Perhaps one of the most asked question in any business is “how can I get more clients or customers”? If you ask this question to a room full of people, you might get a hundred different answers, but all the answers will only mean and head on to one single idea – marketing.

Marketing is the process of introducing your potential customers and clients to your products and or services that you offer.  The key word here is the word “process”.  A process is a series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result.

Target Market Marketing

Marketing also involves determining your specific target market, or target customer. You have to determine their general profile, social strata, buying habits, preferences, trends, etc. Then find out where they hang  out online and offline.  For example, if you are targeting moms; there are mom forums,  and twittermoms is also a popular online water cooler.

Your products or services should then cater according to these parameters to capture a much larger target market. These involve research, tests, advertising, continuous evaluation, networking and of course, sales. This is why marketing is considered as a process.

Marketing Your Business Online

Luckily, with the advent of the internet, this process has been simplified. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you might know that online marketing is the most cost effective marketing strategy these days. Did you know that with the internet, you can actually find out about your potential customer or client? In fact, you can even monitor the number of visitors who browses through your site, their place of origin, and even their browsing history which will give you an idea on what they are looking for. You can capitalize on this information to help you in modifying your marketing strategy. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or Myspace can even increase your clientele by tenfold. Years and even decades ago, this was just a dream.  Now it is a reality and business people are reaping the benefits regularly.

If you operate a small business, home-based or otherwise, you should at least have the following in place:

1. A website that will convert website visitors into buying customers.  If your site is not doing that, you need it reviewed.   It’s worth the time and money and it should be done first before anything else.  A good site can be your research machine, sales team, and your marketing arm.

2. E-mail marketing is one of the most important customer retention actions that is not being used as often as it should.  Again, it is very cost effective.  Once it’s set up, it’s dirt cheap to maintain.  People who have bought from you are the easiest people to sell to unless you gave them lousy service.  Some people using this strategy are satisfied with their customers who keep in coming back that they don’t need new ones.

3. Online Marketing is not just your website although it’s a big part. It should include articles  marketing ,  online advertising, press release, and the utilization of social media networks.