advertising
If online advertising is for you depends on your target audience and products. The same thought process as for offline advertising applies, but if you have little experience get an expert on board to advise you and to develop the adverts and banners.
5. Networking
Networking is very useful for small businesses to get in touch with the right people customers, suppliers and staff. You should consider using online sites such as linkedin.com or xing.com as well to publish your profile and to get in touch and stay in touch with people that could be useful to your business or are happy to recommend you.
6. Email newsletters
Email newsletters are considerably cheaper than direct mail but you need to know where to get the best addresses from and how much to pay. You shouldn't do this without experts help as it is easy to damage your online reputation by accidentally spamming. Also your newsletters should be carefully designed just a letter copied into word is unlikely to be received positively by your customers.
Online marketing has many facet's and if you are interested, I'd recommend to take an introduction course to find out what are the best options for you. I hope that above gives you some ideas at what to look first! I can also suggest some good software or give you links on the subject that will give you a more wellrounded and informative education. Leave me a msg and I'll deffinately respond.
About the Author:
Robert Bassett is a recognized authority on the subject of how to generate money online through affiliate marketing, writing articles, blogging and web site building. Robert has been interested in internet marketing, particularly affiliate marketing, for over 5 years.

He is highly dedicated to helping beginning affiliate marketing entrepreneurs that are eager to learn everything he has to teach to help drive them to their goals.

Honestly, Robert would like to help others by giving them golden opportunities to make money on the internet. From his extensive traveling around the world, he strongly believes that there are unlimited amounts of opportunities for individual entrepreneurs to earn money and maximize their profits online.

With his extensive experience, he has already tried and tested many internet marketing techniques in order to ensure that those techniques are proven and successful for other entrepreneurs to facilitate, particularly in the areas of pay per click, online advertising, article marketing, email marketing, and blogging online.

Robert is also an author in several article directories on the internet. He is a recognized authority on the subject of making money on the internet through affiliate marketing and pay per click advertising.
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Marketing Essentials for the Novice