Why should I promote my business online?

You already have a website, so why should you blog and use social media to find customers?  The simple answer is that they work.

Online marketing is now replacing direct sales as the most popular way to promote business. HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing co. surveyed businesses in 2013 (the most comprehensive review of the inbound industry available, with data analysis from over 3,300 participants from 128 different countries).

The chart below shows how social media, email marketing and SEO are now ahead of traditional marketing methods (trade shows, brochures etc) in generating contact with customers.

OK, but I haven't got the time to do it.

Unless you plan not to undertake any marketing at all, putting time into online marketing is also proving more cost effective than traditional marketing.  Measured in  ROI (return on investment) the reports from the companies show that online marketing worked best.

So not only are SEO and social media generating more leads (customers) than traditional marketing but they are more cost effective in terms of time and budget allocated to them.

Which method works best?

Using social media facebook topped the chart, but blogging, linkedin and twitter were also significant players.

And don't forget to blog. "Companies that blog get 55% more visitors to their website than businesses without a blog. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, blogging increases your number of leads per month by an average of more than 66%"

So that's it - use online marketing.

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