We have all seen plenty of advice online about how to market a business via the internet. While the advice comes from a wide range of sources, it all falls under the same three categories: Good, useless and
downright harmful. However, there is one piece of advice that can perhaps be categorized as the worst advice ever and that is this: Just do it.

You would never set up a business without doing proper research. You would never set up an offline advertising campaign without proper planning and research. Yet some people have the mistaken impression that promoting a business online is simply a matter of setting up a website and a few social media pages and then expecting customers to come in. That, however, is a recipe for failure. 

If you want your online marketing efforts to be successful, you need to make a plan. This plan should include elements such as:

• Who do I want to reach? After all, a plan for reaching seniors will look a lot different than a plan to reach teenagers. Your plan should also include your target area. Are you a local business that only serves the residents of your state or are you targeting an international market?
• What does the competition look like? See how your competitors are marketing their products and how much they are selling their goods for.
• What forms of internet marketing should the company focus on? You can promote your company via email, social media, Google Adwords, Facebook Ads and a myriad of other avenues. However, you probably cannot use all avenues at all times, so select the ones that would work best for you.

As you can see, there is a lot more to marketing than setting up a website and/or social media pages. Put some planning into it, get professional help if you are new to this field and you will then see the results you are looking for.