Online marketing can be tough for local businesses. It seems almost like a new subject that was never taught in school. There are so many factors that play into it. If I’m interested in online marketing, as a local business, what does that entail? Do I just put up an ad in an online business directory? What if I don’t have a website? How can I make myself an online presence without knowing where to start? We can help you understand Total Syndication Marketing for starters.

There are a few tasks that a local business can set out to do right from the start, even without a website. There are some online business directories that allow you to customize your advertisement. You can create coupons, add pictures of your business, as well as write some background information about yourself and/or your business. This will allow you to have an online presence without even having a website. Now, this is not to say that you shouldn’t have a website and that this technology can replace the functionality of your website. Instead, it allows you to have a presence while developing your website.

Another task that a company might do is set up a blog for themselves. People love blogs! People want to connect with each other, including businesses, on a much more personal level. The plus side to this is that you don’t even have to go out and develop a blog site yourself, if you don’t want to. You can create a blog utilizing a template from someplace like WordPress. There are numerous sites that offer blog services/hosting. Once you’ve done some basic steps to set up your blog, it’s as easy as posting a note every day or so letting people know what you’re up to. You don’t need to be an accomplished writer to maintain the blog either. People want to connect with real people, and that means if you occasionally make a spelling error or grammatical error, all that does is humanize you even more!

These are just two of the many, many tasks that a local business can easily accomplish to get them started on the road to online marketing success. The list is endless. There are other tactics like video marketing, pay-per-click campaigns, participating in social marketing, and much more. Ultimately you achieve Toal Syndication. However, the key point is to start somewhere…anywhere. Learn what you can about one online marketing tactic that really interests you, implement your knowledge immediately, and then begin educating yourself about the next tactic that interests you. Online marketing is where everything is heading…it’s revolutionary in and of itself. The key to having a successful local business is learning how to keep up with the revolution.

When talking about the online marketing trends for 2010, most marketers have predicted location trends will be the future! Location-based Internet marketing is of great importance both for your search engine optimisation and social media marketing strategy.

Using location-based Internet marketing in search engine marketing strategy has become very important for businesses these days. Location-based navigation is greatly used among search engines and mobile device makers. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing are already using location features as to help you narrow down the results to the searcher’s country. They are looking to localize Web searching as to make it more relevant for the searcher and draw more regional advertising. It is also predicted that GIS Latitude and Longitude coordinates within web sites will soon become an absolute necessity for everyone performing e-commerce via the Internet.

Location-based Internet marketing is becoming increasingly important also for your social media marketing strategy! Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. Yelp. WordPress. YouTube. Foursquare. Gowalla. Myspace. Constant Contact. They are all content-generating platforms that focus to some extent on location features. Facebook allows you to be part of a location-based networked (e.g. London, New York) and to search people based on their location. LinkedIn also allows you to specify your location as to make it possible for professionals from the same region to search you. The location feature is available for most social networks and they are all working as to improve it!

Two of the social networks which have taken their location-based feature to a new level, are Twitter and Foursquare. At the very beginning of 2010 Twitter introduced a location trend feature that allows users to follow local trending topics on Twitter. It is a great way to find out what people are talking about around the world and has got a great feedback from users.

Another social network that specialises on the use of location is Foursquare. Identified by Mashable as ‘the future Twitter’, Foursquare is a location-based service based on your Twitter network with an added layer of social game play.

Importance of Foursquare for Businesses:

* Use it to explore your neighbourhood and then reward people for doing so. It combines their friend-finder and social city guide elements.
* Use it as a game mechanics – users can earn points, win mayorships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting old favourites.

Location-based Internet marketing is one of the hottest trends at the moment and can be used very effectively by both small and larger businesses. When designing your social media marketing strategy and search engine marketing strategy, this new feature should be included. Please share with us your experience with location-based Internet marketing! We look forward to reading your opinions!