Remember the days when marketing recognized of leaflets, brochures, even faxes?

OK, I hear lots of you shouting back at me, "Many of us still do" but I'm posing a question I believe will soon become commonplace and already I believe brochure drops and leaflet distribution is going the way of the dinosaurs and are merely now food for bins.

Marketing of yesteryear is a far cry from what modern marketeers must undertake to sell themselves in a world where cyberspace is replacing print space as the preferred advertising option.

Looking around the internet and in everyday conversation or correspondence with marketing pros, it appears to me that the transition for some was asking just a tad too much in the short time they had to adapt.

To stick a place at the top of the tree, a marketing company must now offer a plethora of new skills to their portfolio to survive.

Skills such as web development and design, SEO, telemarketing, e-mail campaigns, media advertising, web content, expert copy writing not forgetting some of the former skills that they honed in the internet-free world many great up in.

Marketing is big business in which you rise or fall by the results you achieve and marketing companies of the modern era must hire established experts in particular fields to forge and enhance a reputation – a difficult task in an overcrowded market.

They must have their fingers on the pulse, be web creative, form effective collaborations both on and offline, identify influencers and maintain their loyalty, and to have a belief and passion for a campaign that maybe just one of many.

Statistics are everything in raising awareness among potential new clients, yet if your historical successes were cemented offline then they are of little relevance in a relatively new market like the internet.

To market a product or service effectively requires a growing audience, marketing companies are responsible not only for expensive online ad campaigns but delegating several elements of a campaign to specialists equipped with the right skills.

And so to reach huge audiences takes big bucks, the kind of money that only only very few can afford.

So how, if you do not have that pot of gold, can you, as a small enterprise, meet your ambitions and goals through effective yet affordable marketing in today's. marketplace?

Well I'm no marketing guru but I do know that it's vital that you have an online presence that allows you the opportunity to grow your own audience. The vast majority of us now have a website but an effective online presence is much more than that. You will need to interact in Social Media such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Not to use them merely as a trophy to raise above your head and show off the huge followings you've earned but by developing your company's character and interacting naturally, displaying humor, compassion, and wisdom. All of these define the word "Social" Remember it's not titled "Social Me -dia" so it would be a mistake to churn out a continuous bombardment of self promotion 24/7 – that really is the stuff of the past and if you don 't want to lose fans or followers then avoid the temptation.

Marketing yourself requires a lot of time and effort and although you may not have the ability to underact the broader aspects that large marketing companies are capable of, remember that you are the expert of your own business so use these strengths in blogs, discussions, forums and comments to convey your expertise to information hungry consumers.

The advantage on the internet, lies with the influencers and experts in a specific sector and as the www is not an exclusive marketplace, it offers you the perfect platform to grow your online portfolio on a level playing field.

In time, maintaining a regular strategy of updating your online content across all popular platforms, should see you discover your self marketing will pay off but it takes dedication, time, effort and lots of black coffee to achieve without the luxury of delegation.

Source by Tim Foley