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For today’s internet marketing advertising business owners there is a growing complexity as to what are the best ways to advertise their goods and services. With all the many marketing options out there today it can become rather confusing when it comes to selecting the top on and offline marketing systems.

With the extreme changes to our economy over the last few years it makes achieving a comfortable income very challenging for today’s business women and men.

My main goal today is to help small business owners with their offline and online web marketing strategies. Hopefully this will instill confidence, thus allowing the business owner to move forward with a solid plan that can be implemented easily and effectively. And also I would like to show them a way to generate an additional revenue stream, further solidifying the financial stability of their business.

First off I would like to take a look at some of the most common internet marketing advertising methods and challenges associated with them:

1. Pay-Per-Click: Also known as ppc marketing. This is where the web marketing firm places ads on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. and they pay a pre-determined amount for each visitor that clicks on their ad. This can be a good way to reach targeted prospects for your goods or service. It can also be very complex and frustrating as the search engines, especially Google, change their algorithms quite frequently. For example, back in December 2009, Google banned over 100,000 advertisers from their network. Many of these were long-time web marketing businesses that have advertised for many years.

2. Web 2.0 marketing A.K.A. Social Marketing 2.0. This is where you join social networking site such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Hub Pages, etc. You set up your personal profile with the goal of finding like-minded individuals. This way you are developing a list of targeted followers that have the same demographics as yourself. The reason this is so important is that sooner or later you will sent targed ads out to the followers. This is called monetizing your list. It just makes sense that you try to develop a list of followers such as yourself taht you can market to. Draw backs of this system are the long amount of time it takes to develop a large list of followers. Not only that, but trends come and go. There’s no telling how much longer they’ll be popular.

3. You can place ads on classified sites such ad Back Page, Craigslist, Gumdrop, etc. However I must warn you that these classified ad sites are extremely time consuming. And you have many advertisers that want to reverse sell you whatever it is they have to offer.

4. Advertising offline: This is where you place ads in Newspapers, tv, magazines, etc. The good thing is your ad can be shown to many prospects. The bad news is it can be extremely expensive to advertise in the various periodicals. Your ad is usually shown to a wide segment of society and not targeted at all. Not only that, but once you submit your ad to the media company it can take forever for your ad to be seen. What I mean by that is: say your ad is shown in a magazine that is published in March. You will have to have your ad submitted and paid for weeks if not months in advance. It can take months to see a return on your investment.

Now that we’ve reviewed some of the more common offline and web marketing methods, I feel it best to move on to some relatively unknown marketing strategies that can produce results that are both rapid and lucrative.

1. Fax Broadcasting: Many don’t know this, but you can send targeted fax broadcasts to those that are good prospects for your goods and services. This type of internet marketing advertising is extremely cost-effective and reaches your target market in a short amount of time.

2. Postcard mailing: With most all businesses advertising on the internet today, most have forgotten that direct mailing of postcards, when sent to a targeted list, can be the best way to connect with your target market in a low-cost way. Not only that, but your competition is low and prospects love having something in their hands.

3. Email Marketing: Due to the 2003 Can Spam Act this marketing method has lost some of it’s sizzle in recent years. Especially for those that don’t know how to do correctly. You see, if you broadcast your message to a large, annonymous audience you most likely will end up with little if any results. However, if you send out a smaller broadcast to a list of people that have requested information on whatever it is you’re selling. You will be astounded at the high level of response.

About the author: Wayne Hinrichs has operated a successful small business internet marketing company for the last 5 years. He enjoys helping others with this complex task. web marketing is the top factor in determining a companies profitability. Once an owner knows how to get their ideas out to their target market, the other parts of the business becomes rather easy.

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Small business marketing is super fun especially when you start to see results. I recently had a customer say “I saw you on top of Google and then went to your website, after that I searched on YouTube and you came up 1st there, then I called a yard sign on the side of the road, that was you too, at that point I figured i had no choice where I was going to buy…” Then he asked, “who does your small business marketing?” and I said , “I do”… Yes a winner…

Having your website up on the first page of Google and other search engines is really quite easy. It just takes some time to sit down and get started. If you devote a few hours one weekend you can get a great start. You will find that the key to your small business marketing efforts will be found in marketing your website and improving on your offer on your website…

I heard a story from an acquaintance of mine last week of his efforts to get his new website listed on top of the search engines. He followed my advise and was listed on the 1st page of Google in 2 days and landed a $3400 Job as a direct result of the online small business marketing stuff he knows nothing about…

Small business marketing in a specific geographical location should start with Google Local. Google Local is great because it is easy, quick and free. These are the listings that show up on the right of the map when you do a search like (Painters Minneapolis). It is free to be listed there you just have to sign up and enter your info…

The info on the right in Google Local has a link to your website and lists your phone number. This is an easy way to increase website traffic and as far as small business marketing goes it is the perfect place to start…Tip: There are a few cool tricks to Google Local that will enable you to show up in more than one city… Under more than one occupation…

Google (Pay Per Click) PPC is a another huge idea for small business marketing. Don’t let the PPC scare you because you have all the control. You can start for as little as five dollars and you have complete control of the budgets. Google is Geo targeted so Google knows the location of the persons computer that is doing the searching and you get to choose where your ads show up from Zip Code, to city, to state to country.

With PPC you can write unlimited ads and Google rotates them automatically so you can see which ones are getting the best click through rate. You can then delete the losers and keep the winners. You can set a budget anywhere from $5 and up or you can set a monthly budget of $300 per month. PPC has been a very important strategy for my small business marketing.

I’ve spent $52,000 with Google since January of 2005 and it is hands down the best and easiest small business marketing I have ever done. The cool part is I have never spoken to anyone that works for Google. I actually have never had to email them either… I do get a Christmas card from from Google each year. Tip: Again there are a few tricks with Google PPC that can save you money and time setting up your account. In summary this is the quickest way to increase website traffic and learn cutting edge tactics about small business marketing…

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