Saturday, February 28, 2009

International Marketing for Your Business Via the Internet

By Rick Jenkinns

If you have yet to begin marketing your business online, now is the time to start. Among the advantages are lower costs, and the ability find your target audience anywhere in the world. While it is still possible for businesses to do well without the internet, most who decide to give it a try will see positive results. Businesses are now able to target their products toward specific consumers, based on such factors as their age, education, marital status, employment, extracurricular interests and more.

The low cost of internet marketing is one reason why so many business owners are now utilizing the Internet for advertising. Online advertising is easy and inexpensive, especially when you take into account how many customer prospects a business owner can reach with an internet marketing campaign. Most avenues of online marketing are quite affordable while some of them do not have any direct costs at all. For example, say you choose to market your business online by participating in an online forum created for your market niche and you start posting links to your website whenever it is appropriate to do so. In this scenario, the cost of creating and maintaining the website is of little significance in comparison to the number of potential clients you are now reaching through a forum that is already filled with your target audience. Plus, the costs associated with posting links to your website are very small and often are free. You could consider the cost of internet service as part of the cost but most likely you require or desire access to the internet for other reasons as well.

The ability to reach prospective customers anywhere is another great advantage of marketing your business online. Traditional target market research is not only time consuming but also can be costly and then your marketing methods are only reaching a limited audience through print media, radio and local TV campaigns. Now with the internet, you can drastically increase that reach across the globe, targeting your market niche in other countries that might not otherwise ever hear about you and your business.

The internet now makes it possible to do business with anyone around the world. This is possible regardless of where you live or work, as all you need is a connection to the internet, and website hosting services. The ability to reach a worldwide base of customers interested in your services or products is invaluable to the marketing of your business.

The Internet never sleeps it is up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including all holidays. Does your brick and mortar business do that? Think for a moment if you only advertise locally and you have standard business hours of say 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ? heck let?s make that 9:00 p.m. So your local audience is narrowed down to those who are interested in your product or service, then it is narrowed down more to only those who can make it to your business or reach you during the normal business hours. Just those alone brings the percentage of viable customers down. Now think for a moment about the business that never sleeps, that can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Do you see where I?m going with this? It is non-stop shopping. In this busy world, people are looking more and more for convenience and being able to get online when it is convenient for them, makes them more likely to buy the product or service they are looking for.

If your business is not yet being represented online, what are you waiting for? You need to be learning more about the world of Internet marketing. Your business needs you to be learning how to market it online. This is so important because if your competitors are marketing on the internet, you may find they are gaining a steady advantage over you and are becoming more appealing to the online customer. Don't let your competition get a lead on you, get out there and get online today. - 16039

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