How the internet and marketing go hand-in-hand

It's hard to think of a better combination than the Internet and marketing. Where else can you reach the hundreds, thousands, or even millions who make up your target market. Whether you are a small, local business, or a large corporation, internet marketing is indispensable. It's been proven that most folks don't even glance at a yellow pages book anymore to find a local business. Nor do they go on the online yellow pages. Now, the average consumer just types their need into their search engine, whether it be Google, Yahoo, Bing, or any of the other hundreds out there. If you want to come up in their searches, you need to learn how to take advantage of the Internet and marketing, or hire someone to do it for you.

If you're a local business, you don't even need a website to come up in Google, Yahoo, or Bing searches. All you need to do is fill in your information on their Local Business pages. You can include your company name, contact details, directions, photos, and a website if you have one. You can also choose to offer coupons for your customers, which brings you up in popularity and rankings. These pages also offer users the chance to review what it is that you offer. Ask your happy customers to review you, and you are also boosted in ranking. And the best part of all? This listing is completely free! Think of how much you save on yellow pages or newspaper ads that are no longer even getting results. If you run a local business, take the few minutes it will take you to get listed on the search engine local results and you can start seeing traffic immediately. Other free options include setting up accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, or any of the other social media sites. Blogging is another way to create interest and establish credibility in your field.

If you haven't yet merged the Internet and marketing for your larger company or corporation, luckily you can get in on the game very quickly whether you hire staff to handle this for you or you outsource the job to someone else. One of the major sources of income for larger companies who take advantage of internet marketing is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. While this type of advertising is not free, you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. This is one of the huge advantages of pay-per-click versus offline advertising. You only pay when you get results. Large companies are also taking advantage of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogging. If they are using these free methods even though they have millions of dollars to spend on marketing, you better believe that this is working for them.

The Internet and marketing really are two extremely compatible terms--make sure that you are teaming them up in your business.

By: Anthony Harris 
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/online_business/article_8495.shtml