Successful marketing on the internet has always been about the audience but today it is more important than ever before. It’s no longer sufficient to have good search engine rankings. Developing good search engine rankings is a process that is best begun as soon as possible and nurtured regularly over a prolonged period for wide and deep, consistent 1st page rankings.

This is the big wide net of the marketing plan though. It’s important to develop a core group of people who not only buy from you but also tell others about you. You find, develop and feed these “aficionados” through various means of list building and communication.

1) Blogging ::: Yup, you’ll hear this in just about every post I paste here. Blogging is how we help our web site develop a personality. It’s beyond the boundaries of marketing department copy, brochures and scripts.

2) Send Email Newsletters ::: Which is mainly comprised of snippets and links of your recent blog posts

3) Build a Fan Base at Facebook ::: Encourage debate and discussion with total transparency and a sense of community

4) Build a Following on Twitter ::: Interact and participate with your following. Stay relevant to your marketing strategy

5) Find other places where people congregate on the web that you have an affinity with and participate

6) Offer a place and a reason to sign up for the newsletter on your web site. Also, place links to your social media pages and make sure its easy to get to your main site from the blog.

7) Get involved with the mobile web. I reserve this topic for another post of its own!

Many business people will shrug and say they don’t have the time for all of this. I say, you don’t have a choice! This is where business is going and in many cases… it’s gone baby! if you can’t do it then you have to hire it out. Either way, you have to make the commitment. Slow but sure all of your competition is doing it.