Three Essential Marketing Channels for Business You Need Now

When it comes to online marketing that won\’t break the bank, every small business owner is looking for “the next big thing” to gain an edge over their competitors.However, some of the most effective, lead-generating online marketing tactics methods for increasing sales and leads already exist – and you could be taking advantage of them right now.So if you are a business owner looking for new ways to market your business, consider the following underrated – and under-used – online marketing tactics that most of your competitors probably aren’t using.

Email Marketing
It is imperative that you connect with your client base via email. Businesses have become less appreciative of this method in recent years (seeing email  as “old fashioned”), and preferring to follow other trends like social media marketing.

What many business owners fail to recognize is that email marketing is still a bigger money-maker than more recent marketing trends. Email is the one domain you truly have ownership over. Other platforms are useful and – yes – essential but Mark Zuckerberg owns Facebook, not you, while you are the king or queen of your email account.

Focus on your email as a marketing tool before exploring any other avenue and once you have a solid email list in place, use that list to build other channels, like a social media following.

YouTube Advertising
While most of us get irritated by those five-second to 30-second ads that we are forced to watch before being able to view a video on YouTube, those ads, known as TrueView InStream ads, are a huge boon for advertisers.

There\’s no denying the power of online video because, when done right, an online ad can showcase a business, product, or service in a way that no online display ad or social media post ever can.

With TrueView InStream ads, advertisers are guaranteed relevant views. Like AdWords, these video ads target viewers by demographic, interest and video type and best of all (think budget!) you only pay for “true views.” In other words, if a YouTube user skips your ad before 30 seconds, the advertiser is not charged. It\’s a fair system.

You Tube ads aren’t just for the big boys. Increasingly, small-to mid-size businesses are now taking advantage of TrueView InStream ads and if you are serious about garnering more traffic, they are definitely worth checking out.

Facebook Advertising
Facebook has had some bad press recently, mostly due to falling stock prices which correlate directly with the company’s failure to adequately provide a mobile advertising outlet to marketers.

The truth is, however, that Facebook is still one of the best marketing channels for targeted advertising. Certainly globally, it has excellent name recognition. Despite the headlines, Facebook will soon be able to offer advertising to businesses who want to bring their message to the increasing number of users accessing the site via mobile device.

But be sure to upload new ads frequently because Facebook has been known to “overplay” ads in certain target markets, and you want to avoid potential customers getting sick of seeing your brand.

So stop waiting for the “next big thing” for small business marketing – it\’s already waiting for you, has proven to work and is easily accessible.