If you own a small business and you are not on the Internet then you are missing millions of customers (if not gazillions). Most of the people with college degrees are on the Internet, and as you know they make a large portion of your customer base. Which business will not like to tap into the medium that has so high concentration of buying public?

Even those who do not have college education can be seen hanging on the Internet, and there are some second-tier net users as well; those who get access to the Internet from their friends, or relatives. This makes the user base of the Internet a whole lot bigger.

But the problem is the Internet is not one thing. It is many things. It is like a garden where all kinds of flower, trees, and even weeds are present. The sheer scope of the Internet confuses the outsider. To ease them up, and to help them try the medium, we need to tell them the possibility of the Internet, and how it can help them grow their business.

This article is an attempt in that direction. In this article, I will talk about three tools of online marketing that a small business owner can use to grow his business on the internet, and that too at the fraction of cost.

SEO

SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. This is one of the most used, abused, and confusing online marketing tool. Despite this, it is arguably the most trusted and the best online marketing tool. It is also very cost effective. But on the down side, we need time at hand to get any measurable result because of the use of this tool. The result of SEO is never instantaneous, but when it comes it is always big, provided you have hired a good SEO company to do your website optimization.

PPC

PPC is an acronym for pay per click. This tool helps you fill in the vacuum created by SEO. The results are always instantaneous, but this tool is not very cost effective, and if you or your team does not have sufficient understanding of the mechanics of pay per click ads then you may burn a very deep hole in your pocket. It sucks money like anything. But the positive things about PPC is it delivers result, and often the visitors clicking a PPC ads are more likely to buy you product, provided you have targeted a right keyword.

You can use this tool in conjugation with other tools we have discussed in this article. PPC works particularly well with SEO, for both of them supplement each other.

E-mail marketing

To praise e-mail marketing, it will suffice to say that if you have 10,000 subscriber with an intention to buy then you may not need to use any other online marketing tool except this. But the catch is to get that much subscriber, and for that you will have to use PPC and SEO, among other online marketing tools.

To make your e-mail marketing successful, you need a list of people in your database, and this list should not consist of anyone and everyone. Only those who are willing to listen to you should be there on this list.

If done properly, trust is at maximum among the sender and the receivers in this form of online marketing communication, provided effort has been made to establish and nurture relationship with the e-mail subscribers.

Last few words

The online marketing tools I have discussed here do not for in choice (either this or that) category. Each one of them is indispensable, and they all should be used judiciously. Which one should be used when and how often depends upon the status of your website (for example: if it is new you will need more PPC to get visitors, but if it is established then continual SEO is to go for), and the amount of money you have to spend on the marketing activity.

Whatever is your budget, and status of your website, never give a second thought while using e-mail marketing as a marketing tool. This is a must-use tool for anyone who is serious about web. So gear up and get your own online marketing plan rolling.

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