Let’s face it there is one reason that we market our businesses -to increase sales.

It’s all nice and wonderful to be able to see our ads in a newspaper or hear it on the radio, but can we actually measure results from either of these media? Unless you limit your marketing to one media (which is seldom advised) it can be difficult to track campaigns and results. While there are ways to run complementary but different campaigns in multiple media – most small business owners don’t have the time to develop multiple campaigns let alone compile the results and apply changes. Which is, of course, where hiring a marketing consultant helps.

It’s also where internet marketing can enter the picture. Not only is internet marketing easy to track, it also has the unique ability to reach prospects and clients as close to the buying decision as possible. With other media choices you can only make a best guess. If you know where to look, there are plenty of resources available to help you develop an internet presence with very little expense.

You can either learn how to do it or hire a professional to do it for you – it doesn’t matter which choice you make as long as you make a decision to go online for at least some of your marketing efforts.

Once you start, you won’t believe the incredible return on investment you will see with an internet campaign – even if you operate a primarily local business.

There are opportunities for restaurants, hairstylists, spas, retail outlets, construction companies and the list goes on. The online marketplace is going increasingly local – 70% of adults in Alberta have some online access through the course of their day and local searches are increasing at an astronomical rate. People are beginning to expect their favorite retailers to be online.

It really doesn’t matter who your target market is – as long as you know who your target market is and what your unique selling position, chances are you can find a way to reach them online.

If a large portion of your target market is still focused on offline media – there are opportunities to use public relations to gain publicity. I honestly believe that one of the major mistakes that small businesses make is not taking advantage of the massive marketing potential of public relations. There’s no reason to spend a fortune on advertising when you can divert that money to a charity event and still get media coverage (while doing a great thing for the community).

Like online marketing it’s incredibly inexpensive to execute a wonderful public relations program. Free and paid resources are readily available. Please email me if you’d like a free copy of my guide to Press Releases.

I wrote it several years ago and recently updated it with current recommendations and thoughts.

Back to the point of the article today. Why should online marketing and public relations be part of your marketing mix as a small business with a local business base?

Because adding online marketing and public relations will decrease your investment while increasing your sales.