Some of the best small business marketing strategies are those that have been utilized for years. They include the standard practices, such as: networking with business associates, joining your local Chamber of Commerce, guerrilla marketing, advertising and cold calling. Increasingly, though, small businesses are using new techniques and methodologies that leverage the Internet. Consider that there are over 34,000 searches per second on Google. Consumers search for everything including research information, how to source and buy products and much more. It’s been estimated that fully 20% of these searches are for a local type listing, e.g. finding a business in a local region, county, or city.

By utilizing widely available Internet tools and services small business owners can market to new and existing customers in ways not available in the past. Traditionally, products were marketed through newspaper ads and classifieds, yellow pages and even radio spot and TV commercials. Generally these marketing mediums are called “offline” marketing. Tracking offline marketing campaigns were difficult and often downright impossible. There was really no “direct” way of measuring success, except through surveys and inserting ad response codes. One of the problems is that people forget ad response codes and surveys do have a high percentage of related errors.

New Internet / online small business marketing strategies incorporate such concepts as social networks, online PR and the newly renamed Google Places. Let’s dissect these strategies to see how they fit within any small business’ overall marketing campaigns.

Google Places is essentially a local listing within your demographic area, whether it is a county, city or borough. With Google places, small businesses can list their company utilizing words that people type into Google search when looking for a service or product. For example, when someone searches for a “tailor” in Manhattan, New York, Google would serve up a list of tailors in that area. These listings appear even before the traditional top 10 organic listings that Google services us. It’s imperative to understand how to utilize Google Places in order to maximize your potential customers.

Online social networking complements offline networking with business associates. Think of online social networking as joining your local Chamber of Commerce or socializing at the office water cooler. Through online social networks, such as Facebook, Linkedin, and MySpace, small businesses can reach out to many more potential customers than they could ever have achieved through using offline networking avenues alone. Learning how to navigate these online social networks is critical to reaching new customers, as well as maintaining existing ones.

Small business marketing strategies should also include online PR. Small businesses are used to guerrilla type marketing. Think of online PR as another way of getting your message across to your market through free and cheap publicity. Generally there is a section in newspapers and magazines for announcements, such as a staff promotion, a new product, education and things like new partnerships. By issuing an online press release, you can reach thousands of viewers without alienating them through a “sales” pitch. Press releases are generally viewed positively and “trustworthy” by consumers.

Incorporating these new marketing strategies will help small business owners maintain their market position, as well as grab new markets. This is especially true during this period of transition as offline marketing reach through print, radio and TV declines and gives way to online marketing through the Internet and mobile devices.

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One of the miracles of modern technology is being able to receive faxes via email. It was indeed a wonder when the fax machine was first invented. The ability to send documents back and forth at the push of a button was something made out of science fiction and Star Trek. But, every day, businesses in every industry rely on sending documents back and forth via the fax machine. These businesses include real estate companies, law offices, and even your local restaurant that receives and processes faxed in lunch requests. Imagine the savings in both time and money.

As technology progressed so did the fax machine and its limitless possibilities. I was recently reminded of the reason why faxing to a dedicated fax machine is virtually a thing of the past when I was asked to send some documents to an “old school” attorney recently. The first thing he told me was to “wait … don’t send anything until I can switch on my fax machine.” Of course, being the polite person that I am, I said “sure.” He called me back in about 5 minutes to tell me that the machine was on and to proceed with the fax transmission. On my end, I pressed the send button on my computer and waited patiently for him to call me back to inform me that he’d received my fax. 10 minutes … 20 minutes … 1 hour. Finally, 2 hours later he called me back and said that he had to use the “fax machine” to take a call. In other words, the fax was on the same line as his phone number. Over the course of 5 days, we played this game of fax tag.

Let’s fast forward to the 21st century. On my end, I’ve been able to send and receive faxes by email for years. But, then again, I’m a technology geek, so I tend to adopt technology early. Mind you, though, sending and receiving faxes by email is not rocket science stuff. If you can turn on a computer, open your email and attach a file, you can send a fax via email. Those are literally the steps you take to do this 21st century task. And, the receiver of the fax has no idea that the fax was not sent via a regular fax machine. Conversely, receiving a fax to your email is just as easy. The fax is sent by the sender to your “fax number”, which essentially turns it into an email attachment. If you can read an email and open an attachment, you’ve just figured out how to get a fax by email.

What are some of the benefits of a solution like this? Let’s see let me count the ways. Firstly, I’m a big proponent of everything virtual … virtual phones … virtual office … virtual assistant, and yes, virtual faxes. One of the biggest benefits of getting your fax via email is saving on the massive amounts of paper faxes generate. Virtual faxing is good for your pocket book and good for our planet. In other words, print only what you need. Another great benefit is the ability to be anywhere on the planet. You can literally be on the beaches of Hawaii and receive your faxes. Isn’t that a lovely thought? Finally, and this is by no means an exhaustive list, you don’t have to hang up on the person you’re talking to in order to send or receive a fax … keep on talking!

What are the downsides to receiving faxes via email? For one thing, there is a monthly fee associated with it. But, the costs are minimal, some as low as 7 bucks a month. What about signatures? I’ve scanned my signature into my computer. So, I simply cut and paste my signature onto a fax document and voila, I’m done. I hate paper and love the freedom to be anywhere I want to be, unshackled by a physical device. Now, isn’t that worth the prices of a couple of What are the downsides to receiving faxes via email? For one thing, there is a monthly fee associated with it. But, the costs are minimal, some as low as 7 bucks a month. What about signatures? I’ve scanned my signature into my computer. So, I simply cut and paste my signature onto a fax document and voila, I’m done. I hate paper and love the freedom to be anywhere I want to be, unshackled by a physical device. Now, isn’t that worth the prices of a couple of Starbucks Frappachinos a month?

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There are literally hundreds of thousands of services small business owners can use to increase business and reduce expenses. These services have exploded over the last few years primarily because of easy Internet accessibility and the fierce competition for Internet-based applications. This fierce competition essentially lowers the cost of the services to the consumer … many of them to the lowest common denominator … ZERO. In fact, if you search hard enough, you’ll even find a few services where the provider will pay you to try them out. How much more “free” can you get?

Some of the services small business firms should consider trying are those that they already use on a daily basis. For example, at a minimum, every small business needs telephone service, accounting for income and expenses, advertising and marketing and, increasingly, some type of web or social media presence. There are plenty more services small business owners can expand into as their business grows, but this a good start.

Telephone service is a basic necessity. You can’t conduct business without being able to communicate with your customers. Some business owners will opt for the “traditional” services of AT&T, Comcast or other standard telephone providers. Others might forgo a separate line and just use their mobile phone as the “business” number. While these options make sense for many, there are a number of other great alternatives which work really well and are downright cheap.

These telephone services small business firms should consider work on a concept called VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Basically, they run using your existing Internet connection just like the old telephone companies worked using old telephone lines. In fact, in my business we use several different VOIP services from Skype to MagicJack to RingCentral.

We use different services for different reasons. Skype is great for calling people within your sphere of contacts that are already using Skype. Calls made to and from users who both use Skype are free. Calls made to a land line or mobile phone costs money but is relatively cheap on a per minute basis. MagicJack is great because you get a dedicated phone number from your choice of area codes. It has advanced features for voice mail, call forwarding and even three-way calling for $39 the first year and $19 per year thereafter. While it works by being plugged into your computer, you don’t have to have it plugged in for the features like call forwarding or voice mail to work.

Slightly more advanced telephone services small business owners should consider fall under the category of virtual PBXs. They allow you to have multiple extensions, custom greetings per extension, call transfer voice mail, “hunting”and a whole lot more. The service we use is called RingCentral. It’s great for us because we literally have a virtual team that reside all over the world. We give our customers an 800 phone number and / or a local number if they desire. The client calls in, enters an extension, and voila is then connected to one of our staff. For what this service provides the value can’t be beat.

Accounting is surely one of the basic services small business companies need to have. Some really small companies might use Excel to track their income and expenses. However, another great FREE option to Excel and other Microsoft Office products come from OpenOffice.org. Their productivity tools compete very effectively with MS Office, but don’t cost you a dime. More complex accounting needs, though, can be easily accomplished with Quicken’s online QuickBooks service. You can use this service for as little as $7.96 per month. Not exactly free, but darn near  for such a sophisticated and battle-tested service.

And, what about web site services small business owners should consider? The traditional print ads from newspapers to brochures and flyers are increasingly moving online. The number of people who search for companies through the yellow pages has dropped off precipitously. Replacing this advertising / marketing model is the search and discover mode of And, what about web site services small business owners should consider? The traditional print ads from newspapers to brochures and flyers are increasingly moving online.

The number of people who search for companies through the yellow pages has dropped off precipitously. Replacing this advertising / marketing model is the search and discover mode of Google, Yahoo and Bing search. If you don’t have a website to direct people to, you’ll be a big disadvantage compared to your competition. There are a plethora of free or downright cheap services that allow you to build a simple web site, including one from Homestead, which is now owned by Intuit. I used this product for many years until we hired our own in house website developers. It’s as cheap as $5 per month.

As explained, services small business companies can use today vary from sophisticated accounting systems to telephone service to web site design and hosting. There is simply no better time to be a small business entrepreneur like today … technology is abundant and prices have never been better.

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