Developing a Marketing Strategy

In the early days of the Internet, you could build a Web site, get mentioned in the right places, and instantly receive a stream of customers, whether you sold sweaters or homemade apple butter. You didn't have much competition, and a hungry audience would soak up whatever they could find. Now, Web sites and online commerce companies sell everything that's legal (and a few things that aren't), and competition is fierce and ever-present. The days of building a Web site and receiving instant traffic are mostly over. In this section, we show you how to use branding and a targeted advertising strategy to get the word out about your business to the masses.