We spend allot of time working with small and medium size business’s and something that comes up quite frequently is the misconception that Online Marketing is only for larger companies with huge budgets. While in the beginning this was somewhat true as it was only the larger companies that really had any kind of web presence this no longer is the case.

We have seen a huge surge in small and medium size business entering the online marketing world, whether it be their first website, their first attempt at online marketing, or simply just wanting to know how the web can benefit their business. The fact is that marketing your business online is more important than ever, and the web is truly the only place that can give you the closest thing to a level playing field with the big boys. In fact, niche online marketing, and local targeting of your business can not only put you on a level playing field but in some cases can actually put you ahead.

More and more people are using the web to search for local business’s from restaurants to plumbers to everything in between. The good old Yellow Pages book that you receive once a year has been relegated to service as a door stop or booster seat in most cases. Last year 54% of local business searches were done online versus the Yellow Pages . Its pretty easy to see where this trend is headed.

More than ever its time for small business to take a look at their marketing budgets and allocate more time to building their web presence than trying to get a bigger ad in the paper or sending out mailers. With such a diverse set of online marketing tools available to them its not only a cost effective option but can be more targeted, return better ROI, and provide better tracking of your marketing dollar.

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