Small Business Internet Marketing Is It Really Worth the Effort?

Online, September 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Yet many small business owners don't have a clue about how to start promoting their products and services online. Having a website or blog is a natural first start , though it really is just the start.

The opportunities to create clients on line are huge. Local search is a big thing. As more and more of us turn to the internet and Google to supply our every need.

Every month there are hundreds of searches for local tradesmen, solicitors and lawyers. Moving forward the successful business owners will be the ones who put themselves in the flow of these potential new visitors to their site.

The challenge for most businesses when it comes to small business internet marketing is what exactly should I be doing and when.
Sharon Newey and Denise Oyston were two such business owners who just a few short years ago were totally lost when it came to internet marketing. With an expensive website and no visitors they realised they had to do something and fast.

Sharon commented;

We were both successful managers in the corporate world who decided to start our own business.

We had heard that having a website and selling products online was the thing to do, especially if you wanted to maximise your income generation opportunities.

The problem was that nobody had explained to us that you then have to market yourself online.

There was SEO, pay per click, Google algorithms, blogging and a whole raft of terms and strategies to get to grips with. As both of our backgrounds had a strong bias to training and development we decided to learn for ourselves exactly what to do.

Our first step though was to get a couple of world class mentors and sign up for a number of training
courses. Through trial and error we discovered what worked, and what did not. Pretty soon our friends were asking us if we could help them. That is when we started to offer consultancy services. This is fine for many people and yet many small business owners don't always have the financial resources available. What they do have is a few hours a week to in spare.

That is when we decided to launch a new low cost training programme that is delivered over the course of a year and as you might imagine, is online.

Based on feedback from a survey to over 200 clients, we have designed a programme Get Going on Google uniquely for local small business owners. Get Going on Google is about building the confidence and knowledge of the business owner to successfully market their business online.

The weekly lessons are in PDF format, accompanied by an MP3 and 2 teaching videos per month. Business owners are taught step by step, week by week, how to Get Going on Google to create