Use the internet to help your business tap into a new online market and boost your sales instantly. Whether you are selling a product or a service, online marketing is an important channel to master when it comes to reaching potential customers.

Any company which has a presence online will instantly find itself with a global customer base, and reaching far and wide is a relatively cheap way to increase the scope of your target market.

Here are some suggestions which you can start implementing today to take your business from ticking over to booming in a few easy steps.

Firstly, embrace social media. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook are not solely for personal use. More and more business are hoping on the social media bandwagon and reaping the rewards. Create accounts to keep people up to date on product news, communicate directly with customer base, improve customer services, and help maintain good PR. Using Facebook and Twitter accounts to run competitions can create a buzz around a product and get people talking about it online, which is great publicity in itself.

Or, on a similar note, you could start a blog. Building a blog from scratch requires time and patience, but over time you should gain a decently sized following. Use your business blog to talk about industry-related news and also anything important happening within your company. Updating your blog regularly is important so that the content is fresh and entertaining, whilst engaging material will keep readers coming back to your site. Which leads to the next suggestion…

Every self-respecting business has its own website, whether you are a multi-national corporate giant or a tiny one-person start-up, having a website is one of the most important things you can do to have a presence online as this is what people will search for first. There are practical benefits to having a website, for example it cuts down on literature costs, since all the information is online this provides easy-to-access information to potential customers. You may also wish to consider selling online, which might seem tricky at first but can actually bring your company valuable increased revenue. Starting a website isn't expensive, just have a look online for details on web hosting, then buy up your company's domain name. A website can also be a helpful tool for your employees, with information for them stored on a central intranet. Finally, you can even use the site to advertise any company vacancies.

Timothy Jones writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.