introduction
When I wake up in the morning, I first think, “What can I do to build deeper relationships with the customers I have?” And second, “What can I do to build relationships with new customers?” There are many ways to do this, such as being nice, speaking at events, nurturing referrals, and so much more. Many of the old ways of building relationships still work, but compared to digital communication, those ways are often slow and hard to measure.
Digital communication (blogs, websites, e-mail newsletters, online advertising, and so on) enables you to reach new and current customers faster — to track their responses to your communications, to enable them to forward your message to others — all with a few clicks of the mouse.
With the advent of social media, digital communication capabilities have grown exponentially. Not only can businesses communicate directly with their audiences, but audiences can more easily communicate with businesses, and audiences (customers and potential customers) can communicate with each other about businesses, brands, products, services, or marketplaces.
When small business owners look for new customers, the Internet is the best option — it’s better than print, TV, radio, Yellow Pages, billboards, and so on. The Internet provides a variety of ad options small businesses can consider, such as search engine advertisements, banner advertisements, mobile advertisements, and social media. But if I had to pick one place for advertising online, ...
