Offline brick-and-mortar businesses have their growth limited in many cases by geographical factors. Their market reach is limited to the people living around or close to their premises, either in the same town or in the same suburb if in a large city. To expand their business and reach a larger share of market it is necessary to open up new branches in other locations or to hire a sales force both of which require a significant amount of investment.
One of the ways many small business owners have found to overcome these limitations is by setting up a virtual branch online. In fact, going online is a mandatory step for entrepreneurs that want to expand their companies from small to medium or even large size businesses. In this article we will cover some of the benefits and advantages of using the internet to market products and services.
The first and foremost benefit is that a larger number of potential customers can be reached. The internet has no boundaries. Once your website is live online, it can be accessed by people from all parts of the country and also from all parts of the world. If technically well-built and properly promoted a website will be quickly indexed and ranked by search engines and shown to people running specific searches for the products and services offered. As an immediate result, new customers will be attracted by the advantage of doing business or shopping from the comfort of their home, at the time that best suits them, because your website can be accessed along the 24 hours of the day, seven days of the week.
Besides this, unlike traditional offline methods, internet marketing requires smaller amounts of time, energy and money.
Saving time and energy: maintenance of a website is fairly simple and doesn't require much time. Several business/shopping procedures, like selecting a product or service, collecting the customers' information and making payments, can be fully automated online, without the need of an attendant.
Saving money: the cost of hosting a website is insignificant when compared to offline rent, not mentioning that there are no employee's wages, no electricity bills, no insurance costs. Online advertising and promoting is pretty less expensive than traditional offline advertising. By introducing a simple technique of capturing your visitors' email addresses and the use of an autoresponder service you can send email messages and newsletters promoting your products and services to potential customers at almost zero cost.
Online marketing is influencing all kinds of businesses like retail and wholesale, advertising, banking, music. All large companies in the world have secured their online presence investing millions of dollars in their own websites.
Because of the very low investment required and the many benefits, small businesses should not overlook it and grab their share of this market without further delay.
One of the ways many small business owners have found to overcome these limitations is by setting up a virtual branch online. In fact, going online is a mandatory step for entrepreneurs that want to expand their companies from small to medium or even large size businesses. In this article we will cover some of the benefits and advantages of using the internet to market products and services.
The first and foremost benefit is that a larger number of potential customers can be reached. The internet has no boundaries. Once your website is live online, it can be accessed by people from all parts of the country and also from all parts of the world. If technically well-built and properly promoted a website will be quickly indexed and ranked by search engines and shown to people running specific searches for the products and services offered. As an immediate result, new customers will be attracted by the advantage of doing business or shopping from the comfort of their home, at the time that best suits them, because your website can be accessed along the 24 hours of the day, seven days of the week.
Besides this, unlike traditional offline methods, internet marketing requires smaller amounts of time, energy and money.
Saving time and energy: maintenance of a website is fairly simple and doesn't require much time. Several business/shopping procedures, like selecting a product or service, collecting the customers' information and making payments, can be fully automated online, without the need of an attendant.
Saving money: the cost of hosting a website is insignificant when compared to offline rent, not mentioning that there are no employee's wages, no electricity bills, no insurance costs. Online advertising and promoting is pretty less expensive than traditional offline advertising. By introducing a simple technique of capturing your visitors' email addresses and the use of an autoresponder service you can send email messages and newsletters promoting your products and services to potential customers at almost zero cost.
Online marketing is influencing all kinds of businesses like retail and wholesale, advertising, banking, music. All large companies in the world have secured their online presence investing millions of dollars in their own websites.
Because of the very low investment required and the many benefits, small businesses should not overlook it and grab their share of this market without further delay.
SHARE
