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.

One of the main reasons businesses are looking to the internet for their marketing needs is the affordability factor. The internet is constantly evolving in a direction that makes it more feasible to reach larger numbers of people for less. While there are costs incurred through website hosting and internet access, these fees are minor when you consider how many people can be reached. Websites can be marketed for low costs, or even for free in many cases, via participating in forums related to your type of business, posting links to your website on other websites, or exchanging links with other businesses and organizations.

By utilizing online marketing, businesses are more likely to reach a customer base with interest in what they have to offer. While you are likely to have spent a lot of time and effort researching your target niche, this work will likely not be as worthwhile if you only market your products on television, radio, in newspapers or magazines. Online marketing will increase the odds of finding your target audience by allowing you to search the entire globe for new prospects.

The realization that you can reach customers around the world is mind boggling and you must see the major advantage to marketing your business online now. Regardless of where you live and operate, your business has the ability to reach those who have an interest in the products you sell or the services you provide no matter what their proximity to you is. This makes it possible for you to do business with customers anywhere in the world.

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 on the internet already, it should be. You can bet that if your competitors are not already online, they soon will be and they?ll be marketing to your audience too. Don?t get left behind, bring your business up to speed and get your products and services in front of your target audience. Consumers are looking to the internet to meet their shopping needs more and more every day. They are also looking for the convenience of purchasing online, so make sure they are seeing what you offer while they are shopping online. - 17943

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