Make Your Website the Foundation of Your Small Business Internet Marketing

There are plenty of ways to market your small business online, such as social media, email newsletters and video.

But when it comes to small business Internet marketing, your website (preferably with an accompanying blog) should form the foundation of your marketing mix. If you have a website with crummy content, it can quickly undermine all your other marketing efforts.

Take social media, for example. With the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter, you might be tempted to start your online marketing with a company Facebook page or Twitter account. But while social media is a great way to increase client and prospect engagement, it’s not so great for closing deals. Think about it: Have you ever purchased a product or service based on a Facebook page or Twitter account alone? Probably not. Without a website (or with a crummy website) your prospects have to take a greater leap of faith to do business with you.

Newsletters also work best when backed by a quality website and blog. Although newsletters are a great way to get into people’s mailboxes, they work best when they link back to your website. For example, many of my clients repurpose their blog posts for newsletter content. They pick their best performing posts, compile them into a newsletter and then have them point back to the original posts with “read more” links.

We’ve also been hearing a lot about the popularity of YouTube as a search engine. (YouTube is now the number two ranked search engine after Google.) But don’t be tempted to make YouTube videos your sole marketing strategy. You still need a website to backup them up.

Why is a quality website so important? First, prospects and customers expect it. Your other marketing tools lose credibility when not backed up by a good website. Second, almost all the other tools in your marketing mix (should) point back to your website. Without a quality website, you have nowhere to send people.

What do you think? Is a quality website and blog the best place to put your small business Internet marketing dollars?