The business world is changing. Ten years ago, you would have never understood "sharing your contacts on the cloud." Two years ago Newsweek stopped all printed publications. Take a look around you. It's time to move your company forward.

Last week I spent three days learning about new trends in internet marketing.  I'd like to share a few ideas with you that can help grow your business:

1. Grow your e-mail list.  Take a look at how many emails you have right now and set a much higher goal. This is one of the very fastest and best ways to communicate with existing and potential customers. This alone will help increase your business. Then communicate with your customers on a regular basis... which leads to:
2. Send an e-newsletter regularly. Keep it simple and benefit oriented. Fill it with tools and information your customers can use. The key is to send it on a regular basis. If you're busy start out quarterly. Get a handle on it and move it to once a month. You can send twice a month if the content is good. I would not send much more frequently than that.
3. Please tell me you have a website. If not, stop reading and go start working on it right now. It's that important. Take all of your old yellow page budget and pour it into your website. Then I challenge you to use video on your website. It's not hard - grab your cell phone, shoot some video and post it on YouTube then link it to your site. It doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be beneficial to your customer.
4. Build a business Facebook page and promote it. Most of the people in the developed world are on Facebook. It's time you figured out how to use it for business too. Then when people LIKE your page, go to their page and thank them. Saying "thank you" never goes out of style. Take time every chance you get to thank each and every customer.

Thank YOU for reading my post and stay tuned for more growing your business ideas.

Sally Poole

Check out our Facebook videos to see Sally's Secret Ninja Facebook trick! Find it here.

The time has come. It's time to go ahead and start investigating internet advertising. For a long time it wasn't really working - well, now it is. Many people go online to get all their news now. We routinely search websites to find the products and services we need. Hopefully by now you have a website. Your internet ads should link to your website and be carefully placed on other sites that relate to your business. A Chamber web site would be a great place for a business that only works with other businesses. A local radio or newspaper website is a great place for local retailers. Focus on one product or service and make it fun. Don't forget to have a call to action to get people to respond. Start looking around; you'll see that the smartest businesses are already advertising online.

I've been told recently that business cards are dead. I disagree. Sure, people are beaming and bumping their contact information to each other on their smart phone. However, you can give your potential customer all the information they need to start doing business with you by having a well designed business card. Take a look at yours. Is it time for an update? Include your logo, services, phone, web site, email and more. Think of it like a mini brochure. Make your business card stand out by using affordable full color printing on quality paper - and use the back of the card. Look at your business card today. Help potential customers remember you. Hand them a business card worth keeping.

If you don't already have a website, it's time to take the plunge and get one. You've probably figured out that online marketing isn't a passing fad. Web-marketing is here to stay and you need to be part of it. Early adopters have at least a decade of experience. Start by getting more comfortable with your online marketing efforts. Take a look at what the world around you is doing. Research other businesses. See what they're doing. You don't need to mimic your competition, but at least learn by being a part of the game. Get started today. Don't give the competition another day's advantage.