Imagine you have 24 hour access to your client base. At anytime you can tell them everything and anything you want to, you communicate with them at the drop of a hat and build your brand with ease. Imagine this isn’t intrusive to your customer and they come back again and again, at their convenience. Wouldn’t you want a tool like that for your business?

Well you can and that tool is the internet, the most powerful marketing tool on earth with almost limitless reach.

Many small businesses feel that old-school marketing tactics are sufficient. If this sounds like you, then you aren’t utilizing the internet to its full potential. After all, Americans spend at least 20 hours per week hooked up to the internet – as much as a part time job! And that’s just when they’re surfing -- almost everyone has a smart phone these days which allows for constant access to the internet -- 91% admit they have theirs in arms reach all hours of the day.

Why isn’t your company pulling in customers this way? How can you utilize it to its full potential?

To stay ahead of the competition we need to take hold of the holy grail of marketing and manipulate it correctly. It is something that allows you to know your customer, test your campaigns live, directly, and instantly. It is something you need for your business, and the following words will explain why.

How You Can Sell Products and Services More Efficiently

People don’t trust advertisements anymore. In a recent study as many as 83% don’t trust ads. They know the secret behind a sell and can smell promotion words a mile away. If you want to sell your products successfully, then you need online reviews and plenty of them. This is because 61% of internet users will research your product and services online before they buy it. 60% of people who have researched online will then make a faster purchase result because of this. Not only are you selling your products more efficiently, but faster too.

And if they are researching your products, you can bet they are researching your brand too.

Your company is a brand that needs to stand out and the best way to do that is with online presence. With an online presence people can access your brand from anywhere at any time. If a customer is home after a long day working and thinks about buying a product or finding a store near them, how will they find you? What if you are closed? 50% of mobile searches are for local business. Being a presence in social media and online means that they can discover you in your sleep. Who doesn’t enjoy generating leads and making money in their sleep?

Building a Website Increases Your Presence

86% of people think that searching online increases their knowledge. To be a leader in your industry you want the public to trust in you and consider you an expert. Increase their knowledge with clever content and pages on your site, and they will buy your products and services or use you as a resource. Building a website with 401-1000 pages will result in 6 times more leads, or 67% more leads if you add a blog. That is a lot of leads to lose out on by not focusing on your website.

Creating a website for marketing will save you money, about 60% worth. For every dollar you spend on email marketing you will gain $40 back. That is a huge return on investment. Imagine spending $10 per month on email marketing and making $400 per month! Imagine spending $100 and making $4000!

The saving costs do not stop here. When you spend 5% on your loyalty marketing you will get a 25% return. These are cheap to do and make money back that offline platforms struggle to compete with.

28% of businesses have saved money by using online marketing and that number will increase exponentially since 71% of businesses are planning to increase their online marketing this year (2016).

What Other Businesses Are Doing

You don’t want to fall behind the curve. Competing with your competition is important and if they are utilizing the most powerful marketing tool on earth, you must also harness the power of it. You will find yourself missing out on customers while your competition blows up.

Cost savings aside, other companies are dedicating 60% of their time to an online presence and spend at least 6 hours per day on social media. This is because 91% of people use social media at least once every day. That is a huge customer base to reach.

If 95% of your industry’s brands are tweeting and you are not, you can bet they are getting more customers than you and more easily as well. With Twitter backing up your next campaign you can gain 10 times more money than you are right now.

With 69% of companies creating more content than a year ago, you can conceive how this marketing venue is going to explode. Jumping on it now will ensure that you are not left behind and become a faceless name in the masses of small businesses.

Armed with all this information, you now know why the most powerful marketing tool on earth is something you need to be a part of. You could increase profits and reach customers that you could not before. Internet marketing is a top priority for any business and is the perfect inexpensive way to build your brand beyond what local measures would allow.