For the sake of our discussion we will say advertising is a more passive activity and marketing is more active. When you place an ad it just sits there doing its job (hopefully), but marketing is about getting people to see those ads. To be clear, marketing encompasses more than getting people to view your advertising. Marketing is everything you do to promote your business. Of course advertising is a vital part of any full-fledged campaign, but it is only one part.

When it comes to small business internet marketing techniques, very few of them are passive. A common online marketing technique is SEO (search engine optimization). This takes time to set up, but it also needs to be kept up to date on a regular basis. When you add any new content to your site, you are affecting its SEO in one way or another. Search engines tend to favor fresh content, so adding to it is a smart move from a marketing standpoint.

Static advertising like pay-per-click and banner ads usually require a large outlay of money before they return any noticeable results. That doesn’t mean you should rule them out, but it does mean that you have to be careful of anything that promises to “put your advertising on autopilot.” Generally speaking, the more dynamic marketing techniques are the ones that will give you the most return for your efforts.

One of the best methods of internet marketing is building an opt-in mailing list. The way it works is that you get people to share their e-mail address with you, and then you can market to them as often as you wish (within reason). It’s as easy as giving them a reason to enter their e-mail address. You can do this by offering special deals, exclusive information or a free gift of some kind. How you do it isn’t all that important; what is important is building a list.

They say it takes seven to twelve exposures to your message before people will take action. It’s too risky to assume people will come back to you website that many times to see your offer. But once they are on your e-mail list, you will be able to keep sending them messages. This can be incredibly effective when it’s done correctly.

Every message you send needs to have value. Whether you are providing information or selling something, it has to be of value to the person reading it. The best part is that they will continue to receive your messages until they unsubscribe or you stop sending them (hint: don’t stop sending messages). Either way, having an e-mail list is one of the most essential small business internet marketing techniques.

For ideas of small business websites – visit : forex trading advice for beginners & debt relief

Purchasing via social networks

Many brands have already committed themselves to launching competitions, incentives and adverts on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin but some will be making the leap into the Facebook shopping functionality.

If you are a bit cautious about that and would rather wait to see how other brands fair, then try and make the most of social applications instead. For the purpose of capturing data, encouraging honest reviews and enabling social sharing they can work incredibly well.

Mobile matters

For years and years, people have been proclaiming it will be the ‘year of the mobile’ – but this year, it may well be true.

These days, 76 per cent of the world population (5.3 billion people) use mobile devices, of which over 1 billion are smartphones.

As a result, it looks likely that not only will m-commerce grow but also mobile optimisation of websites, and multichannel promotion will grow too. Many campaigns may be redeemable across social, mobile and print. So prepare yourselves for integrated multi-channel marketing!
However, this is not to say that in house teams will be throwing caution to the wind. In these difficult economic times, 2012 is going to be the year when brands invest time and money but want to make sure they see a visible return.

To do this they need to ensure they truly understand their customers and potential customers.
Commerciality is key and brands will be pushing their agencies to deliver creative and commercially viable solutions.

Customers become product innovators

In the old days of idea generation, creation and collaboration, customers were only used as a touch point for focus groups and interviews.

Now, it seems, the tide is turning. With the use of social networks and online platforms, customers can help to mould the product and service to suit them. Brands may use social networks for collaboration at every stage of the product lifecycle, from idea generation through to launch.

In addition to creating compelling products and services, companies will also be able to boost their digital community and the number of customers engaging with their brand. Rewarding customers for helping you is the best way to approach this and will encourage them to continually engage and feedback to you.

As already stated, one of the most important factors for brands this year will be the magic acronym – ROI. Companies will be spending to see a return and through the creation of a strategy that incorporates both creativity and commerciality, the digital industry should continue to grow at rapid speed.

web design agency and SEO kent are currently being researched by Tony, an online marketer

While anybody can post any item they wish to auction off on Ebay, there are some little things that a seller can do to improve the visibility and sales performance of their items. Here are some tips for enhancing your sales on Ebay:

The title line is the primary link to your posting. Your item will show up on an Ebay buyer’s search list if its title contains important key words matching those used by the Website’s search engine. That being the case, you should make each word on your title count. Provide a clear identification of your product, together with its brand name. This is especially true if the brand is well known. Determine the qualities of the item that would be relevant to an interested buyer. If the material of the product is a key characteristic of the product, make sure to mention it. If the product deals with a certain topic, say an artwork or a book, mention the topic in the title. Put in as much informative facts about your product as you can on the title. Don’t waste your title space on non-essential words.

Do a little research on how items similar to yours are being described in other Web pages, or on other postings on Ebay. You can even go to the manufacturer’s Website to give you an idea of what words to use in describing your item. You need to use accurate descriptive words so serious bidders would be able to locate your item when they do their search.

As a seller, you have the responsibility for giving an accurate description of your product. Do not just leave your prospective buyer to judge your product based on its picture. Aside from the descriptive words in your title, specify the dimensions, condition, and special features of your item in the product description field. Any important dates, model numbers and other important information should be included in the description. Although interested buyers have the option of asking you questions through the messaging system, you want to give them all the information they would need on their initial visit. Your chances of selling your item diminish once they browse other items. They can always decide to purchase another similarly listed item in the period before they get a response from you.

Browse over similar items being sold on Ebay and find out if there’s a market for your item. If you find out that items similar to what you plan to sell are not really selling, then it will probably be best if you just post something else. You don’t want to waste your time if there’s no demand for your specific product.

Select the correct category for your item. The proper category can make a lot of difference on the bidding prices of your item. It can mean the difference between your item being treated as a regular household item, or as an antique collector’s item. You can also list your item under several categories if you think your product fits those categories.

Aline Heller writes about online businesses. To learn more on improving sales on Ebay, go to Automatic Auction Traffic. Another resource is Spicy Auction Templates.

It’s happened to all of us at some point, we are human. We are fallible. But the scorn and hate filled faces we see when we are trying to explain that buying a gift has slipped our minds or just been left a little bit too late can be too much to bare. Well, there is a solution. Remember it’s the digital age; you can do anything on the internet these days. There’s no need to rush about the shops in your lunch hour or try and get to them before they close after work. You can buy a very tasteful and thoughtful gift on the internet, and there’s no need to worry about it slipping your mind or leaving it late if the place you buy it from has a next day delivery service.

There are online shops everywhere, and there are some great ones that are specifically gift related. Obviously it depends who you’re buying for, you might find a boyish gadget type of site for your little cousin but if you are buying for your sister then maybe a more boutique style of online store will be preferred. When you find a gift related store online, then you might breathe a little easier. But not all of them offer next day delivery – but the best ones do.

The best sites understand that sometimes people forget or have some kind of last minute need, and they are happy to offer a solution. So have a look around and see what the options are, a good site will have very specific pages explaining how they understand the need for next day delivery and are there to help. So keep your eyes peeled, and don’t worry – you’re sure to have a thoughtful gift in the nick of time.

Jeffrey Nevil writes on a number of subjects including next day delivery gifts.

But the bottom line is that your visitor may not come back to your website ever again. If 1,000 visitors visit your website and leave and never come back again, you can imagine the amount of potential revenue lost there, simply because they do not come back. You have not implemented a way for them to be reminded of your website. You could have converted a fraction of those visitors into your customers.

Some may say that creating unique content can keep some of the visitors coming back again and again, this is true to a certain extent, but very often, unique content is not the solution. The real, long-term solution lies in converting your visitors into subscribers of your mailing list immediately, there and then as the visit your site and attempt to leave.

Before your visitor leaves your website, you want to convert him or her into your subscriber via a simple opt-in form to your mailing list. You do this by asking for your visitor’s name and email address through the opt-in form.

And if your visitor signs up to be on your mailing list, you can still follow up with him via email. You can get your subscriber to consider your offers, or endorse another offer to him or her every time you send them an email.

All in all, you want to convert as many visitors into subscribers as possible and obtain the potential revenue you rightfully deserve for your website efforts – the easy, wise way.

You must consider adding an optin form onto your website that offers a great incentive for people to leave you their email address. You could offer a free e-book or access to a product that you own. Use Aweber or Get Response to create your optin form. Then add the optin form code to your website and there you go, you have an optin form that collects names and email addresses for you. Use your chosen auto-responder service, and write the emails that you want to deliver to your leads. Add the link to your website at the end of every email you set up. This reminds your leads to visit your website again and again.

Without an optin form you are losing hundreds, perhaps thousands of potential customers. You must add and optin form to your website and website pages immediately. When you have set up the form and written a few emails ready to go, you will notice that after you have picked up a couple of hundred leads from the optin form, you customer base will increase dramatically – this depends on what you are offering of course.

You can use this free tool to increase the number of sign-ups to your offers