One of the biggest problems facing small offline businesses and new business startups has always been trying to compete against larger, established businesses with considerably more available capital in their advertising budget. Whether those larger offline businesses have been using flyers, consumer shows, focus groups, print ads, radio spots or TV commercials, traditionally they've just needed to outspend you to protect their higher market share and often nibble away at yours.
But now, thanks to the Internet, you have a way for your small business to level the playing field to one extent or another. Used properly, online marketing can have a major impact on your business for little or no cost, and for entrepreneurs and other solo business professionals can even give you a way to turn your small offline businesses into true family businesses.
For example, article marketing is a powerful online marketing tool that can be used by online or offline businesses alike at no cost. If you're not a good writer or are usually pretty pressed for time, do you have kids at home of high school or college age? Knocking out 300-400 word articles is usually a breeze for them since they're writing for school regularly, so enlist their aid in your online marketing efforts. Even paying them $5 or $10 an article gives them more incentive, keeps them in spending money and is a legitimate way to spread the income from the business. (Just check with your accountant to be sure it's a tax write-off in your area before entering it as such in the books.)
Is yours a stay-at-home spouse? If so, seek their help in establishing a social media presence for your business using Twitter, Facebook 'fan' pages, etc. If your small business lends itself to visual representation, use photos from your digital camera to get the word out on the photo-sharing sites and use the photos to illustrate points on your business blogs. Since most families have a digital video camera these days, learn to use the software that came with it to render your videos, then use them to market your small business through video sharing sites. Your videos can be you discussing your business, videos of you conducting business or teaching how the business operates, or even full-blown commercials like you'd see on television - any of those can help build small offline businesses.
And most importantly, be sure you have one of the best business blogs in your line of work. That doesn't mean the fanciest or the most expensive - in fact it can be done quite cheaply. The best business blogs are those that are the most helpful to their target audience. You already know what information your potential customers need, what they should know about your area of expertise, what they should know about your and your small business, and what they should watch out for in your marketplace. You also know what goods and services are available to them, which they should use and which they should avoid, and why.
So get that information out there on your business blog - help your target market by educating them in the areas they want to - and should - know about. The more helpful you can be to them with the information you post on your small business blog, the more likely your are to turn those targeted leads into customers. And combined with the Internet marketing strategies above, your small business blog can help you level the playing field against those larger, richer offline businesses.