It seems like this is a situation most companies are facing today. There is no question that you must be marketing online in order to succeed in business today. However, where should you be putting your money in order to get the maximum return?

Perhaps you have already spent too much on offline advertising, went the wrong direction with your initial marketing online, or just have very limited funds and know that you need to get the most out of every marketing dollar that you have. So what should you be doing for marketing online?

There are volumes of information about marketing online available today and so many different channels and marketing strategies that sound like good ideas are often hard to differentiate between the good, bad and the best.

If you want to win at marketing online you must keep a keen eye on the goal and know exactly what you want to achieve. There are so many ‘nice to haves’ that we can often be distracted from what really needs to be done. For example, you can build out the most extensive and fabulous looking website ever, but if no one ever visits it, what’s the use? Wouldn’t it be better to have a single landing page or a short 5 page site that you were able to devote more of your budget to driving tons of traffic to? After all, isn’t it all about how many new, real customers you can be in contact with and make a deal with?

Social media marketing has become a top choice for those marketing online on a tight budget. It is an essential part of the mix, and can be very powerful. However, it now has business owners scrambling and trying to figure how to truly engage their prospects on all of these new channels for marketing online.

Unfortunately, this means that a lot of entrepreneurs and managers are ignoring the affordable, tried and tested tools that are already available to them. If they stopped to think about it, instead of just constantly trying to chase the next new thing they are being pushed, they would realize that tools such as live chat and toll free numbers offer all the engagement they need. They make it easy for customers to contact and do business with you. Isn’t that all you really want anyway?