Marketing is one of the key ingredients in any successful business. Whether you've done it all online or just through real-world networking and word of mouth, you wouldn't be anywhere with out some kind of marketing.

We're in the web business, so you guessed it, our marketing strategies tend to be online tactics. Below, you'll find 5 tips and strategies we use.

1.) Build Relationships With Your Audience

Behind any great company is great customer service.

This is why building relationships with your audience is one of the most important things you can do as a business. It lets them know that you care about them and their needs.

Let your clients know that you had a blast helping them. Give them follow ups so they know you haven't forgotten about them and you still value them even after you've finished business with them. Send them holiday cards wishing them happy holidays or happy birthday — This can go miles. When someone feels that you genuinely care for them and remember simple things like their birthday or you offer them discounts, they're going to be much more likely to remember your business next time they need something.

Engage with them when there's comments, questions, or praises on any of your posts or belongings.

Other ways to build relationships with them include writing posts that give away some of your "secrets" or tips on how you operate. Or if you had an big event, be sure to post pictures of all your fans that came out for everyone to see.

2.) Create Quality Content — Figure Out What Makes Them "Click"

This can be one of the trickier parts. You can write the best article in the world, but if it doesn't click with your audience or engage them, then it hasn't done its job.

Figuring out what to write and publish can take time. Overtime, as you post things, you'll begin to see what "clicked" and what didn't. Once you begin posting or if you have been for a while, go back and look at what pieces worked and what didn't.

Is there a common theme or message within the posts that were working? Were they tutorial posts, helpful tips, or photo posts? Look at what's working and build out a new social plan based off your findings.

Find there passion and help them identify themselves in your brand and posts. If it's not something you'd share as individual, then chances are it's not worth sharing at all.

3.) Take Advantage of Social Media Platforms

We've talked a lot about social media platforms in the past, why they're important, and how to utilize them. If your not on at least one of the big social media platforms, you're MISSING OUT ENORMOUSLY, and need to get on it asap.

In fact, social media platforms are what help you with all of these steps. You use social media to build relationships with your audience, post your bloggings and photos. It can even help you figure out your audiences likes and dislikes and allows you to engage and give back to them.

In 2013 social media skyrocketed like never before, and it's only going to continue to rise in popularity. So much so, that search engines like Google are even starting to take into account your social media presence when figuring out your SEO ranking. The more posts/shares/likes/ect. you have, the higher up your going to be ranked. Whether you like it or not, we're entering into a world where you online and social media presence, are just as important as your real world presence.

If you already have a blog on your site, be sure that you have like/tweet/share buttons on each of your blogs, as this is a great way to boost your social media presence and in turn your SEO.

4.) Take Your Online Marketing Further Than Just Social Media

While social media should certainly be a priority, there's more out there for online marketing:

Groupon & Living Social

Have you tried Groupon or Living Social deals? While not for everyone, these deal site provide a huge amount of exposure for your business. Check out our last post to learn more about Groupon and Living Social.

E-newsletters

Do you have an e-newsletter that you send out? This is a great way to keep your audience informed and let them know what's going on. Use it to send out any special deals or packages you have, summarize blog posts, or use it to send out personalized birthday cards.

Google Adwords and Pay Per Click

Other options include Google Adwords and Pay Per Click. This is essentially advertisement & ad space for your company. Whenever a user searches a predetermined keyword(s) you can be sure that your company will show up in the search results, and/or have your ads displayed on sites when someone has recently searched your predetermined keyword(s).

5.) Give Back To Them

This is another step that relates to building a relationship with your audience. When you give back to them, it shows them that you care and you're paying attention to their needs and wants.

You can give back to them in any number of ways —  Create special deals or packages that offer discounted products or services, or if you're feeling really generous, throw out some free products or work.

Use your social media to get creative with this. You can run contests to spread the word about these deals. You could have a "caption this photo" contest or "like our page to be entered to win" or "share this photo to win."

Not only does this get your audience engaged, but it provides an opportunity for your business to get more exposure and builds hype around you.

If you need some help getting your online marketing going or want to expand on what you're already doing, contact 10 Pound Gorilla and we'll get things moving for you.