Budgeting Internet Marketing for Small Businesses | Ryerson DMZ

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Getting ranked at the top of that first page is every company?s goal, but when you?re a small business, you might struggle to compete with corporations who can sink a lot of money into their marketing. To successfully market your business, you need to spend time learning the industry, consider your budget, target your consumer base and embrace the advantages small businesses have over larger firms.

Learn the Industry
The majority of consumers now use the Internet to research products and make purchases, and if your business isn?t equipped with a website, you?re cutting out a huge portion of potential clientele. If you haven?t already, invest in your Internet presence. Find a Web developer who can create a site for you, and get involved in the process. Learn about terms like ?backlinks? and ?keywords,? and educate yourself on the positives and negatives associated with both. If you know that Panda is not just a bear, you could have an edge over some of your competition.

Create a Budget
Particularly if you?re working with a marketing firm, they?ll need to know your budget before they can propose a plan of action. If your budget is small, don?t worry. You can still target consumers effectively, but you need to use different techniques than a larger firm would. You may not be purchasing banner ads, but you can buy SEO-driven content and utilize social media to bolster your site?s rankings.

Determine Your Target
Is the purpose of your site to inform, entertain or merchandise? This can have a large impact on how you spend your marketing dollars. For many businesses, the goal is to convince a visitor to make a purchase. Having a blog with useful information about your product keeps your site relevant and up-to-date, ensuring higher rankings. It gives your visitors the opportunity to educate themselves, and fresh, keyword-driven content keeps you indexed at the top.

Know Your Strengths
A small business may not have as much money to pour into marketing, but it does have more flexibility and time. At a corporate level, ideas and decisions have to go through several channels before they can be implemented. A small business can make these decisions almost immediately, which means you can spend more time in the search engine rather than the boardroom. For all marketing ventures, time is a large part of capital gain, so the less time you have to spend developing your plan, the better.

About the author:
Shawn Black is freelance blogger for Tourisme Montreal, which helps you find a hotel in Montreal. He loves travelling, biking, basketball, music and good food.

Source: http://digitalmediazone.ryerson.ca/blog/budgeting-internet-marketing-for-small-businesses/

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