You’re a small business.

Direct mailings. Cold calls. Advertising.

Content creation. Search engine optimization. Peer to peer referrals.

You may have heard of these terms. They’re part of the new lingo in marketing departments and researchers all around the country. It’s all about the money. And businesses are making more of it, than ever before, on the Internet.

The Internet has massive potential for a small business. There are Facebook pages to make, LinkedIn accounts to create, websites to act as a home base for your business (virtual of course), and four hundred and fifty thousand avenues to reach your desired clientele.

Ok. Maybe an exaggeration.

But although there are successful media and marketing tactics, it may flummox a small business owner to consider them all. So just a few statistics to get this ball rolling:

• Google receives over 100 billion searches each month
• According to the Pew Research Center, 72% of adult Internet users have Facebook
• Almost all (94%) of business to business marketers use the social media platform LinkedIn as part of their marketing strategy.

What’s the deal with those statistics anyway?

Google receives over 100 billion searches each month. Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Consumers search Google for any number of topics. There is an algorithm to Google, in its madness. Search any topic and it’ll bring up the top page–a combination of trending news, maps, and nine choices.

Where will your business fall?

That depends. It’s all a matter of Internet presence.

That’s where something called SEO comes into play. SEO. Search engine optimization.

• SEO (in-bound leads) have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (direct mail and print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate.
• 75% of SEO occurs off-page, while 25% occurs on page.

What does SEO do? It involves the use of articles published from month to month that cover the topic of your business, while injecting key words that will raise your platform on Internet search engines.

The number of people who find you on search engines will be dependent on the amount of clicks you get currently plus how many people can find you based on keywords.

For instance, you may not show up in a search for “plumbing” but if the search engine optimization is set towards location keywords, you will show up in a search for “plumbing Rochester NY”. It all depends on the keywords.

Is that enough? To survive and thrive on the Internet?

Even so, you’d never be maximizing your potential.

Content creation. It was that first term off the top list. Content creation seems straightforward, maybe even simple. One of the first parts of an online business strategy is to establish yourself as a thought leader or expert in your field. Your information has to get out there. So that means, generally speaking, start a blog.

• Companies that publish 16 or more blog posts each month receive nearly 3.5 times more traffic than companies that publish zero to four blog posts per month.
• Also,
• Approximately 53% of marketers cite blog content creation as their number one inbound marketing priority

The question of What Is Digital Marketing has become larger in the past ten years. Likely, it will continue to grow. Marketers have tools at their disposal–website design, SEO services, ghostwriters for content creation, and more.

Remember, always, that website design is critical, and, therefore, a digital marketing company that offers web design services may be useful in your quest. Web design services can run the gamut from initial layout and design to colors and font. Web design services can also encompass the needed keywords to be picked up by search engines, finding a domain name, and more. Web design services create the virtual storefront for your business.