We analyze 4 online marketing tools designed to strengthen your relationship with customers.

By Sherry Prescott-Willis

What are your top strategies for keeping in front of customers in 2010? Chances are, as an entrepreneur, you’re looking to connect with your customers faster and more easily. You want to strengthen relationships with customers to help drive and increase your revenue. You can accomplish that with an online marketing tool. The key is to find the best tool for you and your business.

A lot of online tools claim to make you a better, faster marketer. Many also promise to help you easily connect with your customers. So, how do you choose? The trick is to pick online marketing tools that not only help you reach your customers, but also are really easy for you to use.

Here are the criteria I use to assess marketing tools for entrepreneurs:

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By Jules Rosen

In the tough times of increasing competition and plummeting profits, it is very important to choose your business’ promotional strategy - it should be unique, attractive, low budgeted and high on returns. It seems to be a difficult task to carry out but a little bit of planning and research can help you take the right marketing decision. Let us consider promotional products which can be given away over the internet. These can be created to suit your marketing budgets and goals at a low cost and yet carry an exceptional value for your prospective client. Simple ways can be used creatively to your benefit; you just need to be innovative and outstanding.

Promote the company’s website - while you are trying to use promo products for marketing your business, make sure you include your company’s contact details including the website address on the product.

Identify promotional items which fit into your niche - The promo products that your choose to offer your customers should be associated to the business your are into. For an example, if you are selling sunglasses, you can offer cases with your company logo and relevant address details on it. If you are into selling medicines online, an ideal giveaway could be pill organizer with your company name and website address on it.

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By Holly Berkley

Picture yourself at the ball game cracking through a bag of dry roasted peanuts. You’re on your second handful when that familiar red and white logo pops up on the big screen advertising an ice-cold Coca-Cola. You immediately track down the next vendor with a basket of ice-cold drinks. This is called “pin point marketing.” It is the process of delivering an appropriate message at the right time that produces actual results.

In contrast, let’s say you are enjoying those same peanuts when an advertisement for Toyota Trucks pops up on the same screen. It’s a nice ad, but not nearly as effective. This is an example of “interruptive marketing.” It is not truly targeted because it is not what you are actively looking for at that moment.

What does this scenario have to do with your business? Well, rather than wasting valuable marketing dollars on billboards, 30-second television ads or radio commercials (all examples of “interruptive marketing”) focus your energy on putting your product in front of potential customers while they are looking for it. Unlike when people watch TV or listen to the radio, Internet users are actively looking for a solution to a problem. If you can place your product in their path at the right time, you’ve made a customer. The most cost-effective way to achieve this is by combining your marketing message with important content that users are already actively seeking out.

Start by submitting “how-to” or “industry news” type articles to relevant Web sites in your industry. Unique Web content is important to all size companies. And, buying custom content is expensive and time consuming. As a result most companies are willing to trade a free plug for your Web site or company for an informative, well-written article.

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The Internet can help you spread your message around the world 24/7.

The Experts:

Joel Comm is a teacher, speaker and author of the New York Times best-seller The AdSense Code.

Scott Fox is a Web entrepreneur, e-business coach and author of the bestsellers e-Riches 2.0: Next Generation Marketing Strategies and Internet Riches.

Joan Stewart is a media consultant, speaker, former newspaper editor and publicity expert. She writes “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” a free online newsletter.

Q: What’s the most cost-effective online marketing tool?

Scott Fox: E-mail. Search engines and social networks get all the press, but e-mail is still the workhorse of the modern economy. Your best customers are likely on e-mail even more than they watch TV or talk to their kids. Whether you work for a major corporation or a home-based business, you should be using e-mail to build relationships with your customers.

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From eBay to Craigslist, there is an assortment of e-commerce sites that can help you sell your junk or expand your online retail operations

Whether you’re unloading collectibles from your attic or taking your thriving brick-and-mortar store online, there’s a surfeit of Internet marketplaces where you can set up shop. From giants like eBay (EBAY) to niche sites like Etsy to listing services like Craigslist, the choices can overwhelm a small business owner venturing into e-commerce. How do you decide which marketplaces best fit your business? For small retailers facing what some economists are predicting to be the toughest holiday season since 1991 (BusinessWeek.com, 9/23/08), it’s a particularly compelling question. Read article…