Attempting to build your company’s online presence can be a daunting task, but we have good news for you: Just the fact you are visiting this blog is a good sign for your business. The internet is constantly evolving and if you are not actively looking for the best means to serve your company online, your results will always be limited.

The goal of the DBS Marketing blog posts is to help you learn and gain a well-rounded understanding of the fundamentals of internet marketing. The topics covered will include the basics, such as increasing website traffic and improving sales rates, as well as the more technical aspects of in-depth terms like Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing and Pay-Per-Click advertising. We hope to show you some valuable pieces of information as well as teach you how to fish for your own. To this end, our blog will be focused on defining terminology, identifying resources and tools, helping explain the better online practices in which to engage and more. To start, we want to address some fundamentals in understanding the internet and finding useful information—not only for internet marketing, but also for use in your industry.

One of the first things to know (and grow accustomed to) is the casual nature of the internet. Most blogs and websites tend to use less rigid language than what is generally found in business, but this doesn’t mean they do not contain valuable information. In fact, people generally find it easier to rely on a personal account of an experience with a company than on an objective corporate review oriented towards improving sales. This can be a difficult notion to grasp for businesses— especially those used to traditional communications with prospective customers such as press releases or advertising—but individuals online distrust salesmen. The more you can embrace the conversational nature, both in other online entities as well as in yourself, the easier it will be for people to trust and connect with you and your business. Now this doesn’t mean that your website shouldn’t be professional, but it should be kept in mind that a person who just so happens to work for a company is much easier to relate to and rely on for objective information than a company’s official representative.

Secondly, as you discover that the most valuable people online are those who are openly sharing information, your consumer base will also discover the same about you—and creating that value is the best way get attention online. Your business experience should grant you the ability to speak intelligently about your products or services and thus be able to help people make the decisions that are best for them. Furthermore, your insight could help consumers understand and make purchase decisions relating to other businesses in your industry. And while that may not directly increase your bottom line, it does increase your standing and trustworthiness in the online community. This, in turn, leads to more word of mouth referrals, and increases the likelihood that people will link and reach out to you as they recognize how you benefit them.