Importance of Internet Marketing – Part 1 | Honest Solutions Network - Honest Solutions for todays Network Marketers

As we launch HonestSolutionsNetwork.com, seeking to help home business owners grow their business through sound internet marketing systems, it seems appropriate to make one of our first blog posts about why internet marketing even matters. Why do you have to market online? What’s wrong with home meetings and tasting parties? What if it just seems too intimidating to wade into online waters?

Let’s start with the statistics first – there are 2 billion people in the world with internet access through their laptop or home computer, and another 3 billion people on top of that with mobile phones that can go online. Out of those 5 billion people, 1 in 9 of them are on Facebook, and millions of them are visiting Twitter, YouTube, and blog sites on a daily basis. That is a huge majority of the world’s population that is online, and you potentially have access to them! This is the first time in history where such an opportunity has existed, where you have the ability to share your message with millions and even billions of people around the world.

[Infographic from SmartOnlineSuccess]

That’s such an exciting thought, especially as a home business owner! Instead of looking back wistfully at the days of Yellow Pages, newspaper ads, and home meetings, get ecstatic and realize that you are no longer confined to such ineffective, minuscule means of getting the word out about your business! And it doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to employ the techniques that have brought success for you and others in the past; they can still have their place and worth today. However, if you don’t go beyond using those methods, you will be missing an enormous portion of potential customers, and your business will quickly lag behind those who are taking advantage of internet marketing.

A statistic from May 2011 shows that 70% of people search online first when they’re looking for a local business, and most likely that number is only increasing as months go by. When you consider that percentage, combined with the sheer number of people in the world with internet access, how can you afford not to do internet marketing? Going back to our initial questions at the beginning of the post, roughly how many people do you think you could bring to home meetings about your business over the next six months? Even if you sweet-talked every person you know into coming to your meeting and bringing a few friends, how many people could you present your opportunity to? 100 maybe? Or 200 if you’re really lucky? Whatever number you think it is, there’s no way that it can compare to the potential customer base to be found in the 5 billion people who are online!