The rules of marketing have changed. We no longer live in a world where information cannot fly across the world and back in a few seconds. More than that, we now live in a time when nearly 26% of the worlds 6.7 billion population have access to the internet. This means that news really flies! What it also means is that marketing your products and services do not need to be expensive anymore. Online marketing has effectively freed marketing from expensive agencies and brought it into the realm of small to medium enterprises. Enormous budgets are no longer needed. An effective online marketing strategy can cost businesses less and achieve great results.

The old rules of marketing involved an enormous process of things to do, events to attend and budgets to spend. Thousands of dollars were spent and often the real return could not be measured. Things have changed. Times are different. Information flow is now more efficient. I can read news from around the world, the instant it breaks. From the comfort of my computer I receive RSS (Really Simple Syndicate) feeds from my favourite sites. Every morning my inbox has newsletters from organisations I regularly purchase products from. I choose to receive these emails and hence usually read with interest, scouring them for information, products and services that may be of use to me. Every month along with more than 11 million Australians I search Youtube to watch video and music for free. Many of these videos are funny, quirky people having their say about something or other. With a simple home video cam or webcam thousands of people can have their say and be heard from every corner of the globe. Many businesses have harnessed the power of online marketing to further their client base.

Think about this for a moment. What other marketing tool can get you into the path of millions of people searching for products and services? Or more pertinently – how much would that exposure cost you under the old marketing rules? TV commercials, newspaper ads, exposure in magazines and Yellow Pages ads would cost you thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. What is worse is that under the old marketing rules you were not even guaranteed that your efforts would produce sales. Generating income is important for every business. In fact it is the foundation for a successful operation. Online marketing allows you to identify the niche markets that you want to target. It then allows you to create specific online marketing strategies for each of those niches. Then you have the tools to assess the precise response and success of your efforts.

So what are some of the new rules of marketing? These points have been taken from David Meerman Scott's ground-breaking book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR

• Marketing is more than just advertising.
• You are what you publish.
• People want authenticity, not spin.
• People want participation.
• Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment of your audience needs it.
• Marketers must shift their thinking from mainstream marketing to the masses to a strategy of reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the Web.

So what does this mean for your business?

Firstly, the Web should be the most important tool in your marketing strategy. The Web takes your products and services into the world of millions of people.

Secondly, your website must be found when people are looking. The flashest bells and whistles website that is buried away in Google search results is no use to you. Content is the king in the new website marketing world. Your business planning must consider a content rich website. This is a site filled with words that people are searching for. Graphics and company logos are important. However, all the graphics in the world won't channel customers into your website. Your website marketing strategy must include content that is written from your customers' perspective.

Thirdly, people want the ability to interact with businesses they deal with. Your customers want to be able to tell your story for you. You need to give them the vehicle to do so via forums, blogs or chat rooms. If your products and service is what your clientele desire, they will be your greatest marketing asset.

This leads into my fourth point, viral marketing. Yes, I said viral marketing. Every person has a network of people that they know. In your social network you know some people better than others. Those people who are not in your circle of regular contacts or friends can be the entry into new networks of people. Viral marketing is simply utilising social networks to deliver your message. We could call this network marketing. Through worldwide explosion of internet usage viral marketing has become a powerful and essential tool. If your business develops a content rich website that allows customer interaction via a blog, forum or chat room you could encourage your customers to link to your site and tell your story for you. There are millions of bloggers across the world ready to publish your story to their networks. If you have an interesting story, they will tell the world for you!

Open Source IT develops content rich websites that are search engine optimised. This allows your website to be found when people are "Googling." Our websites are designed to rank your website amongst the top Google search results. We believe that being found is important to all businesses. You can purchase Open Source IT website at this LINK.