Small business owners, professionals and non-profit managers are missing an opportunity if they don’t focus some of their marketing resources online.

Marketing online stretches marketing budgets for all types of organizations. Who isn’t looking for ways to reach market in the most efficient and cost effective manner? Marketing your business online has many benefits that can increase your customer relationship management and even increase your bottom line.

Online marketing is simply using the technology of the Internet to reach your market. It is referred to as e-marketing, online marketing, i-marketing and Web marketing. I have found it to be one of the most effective tools to build awareness and enhance customer relations.

Today, there are a number of options when marketing online. You can use audio, video, blogging, e-mail, social media and e-zines or newsletters. You can use packaged e-mail programs like Constant Contact and Vertical Response, or more sophisticated Web 2.0 programs. If you were to do the same thing in traditional marketing you would spend a lot more time and funds and reach fewer people. 

Simple marketing on-line can be extremely nimble. By monitoring and tracking how your advertisements and e-marketing efforts are doing, you can make decisions to easily alter columns, advertisements and graphics. Packaged programs for e-mail marketing have become so easy to work with that even an educator like me can launch e-newsletters.

 Online marketing also allows you to track results using analytics that are already programmed. For example, Constant Contact can show which of your       e-mail contacts have opened up an e-mail and how often they have clicked through. Marketing online  provides the added benefits of reaching specific target markets efficiently.

When you market online, you not only reach your customers quickly, you can also quickly convert your customers. This is not the case when evaluating marketing options in traditional media such as hard-copy advertising and radio.

Local businesses have an opportunity to maximize their on-line marketing skills at the half-day Online Marketing Boot Camp at Travis Credit Union in Vacaville on Oct. 27.  The Online Marketing Boot Camp is for small business owners and professionals to learn about all aspects of successful online marketing.

The training is designed for optimum user-friendliness and is intended for non-technical small business owners of all skill levels. The first session will focus on online marketing fundamentals and how to apply tools to your business or organization. In the second session, Small Business Development Center Technical Advisory Program presenters will provide a “hands-on” training on how to develop an e-mail marketing campaign.

The 2009 Online Marketing Boot Camp is a follow-up to the very successful 2008 Technology Boot Camp Program and is brought to you by Napa Valley College SBDC, the Solano SBDC and the SBDC Technology Advisory Program.

The training costs $39 for training and materials. For more info, call 253-3210 or visit www.Napasbdc.org.