Over the years I’ve met and spoken with many business owners that are still in the dark when it comes to marketing their businesses online.

Many don’t see the big picture of how a great website, social media and strong online presence can work for them, or the importance of it.

Some have tried and given up, others may not have started at all. Whatever the experience, they have never gone back to it and think it doesn’t work, it’s too time-consuming or just ‘not for me’.

Well, unless you feel that your business has enough custom to last from now until you decide to retire, or whatever your exit strategy might be, then at some point you are going to have to take the plunge, as this is one area of marketing your business that is essential today and it isn’t going to go away.

Another misconception that many business owners seem to have is that once they have a website people will just come to it and that will be enough to generate the additional leads or business they need, but again, this isn’t the case.

Many web developers do a great job of creating websites for their customers (some not so great), then the customer is on their own, with no mention of help in how to market the site or create fresh content for it.

In both scenarios, you could have the best website/shop/products in the world, but without the ability to point potential online customers to it, you may as well have the shutters permanently closed.